#Why
compare my answers to those of other people?
By comparing your answers
to those of other people, the PASS assesses your relative levels of interest in
different areas. Much like a score on a test in school it is often interesting
to know how others performed on the same test. If you scored 7 out of 10 on a
test, it is clear that you answered 70% of the questions correctly. Whether you
consider this to be good or bad will depend partly on your own score (70%), but
information about how others performed is also relevant. If you also learned that
most people scored between 40% and 50% on the same test, you might interpret your
own score differently than if you found out that most other people answered all
questions correctly. The PASS builds in information about how other people respond
to help you interpret areas in which you tend to be more or less interested than
others.#My
Similarity to Job Groups does not seem to match my Basic Interest Scale scores.
Why is this?
It is possible to obtain a high Basic Interest scale score
on a particular scale like Law, and not have a high score on the associated Job
Group (e.g., Occupations in Law and Politics). This does not necessarily mean
that these sources are providing conflicting information, or that one or both
are incorrect. Rather, they are providing different information.
Raw scores
on the Basic Interest scales reflect the number of times that you have chosen
activities associated with a particular occupation or activity. Percentiles give
information about how your raw score on that scale compares to scores of other
people. On the other hand, the Similarity to Job Groups represents the overall
similarity of all 34 Basic Interest dimensions of your profile to those for persons
working in various occupations. For example, lawyers usually obtain high scores
on the Basic Interest scale for Law. They also usually show high scale scores
on Technical Writing, Business, and Finance. If someone happened to obtain a high
score on Law, but lower scores for the other three scales, this would result in
a lower degree of similarity to the Occupations in Law and Politics Job Group.
#My
PASS Basic Interest profile is not similar to any Job Group! What does this mean?
If,
on your report, your similarity to all (or most) Job Groups is "neutral,"
it could mean that you do not have a well developed and consistent interest pattern
at the present time. Further exploration and experience in a variety of areas
will help you find those things that interest you, and those that don't. You may
want to explore career areas very widely. One strategy is to gather information
about one or two jobs relevant to each of the 32 Job Groups. After you've gathered
more information and gained experience in various areas you may wish to retake
the PASS.
|
Frequently
Asked Questions