Career Aptitude Test for High School Students: 13 Popular Assessment Tools

A career aptitude test for high school students is an assessment, typically in the form of a quiz, that students can take to determine an appropriate major or career. This test comprises contextual activities or multiple-choice questions asking students about their goals, interests, values, and personality traits.

Based on the answers to these questions, school guidance counselors can recommend career paths aligned with their students’ skills, talents, and aptitudes.

How Accurate Are Career Aptitude Tests?

It is hard to assess the accuracy of a career aptitude test, mainly because the answers provided are based on a student’s ability to self-assess. There is no right or wrong answer.

The response given by the test-taker is based on their own subjective opinion. Nonetheless, the testing process can be very enlightening and may bring to the forefront majors and careers they may not have thought of previously.

Types of Self-Assessments for Careers

Career aptitude tests generally fall into one of three categories, depending on the goal.

Interest Assessments

The questions in an interest assessment quiz center on the likes and dislikes of the high school student. These career assessments cover various topics ranging from academics to hobbies.

Work Values Assessments

When an individual’s core values align with their job, it increases the likelihood of them succeeding and being happy in their career. Work values assessments help students identify those values and recommend career options best suited to them.

Skills Assessments

A skills assessment measures a student's specific skills, talents, and general aptitudes and maps those skills to various careers that require those strengths.

13 Career Aptitude Tests for High School Students

Here are 13 popular tools that high school guidance counselors can provide or utilize to help their students choose their majors or career paths.

1. 123 Career Aptitude Test

Unlike other career aptitude tests for high school students whose questions follow a multiple-choice format, the 123 Career Test features interactive activities designed to help students identify their work preferences. Upon completion, they will receive job recommendations based on the test results and a detailed account of how the app arrived at that result.

2. Career Explorer Career Test

This test focuses on developing a psychometric model of the student’s personality type. To achieve this, it quizzes them on their:

• Desired workplace to analyze the type of work environment they would thrive in
• Goals to find out what their ideal salary is
• History to look at their current residence and life experience
• Interests to get a high-level view of careers that interest them
• Personality to determine if the student believes their temperament and general disposition is the right fit for their desired career

3. Holland Code Career Aptitude Test

This career assessment is based on John Holland’s Realistic, Investigative, Artistic, Social, Enterprising, and Conventional (RIASEC) Career Choice Theory. This testing model is built on the premise that people with similar career personalities are guaranteed to succeed when working collaboratively toward a common goal.

4. iPersonic Career Test

This career aptitude test requires students to read certain statements and choose the ones they identify with the most. The test was developed by psychologist Felicitas Heyne, affiliated with the American and German psychological associations. Possible results of this test include a personality classification with categories such as independent thinker, analytical thinker, individualistic doer, harmony-seeking idealist, and more.

5. Keirsey Temperament Aptitude Sorter

Designed by Dr. David Keirsey, the Keirsey Temperament Aptitude Sorter is a test that assesses students’ dispositions and places them into one of four categories:

• Artisan: Fun-loving and optimistic people
• Guardian: Dutiful, achievement-driven people
• Idealist: Compassionate, abstract people
• Rational: People who strive for discipline, self-control, and competence

According to Dr. Keirsey, an individual's temperament directly affects their core life pursuits.

6. MAPP Career Aptitude Test

The Motivational Appraisal of Personal Potential (MAPP) career aptitude test for high school students is designed to help them identify their key motivators for getting up and going to school. That way, high school guidance counselors can help them decide what to major in or what career path to take based on their passions.

7. Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) Career Aptitude Test

Guidance counselors use the MBTI career aptitude test to identify readily observable traits and behaviors in their students to provide insight into the potential career paths they can pursue. It uses four main areas to identify a student’s personality:

• Introversion vs. extroversion
• Intuition vs. sense-driven
• Feeling vs. thinking
• Perceiving vs. judging

The outcome of this test will provide insight into how students interact with other people and their environment. That way, guidance counselors can help them figure out the workplace environment and job culture they’re likely to thrive in.

8. MyMajors

This career testing tool for high school students focuses on proactively exploring various majors to identify their strongest majors, careers, and the most suitable colleges to study. High school guidance counselors can use MyMajors to help their students determine the best course majors to pursue.

9. Barrett Values Center Personal Values Assessment

The Personal Values Assessment is a test that focuses on helping students to identify their personal values. Developed and administered by the Barrett Values Center, this tool seeks the answers to questions such as:

• Who are you?
• What is the most important thing to you?
• What informs the decisions you make?
• What upsets you?

Guidance counselors can use this tool to help their students become more aware of who they are, what motivates them, the areas of their lives they need to focus on, and how their values influence their decisions. That way, they can match those values to suitable career paths.

10. Princeton Review Career Quiz

The Princeton Review career aptitude test measures high school students' motivation, interests, interpersonal behavior, and stress management. It considers their wants and needs to group them into one of four categories:

• Blue: Idea-centric
• Green: People-centric
• Red: Production-centric
• Yellow: Procedure-centric

Guidance counselors can use the results of this quiz to help students identify the study areas they’re most passionate about and recommend suitable career paths.

11. Richard Step Strength and Weaknesses Aptitude Test

The Strengths and Weaknesses career aptitude test for high school students was created by Richard Step to help students discover their soft skills and personality traits. Guidance counselors can use the results of this test to help their students uncover careers that might be a better fit for them based on their strengths.

12. Truity Big Five Personality Test

This test is designed to give high school students insight into their personality. Guidance counselors can use the results of this test to help their students understand how their underlying traits can impact their future professional lives. That way, they can pick career paths best aligned with their personality traits.

13. Work Interest Wizard

This wizard features a series of questions whose answers are designed to “teach” the app the career path the student wants to take. Each question has eight options. The student is required to pick one. The succeeding question is based entirely on the answer provided to the previous question.

The outcome of the Work Interest Wizard provides test-takers with several potential career paths. High school guidance counselors can then work with students to help them hone in on specific career choices.

Final Thoughts

Choosing a career path can be overwhelming for a high school student. A guidance or career counselor can leverage these 13 tools to help their students gain insight into their skills, talents, aptitudes, values, personal potential, and interests to choose suitable professions. Many times this is done through a zero hour, flex time, or home room during the student’s schedule.

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