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1. What is abilities assessment? Abilities assessment relies on the fact that many of our aptitudes are fixed or hard-wired and are not essentially modified by training or practice. Every parent with two or more children learns quickly that every child is different. Every teacher knows that no two students in her class are exactly alike. The science of genealogy has confirmed the validity of testing for innate aptitudes. Several organizations have developed tests of one or several abilities. Most of these are conducted in hands-on clinics in several large cities. These require a trip to the clinic. Only the Highlands Company in Larchmont, NY offers the assessment online. The Highlands Ability Battery can be taken at home or in school.

2. How are abilities assessed? Unlike tests of skills, personality, interests or values - all of which are influenced by changes and adjustments over time - abilities are assessed through the actual performance of manual and mental tasks which measure how easily the test-taker can perform those tasks. Other publishers of ability assessments conduct their assessments on paper or through manual performance. Only Highlands has perfected electronic worksamples testing seventeen different natural abilities - all online. The worksamples require the test-taker to follow the instructions on the computer screen (reproduced verbatim in audio) and then to “do” or “recognize” something in response.

3. Describe one natural ability. One natural or intrinsic ability is demonstrated by the method with which an individual approaches the solution of problems. A student’s scores on two of our worksamples tell us whether he or she is a diagnostic thinker or an analytical thinker. Analytical thinkers have the ability to recognize a logical structure among related ideas. Diagnostic thinkers have an aptitude for recognizing a common relationship among seemingly discrete or unrelated notions or ideas. People with strong analytical ability may turn to fields like engineering, computer programming, accounting-finance, and editing; Diagnostic thinkers are more comfortable as lawyers, legislators, or psychologists.

4. What other abilities does a good assessment measure? The Highlands Ability Battery measures fifteen different abilities, in addition to the problem-solving abilities. They are:

Idea productivity - the rate at which a person offers ideas; a measure of the quantity of his or new ideas, not their quality;