Aptitude test for senior school students

Tamanna - Try And Measure Aptitude aNd Natural Abilities is an initiative of the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) and National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT), New Delhi under the aegis of Ministry of Human Resource Development, Govt. of India. Tamanna is to enable stakeholders know the aptitude of students of classes IX and X so as to facilitate helping students make informed career choices.

Understanding Aptitude

What is Aptitude?

As students enter secondary stage of schooling, they move closer to making many important choices, one of which is deciding the subjects and courses of study at senior secondary level such as Humanities, Commerce, Science or Vocational. This decision of students is influenced by a number of factors such as their interests, attitudes, motivation, personality and aptitude. The decision of students is often influenced by their parents, family members, friends and teachers. Teachers and parents play a significant role in helping students to take decisions by facilitating students to know their aspirations, strengths and limitations. As we all know that when students know their strengths, it helps them to become motivated and put more efforts which is likely to result in improved performance.

Aptitude is a special ability or a cluster of abilities. Since aptitude is a special ability required to study or do a job, it indicates the probability of performing well in a particular course of study or occupation/vocation and also indicates the extent to which the person would derive benefit by training in a particular vocational area. Different occupations need different sets of abilities. For example, to be a successful architect one requires a set of abilities such as keen sense of observation, a sense of visual  memory, ability to sketch free hand, etc. A student having these set of abilities is at an advantage and is likely to perform well in this occupation.

Thus, knowing one’s aptitude may help a student to make informed career (educational and occupational/vocational) choices. It is important to know that students’ interests, personal qualities, educational and occupational information/requirements also play a crucial role in career planning.

Utility of information on Aptitude for Students

Information about aptitude is useful for students in seeking academic and/or career guidance. It is to be used keeping in view the students’ needs and their stage of education. The information about a student’s strengths and limitations would also help parents, teachers and the school administrators to extend support to the student while making such decisions.

Aptitude test results may help students to:

• Understand and make subject choices in relation to the identified special abilities.
• Explore career pathways related specifically to areas in which they have high aptitudes.
• Reaffirm their aptitude and explore if they want to continue with their chosen course of study or seek alternatives.
• Relook at their occupational aspirations/goals in line with their specific aptitude and review their efforts to achieve desired academic and occupational goals.

Tamanna : An Aptitude Test

This test covers seven areas:

• Language Aptitude (LA)
• Abstract Reasoning (AR)
• Verbal Reasoning (VR)
• Mechanical Reasoning (MR)
• Numerical Aptitude (NA)
• Spatial Aptitude (SA)
• Perceptual Aptitude (PA).

Language Aptitude (LA) is the ability to draw meaning from written words and use them effectively. Language aptitude shows how well an individual understands words and their synonyms, spells words correctly, identifies and understands the correct meaning of the given proverbs/idioms.

LA sub-test is divided into three sections which measure the students’ ability to know (i) the meaning of words, (ii) the correct spelling and (iii) the meaning of proverbs/idioms.

Language aptitude is important for performance in courses and occupations/vocations involving reading and writing such as social sciences, economics, mathematics, teaching, journalism and media studies, advertising, law, library sciences, stenography, business development, etc.

Abstract Reasoning (AR) involves abilities such as thinking logically, managing time, and solving problems quickly and effectively. It requires to understand patterns, diagrams or designs and draw meaning from them. This ability reveals how well a student can reason, extract rules, find underlying logic in the pattern of symbols or shapes, identify correct answer among a set of possible options, complete sequence and find the odd one out. In AR sub-test, which is a non-verbal sub-test, each item consists of a set of figures/patterns which are in acertain sequence. The student is asked to find the next figure/pattern in the series.

It is important for performance in courses and occupations/vocations such as mathematics, economics, physics, chemistry, computer science, biotechnology, computer systems analysis, computer programming, architecture, medicine, mechanics, forensic science, etc.

Verbal Reasoning (VR) is the ability to solve problems by understanding the meaning and ideas framed in words. Verbal reasoning measures how well an individual can apply reasoning related to words and draw correct meaning from the written information. In VR sub-test, the individual is expected to understand the relationship between paired words and apply it to other relationships.

Verbal reasoning is important for performance in courses and occupations like languages, history, geography, economics, business studies, science, psychology, education, journalism, business, law, public relations, marketing, advertising, linguistics, medical and paramedical fields, administrative services, human resources management, auctioneering, etc.

