Regarding my mental abilities...

Ok, so as promised this post will be a run down of the Aptitude/Psychometric testing - and an explanation of the last two post titles.

To start off, I was sent to the Ambulance Service Education Center, where we packed in like sardines to sit the tests. And boy, did they last a while...

The first round was language, where we were given a paragraph from which we were expected to be able to extract certain information which we could apply to a given question. Fairly straight forward, fairly easy. There were a few questions where I was very happy for my prior medical knowledge, but overall it was based on common sense. There was one question which stuck on my mind regarding heat stroke, where they give you a bit of background then talk about a patient you arrive at who was jogging but now found on the ground covered in sweat. Asked if you think the patient had heat stroke, most people put no - the patient was sweating, which stops in heat stroke. Luckily I put maybe (more information needed), much to the chagrin of the others at lunch break, because he had been jogging, so may have been sweating from that prior to cessation of sweating due to heat stroke. One to me :)

Next came Mathematics skills, which is where I feel I excelled. I've always been pretty good at maths, given this was still at a fairly simple and I've successfully completed a university mechanical biophysics course - so hopefully I was fine.

Map reading I may have made a boo-boo on... I only realised today I may have gone the wrong way down a one way street, but only for 10m so I should be ok... We had 2 minutes to work out how to get from one side of the city to another! And Sydney is renowned for its one way streets...

Word association came next with logic/pattern recognition - the inner geek was actually enjoying this section! I've since looked up the tests on the 'net and got all of this section correct - go me! (PS: I need to get out more)

Now it was around this time that the real pain started - the previous tests told them how smart we were. The next test was the Aptitude part - a long test provided by the Dept of Forensic Psychology. This was the meat and potatoes of the test, because you could be the smartest person alive but if this test said you didn't have the right attitude, you would not progress. I have to point out a few questions that took my interest;
Select the answer that you identify with best:
a) I avoid responsibilities and work whenever possible
b) I like to criticize my bosses behind their back

ARGH! What's the right answer?! I chose b, simply because I don't think avoiding responsibility helps you - but there were many questions like this that made you stumble a little. Then they would re-ask certain questions in slightly different ways to see if you're consistent (or at least a consistent liar ;P).

True or False:
I believe I may secretly have unusual mental abilities which I cannot talk about in case people don't believe me.
Related:
I hear voices in my mind

Does anyone actually put 'True' to these? If so, I hope I never end up transporting them...

Overall the Aptitude section was the hardest. There is no real way to cheat it because they talk to you about your answers in the interview (next round), so they'll catch anything you've 'made up'. And it asks some fairly personal questions too, again which you'll have to be candid about if you're serious about going for the position... I decided to be honest about everything - even some of the things I was afraid they might not like - because I feel that they'll understand a) I'm only human and b) sometimes life throws curve balls, and they're important lessons we can learn and evolve from.

I find out in three weeks how I went (or at least when my interview is if I'm through to the next round) - you'll know as soon as I know.

Until then, 'normal' posts for a while ;)