About Aptitudes
Aptitudes are natural abilities
Aptitudes are natural talents, special abilities for doing, or learning to do, certain kinds of things easily and quickly. They have little to do with knowledge or culture, or education, or even interests. They have to do with heredity. Musical talent and artistic talent are examples of such aptitudes.
Some people can paint beautifully but cannot carry a tune. Others are good at talking to people but slow at paperwork. Still others can easily repair a car, but find writing difficult. These basic differences among people are important factors in making one person satisfied as a banker, another satisfied as an engineer, and still another satisfied working as an editor. Our aptitude testing will identify your natural abilities.
Aptitudes are natural abilities for doing, or learning to do, certain kinds of things easily and quickly. Are you good at generating ideas, or analyzing numerical information? Can you think three-dimensionally or organize information quickly? Those are examples of aptitudes, and each occupation uses a different combination of aptitudes.
Career fields use particular patterns of aptitudes
Every occupation, whether it is engineering, medicine, law, or management, uses certain aptitudes. The work you are most likely to enjoy and be successful in is work that uses your aptitudes. For example, if you are an engineer but possess aptitudes not used in engineering, your work might seem unrewarding. If you lack the engineer’s aptitudes, your work may be difficult or unpleasant.
What are your natural aptitudes?
Testing will help in choosing work that fits you
With extensive research over 80 years, the Johnson O’Connor Research Foundation has been able to isolate many aptitudes, and the various tests that you take at our laboratories are for the most part measures of these aptitudes.
The primary purpose of taking aptitude tests is to find areas in which you have ability. It has been our experience that people tend to be more satisfied and successful in occupations that challenge their aptitudes and do not demand aptitudes that they lack.
Our aptitude testing program assists you in discovering the course of study and the type of work that will fit your aptitude pattern; it will help you to understand why certain courses of study and occupations are likely to be more satisfying or rewarding than others. As Johnson O’Connor put it many years ago:
The individual who knows his own aptitudes, and their relative strengths, chooses more intelligently among the world’s host of opportunities.
Former examinees relate how aptitude testing helped them make career transitions. Read about their experiences on our personal stories page.
As you explore this website, you will learn more about what aptitudes are and how they can help you plan for a satisfying and successful career. Our brochure [pdf] also has information about the testing program.