Mechanical Reasoning (MR) is the ability to apply reasoning in the practical environment using basic concepts in mechanics. This ability helps an individual to solve problems related to machines and engage in reasoning about the situation rather than simply applying the formulae. In MR sub-test, items are related to acceleration, pressure, energy transformation, work and power, levers, pulleys, screws, springs, tools, etc.

Mechanical reasoning ability is important for courses and occupations / vocations such as physics, chemistry, engineering, and other technical skill-oriented occupations such as carpentry, masonry, plumbing, etc.

Numerical Aptitude (NA) is the ability to perform mathematical operations quickly and correctly. Numerical aptitude includes numerical relationships and problem solving related to numbers. NA sub-test involves primary arithmetic operations (like addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division) and other mathematical operations (like ratio, percentage,square and square root).

Numerical aptitude is important for performance in courses and occupations such as mathematics, economics, accountancy, computer sciences, statistics, all types of engineering, architecture, computer applications, oceanography, geology, meteorology, actuarial sciences, etc.

Spatial Aptitude (SA) is the ability to imagine an object in space and decide how it will look like when rotated in a given direction. In SA sub-test, the student is asked to identify how the figure will look like when seen through a mirror or rotated or when folded in a particular way.

Spatial aptitude is important for performance in courses and occupations / voacations that require an individual to visualise objects in 3-dimensions, such as visual and performing arts, engineering, physics, chemistry, geometry, geography, drafting, architecture, astronomy, visual arts, animation, designing, urban/town planning, photography, multimedia, etc.

Perceptual Aptitude (PA) involves comparing visual information like letters, numbers or combinations of letters/numbers, quickly and accurately. In PA sub-test, student is asked to compare the paired groups of letters or numbers or combination of letters‘numbers  and identify the similarity or difference.

Perceptual aptitude is important for performance in courses and occupations/voacations such as traffic police, detectives, data entry operations, clerical and secretaryship, personal assistant ship, assembly work, machine job operating and coding, banking, proof reading, computer programming, record keeping, etc.

How to take the test

An Aptitude Test booklet consisting of the seven sub-tests is required. To download the test booklet, click here.

Answers need to be marked using pencil on the separate answer sheets provided with the test booklets. To view the sample of the answer sheet, click here.

Scoring Keys : To get the Keys, a mail is to written by the school principal to tamanna.ncert@ciet.nic.in.

Based on the student's score on different sub-tests, a report sheet is made to consolidate the information of a student and prepare the aptitude profile. To get a sample Report Sheet, click here. Based on this information, suggestions are given about courses of study and occupations so that the student can make optimal use of the aptitude test results.

General Considerations

• To know their strenghts, students have to attempt as many questions as possible within the time limit. However, there is no pass or fail in this test.
• Each sub-test is of 10 minutes duration; so the total time for taking all the seven sub-tests is about 70 minutes. Care needs to be taken to adhere to the time duration mentioned on a specific sub-test. Specific instructions for each sub-test is provided separately.

• For each item only one correct response has to be marked. Items having more than one response will not be scored.

• Total time for administration includes - distribution of answer sheets and test booklets, reading instructions, students attempting practice items and time taken to attempt all seven sub-tests. This entire process would take one and half hours approximately.

Understanding the Meaning of the Aptitude Test Scores

• To know how a student has performed on different sub-tests of the aptitude test, an estimate of her/his standing among students of the same class is to be known.
• The total score obtained on each sub-test will become meaningful when converted to a standard score, which is called the "Sten Score". These are in the range of 1 to 10 and are given as Norms tables for class IX students and for class X students .
• To convert the score obtained on a particular sub-test into Sten score, consult the relevant Norms table depending on the class and gender of the student.
• Record in the Tamanna Aptitude Test Report Sheet the student's score on all sub-tests, its corresponding Sten scores description of Sten scores.
• Plot the sten score obtained on the seven sub-tests on the graph given in the Aptitude Test Report Sheet.
• Now identify those aptitudes in which the student has scored high. This can be clearly seen in the Aptitude Test Report Sheet. High aptitude in a sub-test may be used to faciliate exploring of courses and occupations related to that particular aptitude.

Source : Tamanna initiative