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Customer Review
Reviewed in the United States on December 26, 2012
All the traits that it attributes to you are skills, not personality. One could argue differently, but in comparison to tests like Enneagram or MB, this is distinctly different... it lists a few attributes you are strong at whereas the other tests I mentioned attempt to describe you holistically and completely as a person.
I also really dislike the fact that you can only take the test once. I don't have quantitative data like the reviewer who mentioned taking the test twice without looking at the results and coming up with vastly different results. However, I bought four copies for myself and my co-workers and we did all agree that our particular dispositions at the time heavily influenced our results, and if we were to take it in a different mood it was clear we would come up with different results. If you have a more stable, static personality, then obviously you wouldn't have that problem... but for most of us, once you take the test and see the types of questions that are asked, doesn't take a psychologist to see that quite a few answers would change for most people given their circumstantial mood. And that would change your results.
I think what bothers me the most about only being able to take the test once is that they throw out a philosophical reason for preventing you from doing it that only too conveniently matches with a security measure to guard against a fear of people allowing their friends to log into their account to take the test as well. The entire experience comes off as disingenuous. The reasons they list are that 1. Your traits will rarely change over time as core personality is set once you have passed a certain age so there is no need to take the test twice and 2. Once you take the test and read the results, you will be biased in a way that would alter your answers during a second attempt. I could attempt to address these reasons logically, pointing out issues of environmental circumstance, pointing out the value of experimentation and learning that comes from taking any test multiple times, pointing out how fragile and susceptible the questions are to your mood once you actually take the test and see them, but I will just skip all my personal reasoning and let you judge their rationale using your own common sense.
With any body of knowledge, power comes from sharing of information and abundance. Gallup takes the other route and guards their tools closely, keeping walls of secrecy and coming from a place of scarcity and fear. What bothers me the most though is that they aren't honest about it... They could be up front and say that they only allow you to take the test once because they don't want people to share the test with friends or reverse engineer it. Instead, they use altruism as their reasoning. It ends up really souring the otherwise positive experience.
Anyway, it suffices to say that it is their loss and it's ours.
One other thing I dislike is that there is no attempt at trying to describe you fully, the test just highlights a few of your key strengths. That being said, I really enjoyed their philosophy of trying to lift up what is strong and develop THAT, rather than point out what is weak and focus on the negative. I do think that the traits are valuable to find out, and the comparative exercise of sharing results with people who also have taken the test is enlightening.
I'm giving 4 stars instead of something lower because of the inherent value of the test itself, even though these other issues are so flawed. That being said, I'll say that sometimes I shop at Walmart, because it simply has what I need, not because I like how they conduct themselves.
I also really dislike the fact that you can only take the test once. I don't have quantitative data like the reviewer who mentioned taking the test twice without looking at the results and coming up with vastly different results. However, I bought four copies for myself and my co-workers and we did all agree that our particular dispositions at the time heavily influenced our results, and if we were to take it in a different mood it was clear we would come up with different results. If you have a more stable, static personality, then obviously you wouldn't have that problem... but for most of us, once you take the test and see the types of questions that are asked, doesn't take a psychologist to see that quite a few answers would change for most people given their circumstantial mood. And that would change your results.
I think what bothers me the most about only being able to take the test once is that they throw out a philosophical reason for preventing you from doing it that only too conveniently matches with a security measure to guard against a fear of people allowing their friends to log into their account to take the test as well. The entire experience comes off as disingenuous. The reasons they list are that 1. Your traits will rarely change over time as core personality is set once you have passed a certain age so there is no need to take the test twice and 2. Once you take the test and read the results, you will be biased in a way that would alter your answers during a second attempt. I could attempt to address these reasons logically, pointing out issues of environmental circumstance, pointing out the value of experimentation and learning that comes from taking any test multiple times, pointing out how fragile and susceptible the questions are to your mood once you actually take the test and see them, but I will just skip all my personal reasoning and let you judge their rationale using your own common sense.
With any body of knowledge, power comes from sharing of information and abundance. Gallup takes the other route and guards their tools closely, keeping walls of secrecy and coming from a place of scarcity and fear. What bothers me the most though is that they aren't honest about it... They could be up front and say that they only allow you to take the test once because they don't want people to share the test with friends or reverse engineer it. Instead, they use altruism as their reasoning. It ends up really souring the otherwise positive experience.
Anyway, it suffices to say that it is their loss and it's ours.
One other thing I dislike is that there is no attempt at trying to describe you fully, the test just highlights a few of your key strengths. That being said, I really enjoyed their philosophy of trying to lift up what is strong and develop THAT, rather than point out what is weak and focus on the negative. I do think that the traits are valuable to find out, and the comparative exercise of sharing results with people who also have taken the test is enlightening.
I'm giving 4 stars instead of something lower because of the inherent value of the test itself, even though these other issues are so flawed. That being said, I'll say that sometimes I shop at Walmart, because it simply has what I need, not because I like how they conduct themselves.
