Aptitude Tests, Personality Quizzes, and Guides to Self-Knowledge

(as referenced on page 159 of Rethinking School: How to Take Charge of Your Child’s Education, by Susan Wise Bauer)

Self-awareness is difficult—and essential for every maturing adult.

Taking personality quizzes and aptitude tests won’t automatically grant you self-knowledge, but it will put you in an objective, self-evaluative mode that isn’t necessarily natural. And if you do enough of them, you’ll start to see patterns.

Here are some starting places. Do these for fun. If the results ring true, you’ve gained useful knowledge. If not, shrug and forget about them.

Books

What Color Is Your Parachute? 2018: A Practical Manual for Job-Hunters and Career Changers, by Richard N. Bolles.

What Color Is Your Parachute? For Teens. Third Edition: Discover Yourself, Design Your Future, and Plan for Your Dream Job, by Carol Christen and Richard N. Bolles.

Do What You Are: Discover the Perfect Career for You Through the Secrets of Personality Type, by Paul D. Tieger, Kelly Tieger, and Barbara Barron.

Gifts Differing: Understanding Personality Type, by Isabel Briggs-Myers and Peter B. Myers.

The Essential Enneagram: The Definitive Personality Test and Self-Discovery Guide, by David Daniels and Virginia Price, rev.  and updated edition.

Be a Free Range Human: Escape the 9-5, Create a Life You Love and Still Pay the Bills, by Marianne Cantwell.

Personality Tests

You can take the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator test online here. Although you can find free knock-off versions of the test, it’s worth paying the $49.95 for the full version, which includes feedback on strengths and weaknesses, coping skills, and more. Or, take the test with a licensed assessor. Details here.

The RHETI (Riso-Hudson Enneagram Type Indicator) test can be taken at the Enneagram Institute website.

The Keirsey Temperament Sorter test (KTS-II) is available at the Keirsey website. A basic report is free; more detailed reports can be purchased for $8-$20.

The Princeton Review hosts a Career Quiz.

Psychology Today has a whole range of “self tests” that you can view here.

The MAPP test, best for older students, matches personality and aptitude with possible career options.

A selection of fun, open-source personality tests can be found at the Open Source Psychometrics Project.

Click this link to find a variety of career and aptitude tests.

For more on finding out how you and your children learn best, and adjusting your educational approach accordingly, check out Rethinking School: How to Take Charge of Your Child’s Education.