A SORT OF PSYCHOLOGICAL PROFILE
When I was 14, I was in 9th grade at Champagnat high school. At that time, that was the end of so called “third cycle on basic education” and for the next year I had to choose some kind of specialized bachillerato (that meant the cycle of middle-education consisting in 10th, 11th and 12th grade, just before college or university).
On that purpose, the school brought me and my classmates the opportunity to take a career aptitude and personality test managed by psychologists from UCA, so that we (as very immature teenagers) could make a better choice.
Since a few months before, I had been considering basically two options: academic bachillerato, focused in subjects like math and physics (wich was supposed to prepare me for further university studies), or industrial bachillerato, focused in practical duties like electricity (wich also would allow me to follow a college career later). It's not superfluous to say that this second option implied me to left the place where I was studying for ten years and to enroll in Santa Cecilia high school.
It's important to say that, at that time, career tests weren’t as usual as they are nowadays, because psychology itself were just starting to develop as a profession in our country, so the experience promised to be quite new and interesting; furthermore, I had been very confused about the big question, what should I study? As far as I can remember, I was far away from any final decision.
So, I started the tests with high expectations, hoping to find some existential answers to clarify my immediate future. After the tests and when the D-day arrived a couple of weeks later… well, the results were not exactly as I had been expected.
The psychologist brought me the definitive sheet of paper with the results… and I anxiously focused my attention on the last paragraph, the final and highly expected recommendation which was supposed to guide my confused teenage-life among the entangled paths of fate: “You are fit for any kind of bachillerato, since you have all the abilities required to succeed in any field”. And if it hadn't been enough, it was followed by this enlightning answer: “Considering your personal interests, industrial bachillerato is recommended and, as a second option, academic bachillerato.”
Ok, guys, thanks for nothing!
Nevertheless, now (more than 35 years later) that I’ve read the previous paragraphs on that very sheet, I’ve found some funny and interesting comments (maybe I’d say “diagnoses”) about me.
Regarding my character and personality, they said: “You defend your ideas and state your points of view, without conceding unless solid arguments are given, but you’re at risk on become stubborn. It’s recommended for you try to be more flexible and fight some tendency to be self-enclosed”.
Well, I can’t deny it, neither at that time nor nowadays.
But they also said: “You’re a very reflective person, patient, generally on good mood, idealist, trusted, tolerant and thoughtful”.
“Patient, generally on good mood” when I was 14…? Come on, guys! Are you sure you didn’t swap some of my tests accidentally with someone else’s?
