The Highlands Ability Battery
The Highlands
Ability BatteryTM (HAB) is the gold standard among tools assessing human abilities
or aptitudes.
The Battery consists of 19 different worksamples. Each worksample is timed to measure the speed with which the individual is able to do a particular series of similar tasks. The individual’s score on each worksample establishes whether a particular task is more or less easy for that individual. Shown together on a personal profile and bar chart, the scores achieved by each individual reveal patterns or “clusters” of abilities which require analysis by a skilled interpreter. Once these patterns or “clusters” are understood, the individual is helped to guide his life and work into more productive and satisfying channels.
When
we did our review of career
tests, The Highlands Ability Battery came out on top.
More than any
other test, it helps you understand the type(s) of work you should pursue and
the types you should definitely not pursue.
| In October, 2002, 32
graduate students at Colorado State University were asked to compare a
number of assessments which they had completed as part of their course. |
The group was asked to rate 4 different
well-known assessments in terms of effectiveness in measuring their
abilities and talents, as well as in guiding them in future career
decisions. The assessments were the Highlands Ability Battery, the
Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, the Strong Interest and Skills Confidence
Inventory, and True Colors.
Percentage of
Students that ranked it #1 in measuring abilities and talents
 Percentage of
Students that ranked it #1 in effectiveness in guiding them in
career decisions
|
How accurate is it?
This is not like the
aptitude testing from years ago, or the tests available in certain books out
there. The information and
suggestions that it makes are HIGHLY ACCURATE. Many medical, technology,
business, and science students use this aptitude testing to choose an area of
specialization. Businesses use it to choose the top candidates for important
positions. Entrepreneurs use it to determine the type of business they're
most likely to be successful in. The testing is psychometrically valid and reliable. The minimum reliability standard for the 19 tests that
make up The Highlands Ability Batteryâ„¢ is r = . 80.
Some have
described the Highlands Ability Battery as the Myers-Briggs "on
steroids." It is like getting an MRI for a painful injury instead of a
traditional X-Ray.
Validity is the certainty with which we can ascribe a contextual significance to a given score on a given test with a given person, i.e., the confidence with which we can interpret any given test result. In simple terms, the test should measure what it claims to measure.
Validity can be estimated in a variety of ways for tests of abilities similar to the Highlands Ability Battery. Validity research has been an ongoing function of the Johnson O'Connor Research Foundation, forerunner of the Highlands Battery, for over 50 years and of The Highlands Company since its inception in the early 1990s. All together, hundreds of studies have demonstrated the essential validity of the individual worksamples composing the Highlands Ability Battery. Many of the individual components in assessments administered by other companies and laboratories are similar in construction to related worksamples in the Highlands Battery, and it is possible to draw parallel results by measuring one instrument against another. Because of the similarities in the structure of these other assessments, it is also possible to relate the overall findings among them.
