1. Chapter 9 Aptitude Testing
Robert J. Drummond and Karyn Dayle Jones Assessment Procedures for Counselors and Helping Professionals, 6th edition
Copyright ©2006 by Pearson Education, Inc. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey All rights reserved.

2. Aptitude Tests and Achievement
What I am capable of and what I have accomplished are related, but they are not the same thing.
Robert J. Drummond and Karyn Dayle Jones Assessment Procedures for Counselors and Helping Professionals, 6th edition
Copyright ©2006 by Pearson Education, Inc. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey All rights reserved.

3. 3 Types of Ability Measures
Intelligence
Measures general ability, or potential for performance in a broad range of tasks
Aptitude
Measures specific ability or abilities, or potential for performance in a specific task or tasks
Achievement
Measure of how much you have learned
All highly interrelated
Intelligence affects how much you learn
Aptitudes can be seen as parts of intelligence
Achievement can be used to predict future performance
Robert J. Drummond and Karyn Dayle Jones Assessment Procedures for Counselors and Helping Professionals, 6th edition
Copyright ©2006 by Pearson Education, Inc. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey All rights reserved.

4. Aptitude Tests
Measures the individual’s capacity or potential for performing a given skill or task.
Used to predict behavior—will the individual be successful in a given educational program, vocational program, or occupational situation?
Measures a number of relatively broad ability areas such as verbal reasoning, numerical reasoning, mechanical reasoning, and abstract reasoning.
Robert J. Drummond and Karyn Dayle Jones Assessment Procedures for Counselors and Helping Professionals, 6th edition
Copyright ©2006 by Pearson Education, Inc. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey All rights reserved.

5. Aptitude Tests
Frequently the skills measured are related to intelligence, but they don’t have to be.
Also think of aptitudes in athletic ability, music, art, horse training
Basically, anything you can do or have an aptitude for could have a test designed to measure it.
Welding, mediation, teaching, typing, etc.
Hundreds of different aptitude tests have been designed to measure specific aptitudes for various occupations.
An applicant for a truck-driving position may have to take a driving test
Robert J. Drummond and Karyn Dayle Jones Assessment Procedures for Counselors and Helping Professionals, 6th edition
Copyright ©2006 by Pearson Education, Inc. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey All rights reserved.

6. Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB)
First developed in 1966
Helps test-takers assess aptitudes, predict performance in academic and occupational areas, and make tentative career choices
Grades 11 and higher
Military gives 2 million + each year in high school for vocational planning
Scores used to make assignments in military
Robert J. Drummond and Karyn Dayle Jones Assessment Procedures for Counselors and Helping Professionals, 6th edition
Copyright ©2006 by Pearson Education, Inc. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey All rights reserved.

7. Differential Aptitude Test Battery (DAT)
Used to identify candidates for hiring, training, and career development in any organizational setting
Originally developed in 1947
Grade 7-12 and adults
Robert J. Drummond and Karyn Dayle Jones Assessment Procedures for Counselors and Helping Professionals, 6th edition
Copyright ©2006 by Pearson Education, Inc. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey All rights reserved.

8. The DAT assesses six key areas directly related to successful job performance:
Abstract Reasoning: A non-verbal measure of reasoning ability. It involves the ability to think logically and to perceive relationships in abstract figure patterns.
Language Usage: Designed to measure the ability to detect errors in grammar, punctuation, and capitalization. The items reflect present-day formal writing and the ability to use English properly.
Mechanical Reasoning: Measures the ability to understand basic mechanical principles of machinery, tools, and motion. The items represent simple principles that involve reasoning rather than specialized knowledge or training.
Robert J. Drummond and Karyn Dayle Jones Assessment Procedures for Counselors and Helping Professionals, 6th edition
Copyright ©2006 by Pearson Education, Inc. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey All rights reserved.

9. Numerical Ability: Designed to test an individual's understanding of numerical relationships and facility in handling numerical concepts. It measures the ability to understand and work with ideas related to numbers.
Space Relations: Measures the ability to visualize a three-dimensional object from a two-dimensional pattern and to visualize how this object would look if rotated in space. It assesses the ability to “think in three dimensions.”
Verbal Reasoning: Designed to measure the ability to understand concepts framed in words. It measures the ability to find commonalities among different concepts and to manipulate ideas on an abstract level. It assesses both an individual's knowledge and abstract thinking ability.
Robert J. Drummond and Karyn Dayle Jones Assessment Procedures for Counselors and Helping Professionals, 6th edition
Copyright ©2006 by Pearson Education, Inc. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey All rights reserved.

10. General Aptitude Test Battery (GATB)
One of the most widely used batteries for assessment in vocational/employment counseling
Grades 9 to Adult
Robert J. Drummond and Karyn Dayle Jones Assessment Procedures for Counselors and Helping Professionals, 6th edition
Copyright ©2006 by Pearson Education, Inc. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey All rights reserved.

11. The GATB measures 9 aptitudes:
General Learning Ability: The ability to “catch on” or understand instructions and underlying principles; the ability to reason and make judgments. Closely related to doing well in school.
Verbal Aptitude: The ability to understand the meaning of words and to use them effectively; the ability to comprehend language, to understand the relationships between words, and to understand meanings of whole sentences and paragraphs.
Numerical Aptitude: The ability to perform arithmetic operations quickly and accurately.
Spatial Aptitude: The ability to think visually of geometric forms and to comprehend the two-dimensional representation of three-dimensional objects; the ability to recognize the relations resulting from the movement of objects in space.
Robert J. Drummond and Karyn Dayle Jones Assessment Procedures for Counselors and Helping Professionals, 6th edition
Copyright ©2006 by Pearson Education, Inc. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey All rights reserved.

