Interpreting Assessment Results

Need help understanding the assessments?

What does each assessment mean?
PathwayU’s assessments measure 4 personal attributes that are critical for making informed decisions throughout your journey towards a meaningful education and career. Those attributes include your Interests, Values, Personality, and Workplace Preferences.

Your Interests describe the subjects you like to learn about, the activities you do in your spare time, and the tasks that you really enjoy performing. Understanding your interests will help you discover what keeps you motivated and energized and will give you clues into the types of careers you will enjoy in the future.

The Values assessment will help you clarify what is most important to you in your ideal job. We know that the more our jobs align with our core values, the more likely we are to feel satisfied and fulfilled in those roles. Keep in mind that all of the values will likely to be important to you to some extent, but the key is to recognize that certain values rank higher than others and to use this framework to continue reflecting on the things that are deeply important to you.

Your Personality traits describe your typical patterns of thinking, feeling, and behaving. For this assessment, be sure to look at your results holistically. You fall somewhere on the continuum for each trait and that unique pattern of results is what makes you, you. Remember, this is not about labeling yourself as a certain type of person but is intended to help you gain more self-awareness about how you’re wired, how other people may perceive you, and how you tend to behave in different situations.

Your Workplace Preferences represent the characteristics you would like your ideal employer to emphasize. Understanding these preferences will help you find an organization that is a great fit for you and discover what types of work environments you will thrive in.

How should I interpret my assessment results?
Don’t worry if you don’t have much work experience just yet, when thinking about these results you can apply them any organization you have been a part of like a club or sports team. You might even consider retaking this assessment once you gain more experience in the future. Ultimately, gaining a deeper understanding of these personal attributes that make you unique is an important step in pursuing a sense of purpose in your education and career. Here, you can learn more about what Purpose means and find out if you are currently seeking, perceiving, or living out your purpose. Remember, there are always steps you can take to dive deeper into the self-discovery process.

What do I do if I want more help interpreting my assessment results? (Reflection Questions, Set Up an Appointment, Worksheets)
Thinking through the Reflection Questions can help you begin take the results off the screen and really apply them to your own life. If you find you need a bit more guidance in understanding what these results mean for you, go ahead and Schedule an Appointment with an advisor at your school. If you prefer to think through your results on your own, spend some time working through the guided activities in our Worksheets and get your thoughts organized all in one place.

What if I have a very low scores across all interest areas?

First, the profile may reflect a particular response style or mood that you were experiencing when endorsing the items. The scales are generally valid even despite mood fluctuations, but nevertheless one option is to simply retake the assessment with a fresh mindset.

Second, profiles that are low and flat sometimes reflect someone who has a very narrow range of interests. You might be deeply interested in video game development (for example), and then provide low ratings for anything that doesn't link to that narrow interest. If this is the case, try to name that interest and explore adjacent interests that can help evoke an increasing openness to a broader array of potential pathways.

Third, profiles like this can indicate you are down, just not in a good mood - therefore seeing everything through a dark cloud. In any case, talking through this profile with a career counselor is a great way to bring some additional life to your results.