In my line of education, career counseling, and psychological practice, an Assessment is my overall evaluation of my findings. It is my conclusion (assessment) about the whole picture presented by the findings of surveys, tests, questionnaires, client interviews, role playing, and several other elements.

In my use, an assessment is the interpretation of tests and questionnaires that you complete in order to find your Dream Job.

Many test-givers call tests "assessments", but they are really two steps in a process

• Gathering information and
• Assessing or evaluating what the information means.

Some administrators, especially in government sponsored programs, use the word "assessment": instead of "test", because they feel that the test taker will not be as scared of the instrument if they think it is not a test. However, they may also not take it seriously. Using the trickery of semantics often backfires in these cases.

This brings me to the observation that when I was 5 or so, several of us children were given a test in a classroom. I asked the teacher what the purpose of the test was and she said, "Oh, it's not important." So I didn't do the last page. It was an IQ test and I received a score of 135 (average = 90 - 110) on the incomplete test. The school did not have advanced classes, so it was of little import at that time; except that they wanted to start me in 3rd grade, which was ridiculous for a 5-year-old with no social skills. Intelligent just is not enough to succeed in that scenario.

By the way, IQ indicates how well you will do in school, and perhaps not much else. The best assessment of intelligence may be to drop an individual into another culture and see how well they live - a little like The Amazing Race on TV.

However, in today's competitive world of work in which so many people are unhappy in their jobs and therefore unable to do their best, everyone needs to understand that the assessment profile based on the results of vocational testing is vitally important. It will set a benchmark for what will make you happy and what will be most valuable about you to a potential employer.

As GED administrator, I found a small group of students that blew off the reading entrance test, just marking any boxes at all on the answer card to be done with it. They thought it was a meaningless government program that had to take everyone and pay them a stipend. They were incorrect. Some otherwise intelligent people were referred to remedial reading classes in a decrepit part of the downtown region. Only one or two admitted to tanking the test and they re-took it.

So, do your best in a career or vocational testing set and answer forthrightly. There exist no right or wrong answers in subjective tests like an interests survey, a work values survey, a work motivation survey, a burnout scale and so on, all that reveal what you really would like to do (subjective) and therefore would do it well. On short math and reading tests, just do your best (these are objective an d have right and wrong answers).

All of these surveys and questionnaires pose sets of questions that can provide you with a sense of your personality and career interests.

The results may be a good beginning in discovering more about yourself and your best suited careers. Of course, they do not work for everyone. In my own case, some of them have only 50% accuracy most of the time, and a few are usually correct. My last three assessments show that I would be a good explorer, map maker, stellar cartographer, and researcher. All this is a good evaluation.

Is NASA hiring?