12. Form Perception: The ability to perceive pertinent details in objects or in pictorial or graphic material; the ability to make visual comparisons and discriminations and see slight differences in shapes and shadings of figures and widths and lengths of lines.
Clerical Perception: The ability to perceive pertinent detail in verbal or tabular material; the ability to observe differences in copy, to proofread words and numbers, and to avoid perceptual errors in arithmetic computation. A measure of speed of perception, which is required in many industrial jobs even when the job does not have verbal or numerical content.
Motor Coordination: The ability to coordinate eyes and hands or fingers rapidly and accurately in making precise movements with speed; the ability to make a movement response accurately and swiftly.
Finger Dexterity: The ability to move the fingers and manipulate small objects with the fingers rapidly and accurately.
Manual Dexterity: The ability to move the hand easily and skillfully; the ability to work with the hands in placing and turning motions.
Robert J. Drummond and Karyn Dayle Jones Assessment Procedures for Counselors and Helping Professionals, 6th edition
Copyright ©2006 by Pearson Education, Inc. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey All rights reserved.

13. Career Ability Placement Survey (CAPS)
Used to assess for the majority of jobs and 14 occupational clusters
Grade 7 to adult
CAPS consists of eight short (five-minute) tests
Robert J. Drummond and Karyn Dayle Jones Assessment Procedures for Counselors and Helping Professionals, 6th edition
Copyright ©2006 by Pearson Education, Inc. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey All rights reserved.

14. CAPS
Mechanical Reasoning: measures understanding of mechanical principles
Spatial Relations: measures the ability to think and visualize in three dimensions
Verbal Reasoning: measures the ability to reason with words
Language Usage: measures recognition and use of proper grammar and punctuation
Word Knowledge: measures understanding of the meaning and precise use of words
Perceptual Speed and Accuracy : measures rapid and accurate perception of small details
Manual Speed and Dexterity: measures rapid and accurate hand movement
Mathematical Ability: measures math ability
Robert J. Drummond and Karyn Dayle Jones Assessment Procedures for Counselors and Helping Professionals, 6th edition
Copyright ©2006 by Pearson Education, Inc. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey All rights reserved.

15. Admission Tests American College Testing Program (ACT)
Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT)
Graduate School Admissions Tests
Graduate Record Examinations (GRE)
Miller's Analogies Test (MAT)
Medical College Admissions Test (MCAT)
Law School Admissions Test (LSAT)
Graduate Management Admissions Test (GMAT)
Robert J. Drummond and Karyn Dayle Jones Assessment Procedures for Counselors and Helping Professionals, 6th edition
Copyright ©2006 by Pearson Education, Inc. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey All rights reserved.

16. Graduate Record Exam (GRE)
Claims to be a measure of general scholastic aptitude
Required for entrance into most graduate school programs
about 47% (master’s) to 63% (Ph.D.) of graduate schools require it (another 24% recommend it)
Used in conjunction with GPA, letter of recommendation, etc.
Robert J. Drummond and Karyn Dayle Jones Assessment Procedures for Counselors and Helping Professionals, 6th edition
Copyright ©2006 by Pearson Education, Inc. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey All rights reserved.

17. GRE
General Test
4 sections, 3 that count and one experimental for future test development
Verbal
Quantitative
Analytical Writing
Available only on computer
Scores are reported as both standard scores with range from , a mean of 500, SD of 100, and as percentiles
Subject tests in 16 areas, paper and pencil only
Robert J. Drummond and Karyn Dayle Jones Assessment Procedures for Counselors and Helping Professionals, 6th edition
Copyright ©2006 by Pearson Education, Inc. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey All rights reserved.

18. GRE Reliability is good Validity is moderate
Verbal and Quantitative in low 90s
Validity is moderate
Predictive validity for graduate school grades is moderate at best
Robert J. Drummond and Karyn Dayle Jones Assessment Procedures for Counselors and Helping Professionals, 6th edition
Copyright ©2006 by Pearson Education, Inc. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey All rights reserved.

19. Achievement Testing
By far the most widely used category of ability tests due to their heavy use in the school system
Current debate at the national level over the use of standardized achievement testing in the schools
There are a variety of standardized achievement tests used in school to make comparisons with other school districts, states, etc.
Robert J. Drummond and Karyn Dayle Jones Assessment Procedures for Counselors and Helping Professionals, 6th edition
Copyright ©2006 by Pearson Education, Inc. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey All rights reserved.

20. Types of Achievement Tests
Survey achievement batteries
Criterion-referenced tests
Minimum-level skills tests
Subject-area tests
Individual achievement tests
Diagnostic tests
Robert J. Drummond and Karyn Dayle Jones Assessment Procedures for Counselors and Helping Professionals, 6th edition
Copyright ©2006 by Pearson Education, Inc. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey All rights reserved.

21. Factors That Affect Achievement Test Results
Grade level
Number of years at current school
Age
Out-of-school experience
Health and nutrition
Self-concept
Socioeconomic level
School environment
Test content
Test administration
Robert J. Drummond and Karyn Dayle Jones Assessment Procedures for Counselors and Helping Professionals, 6th edition
Copyright ©2006 by Pearson Education, Inc. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey All rights reserved.