Battery is the standardized IQ test of the military and most high school guidance counselors recommend this test to their “lost” students. Each enlistee/student that takes this test will know one of two things, potential career path or what work assignment they will be doing for the next 2-4 years. I myself scored well, any job in the military was available to me, and choose to be an Airborne Petroleum Supply Specialist.
This test didn’t really help me as it does with most high school sophomores, juniors, seniors, and students in postsecondary schools(Baker, 2002) looking for some kind of guidance for their future . I took the test because I was looking to be a free young man and this test would allow me to do that. I do believe that the ASVAB test is very helpful in shaping today’s youth. Since the first time the ASVAB was administered in1968 to over one fourth of all high school seniors the test has been revised drastically (Baker, 2002).
In 1995 the Department of Defense (DOD) asked the American Institutes of Research to find out if the ASVAB test was really working to give high school students career assistance or not. The test already told the DOD what work assignment was best suited for the potential enlistee. Basically the American Institutes of Research decided that it was better to group all of the different test items together, thus creating the Career Exploration Knowledge Scale.
The previous standard scale, the Career Decision Scale (Baker, 2002), was found to be a one-dimensional measure of career indecisions. Tests are designed to discriminate among individuals, and therefore contain items of varying difficulty (Gibson & Harvey, 2003).
Public Schools Preparing Students for the Real World
Nation article, that even with a high school diploma, students find themselves unprepared for college’s academic challenges. He states that it is a tough lesson to learn the hard way “through experience” for many students now arriving on campus. To support his suggestion he includes a study that one in three students entering college have to enroll in remedial courses in order to continue with ...
The harder the questions, the fewer enlistee/students answer them correctly. The easier the questions, enlistee/student should answer them correctly more often. Some argue that the ASVAB test, among many others, is bias. Would you know to bake a cake or solve a mathematics “word problem”?
Some women, in addition to men, have no clue how to bake or add. Tests revolve around what any given person has learned or seen before taking it. Anyone can say anything is bias. Overall, many studies have proven that the ASVAB Career Exploration Program both enhanced self knowledge associated with career discovery and reduced uncertainty for high school students. In Conclusion, to give guidance to a young adult who is still creating the networks and pathways of their mind, body and soul, then I say have at it.
