As part of Study Smarter’s commitment to creating educational opportunities, we encourage students to undertake interest inventories and skills assessments as important self-discovery exercises.
There are a number of options for students (or adults!) who wish to gain insight about potential college majors, careers, or second careers. For a teen who is truly undecided about what to study in college, a little guided curiosity can be really helpful in determining not just what to study but what college environment will be a good match.
Each of the assessment options presented in this post is backed by research and data. Despite their scientific rigor, it is important to remember that these tests are merely tools for helping someone understand themselves a little bit better. They should not be used to prognosticate narrowly or limit intellectual exploration.
An Interest Profile Questionnaire
One of the best places to start is O*NET, an interest profile questionnaire by the US Department of Labor that is based on the Holland Code Assessment. With the O*NET quiz, users can determine their top three categories of interest: realistic, investigative, social, enterprising, conventional, and artistic. Based on the level of study required, users can see a list of potential jobs that align. The interface for O*NET is dated, but the data behind the quiz is solid.
An Emotional Intelligence Test
If you are interested in an assessment of your personality strengths based on your emotional intelligence, Test Color is a quick and easy activity. It utilizes 20 years of scientific research by psychologists, psychoanalysts, and mathematicians to determine emotions users prefer and then match those with potential job areas.
What’s My Major?
There are also a lot of useful tools available for free if your teen wants to explore potential college majors or fields of study.
Many families know US News & World Report for their annual ranking of colleges and universities. This outlet also publishes an online What’s My Major? interactive quiz. There are several colleges that have their own quizzes as well. You can find quizzes by Marquette University, UC Irvine, and Loyola University Chicago.
While these assessments are important for students trying to determine what major to include on college applications, we know that younger students would benefit from the results to shape their high school experience. Having elective classes and extracurricular activities that support a student’s intended major can be a boost in college admissions outcomes.
Blending Interests and Aptitudes
Study Smarter offers YouScience assessments in our Montclair office. YouScience is a revolutionary education and career guidance platform that utilizes AI-powered and science-backed technology to uncover individuals’ innate abilities and identify their interests. The data-driven assessment then matches those results with personalized career paths.
Using gamification, students move through 12 sections of the assessment to create a complete profile. Results are then presented based on interests, skills, and overlap.
Families like YouScience because it helps their student to:
- plan appropriate high school coursework
- discover new hobbies or extracurricular activities
- explore potential college majors
- understand what types of jobs align with their skills and interests
YouScience is best administered to students in 8th grade and older. The test takes about two hours to complete, and it is broken down into short modules with break time in between.
Regardless of whether you use a short, free assessment or want to dive deeper into the data-backed YouScience, taking part in these interactive assessments is a great way to be curious about who you are and how you can best share your talents with the world.
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