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16. My child suffers from a low sense of self-esteem. Is there a risk that he will “fail” an abilities assessment? No, it is impossible to “fail” an abilities assessment. We do not “grade” anything. We simply measure how well the child is able to perform each worksample. Our aim is to identify a child’s strengths. If she does well in diagnostic thinking, for example, she shows the strengths typical of lawyers. If she does well in spatial visualization, she would do well to consider a career in engineering or medicine. The point is that abilities testing is never judgmental. It simply confirms the abilities your child was born with and gives her the energy and confidence to describe them to others.

17. How does the Highlands Ability Battery help a teacher or a school’s guidance counselor to write a better recommendation letter? The more we know about a student, the better we are able to help him or her to chose the right college, and the better we’re able to express in our recommendation letters what that student can contribute to the college. If the Battery suggests that the student is both an introvert and a specialist, for example, we would not recommend the University of Michigan. Instead, we would suggest a small college which would enable the student to concentrate on specialized projects and “shine.”

18. How can we all help to overcome the reluctance of college admissions deans to use abilities assessment in the selection process? This is the most difficult question we have to address. The College Board, which publishes the SAT, is an entrenched institution which has its own interests to protect. Because the SAT has been so widely adopted as the admissions tool of choice, it’s very difficult for any one or group of college admissions counselors to suggest an alternative approach to the admissions process, although people like William Fitzsimmons at Harvard have certainly expressed their displeasure with the overwhelming reliance on the SAT and ACT. Abilities assessment tests are an alternative to standardized tests with a proven and solid track record of their own. As parents learn to support abilities assessment and its values, more educators will turn to it as well.

19. How does abilities assessment help in the years after college? Because abilities assessment measures natural abilities at the age of maturity, they are permanent markers of a person’s strengths and style. That’s why it’s so very important for a high school student to complete the Highlands Ability Battery as soon as possible after the age of 15. Once the results are embodied in a report which the student can study and discuss with a Highlands Student Counselor, they represent a guide to life and career. So many college students, assuming that they will go on to the same career as a parent or a personal “hero”, embark on the wrong courses. One student we know well chose courses in anatomy because she thought there was glamour and excitement in the field of forensic medicine. At the end of her junior year, she realized that her real love was teaching young children. She took the Highlands Ability Battery and her results confirmed her ability to find fulfillment in teaching. The Battery enables students to make better choices about college majors and about their careers. Ability Assessment is a tool for life.