EXERCISE 1.1: DIFFERENT USES FOR A GIVEN TEST OBJECTIVE: To think critically about the wide variety of uses for a given test.

The Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB) was discussed in the module overview. Nearly one million people take this test each year, many of them high school students. The test consists of 10 different subtests measuring general science, arithmetic reasoning, word knowledge, paragraph comprehension, numerical operations, coding speed, auto and shop information, mathematics knowledge, mechanical comprehension, and electronics information. The ASVAB is used primarily to select recruits for the different branches of the armed services and then to place those individuals selected into various training programs based on their aptitude strengths and weaknesses. In fact, a subset of 100 items (called the Armed Forces Qualification Test) from the ASVAB is used by all the branches of the military to select recruits. Each branch of the military employs a slightly different cutoff score to select recruits.

Given the 10 subtests listed previously, what other purposes could the ASVAB be used for besides selection and placement (e.g., career guidance)?