Directions

Well, surprise, there aren’t any more questions here, but if you clicked on the “Continue” button to find out if there were more questions before you entered any information on the previous page, then it shows that you followed directions and were careful to attempt to “read everything before doing anything,” as Question 1 instructed. So congratulations! You passed!    Please don’t get caught up in trying to decipher the “meaning” of any of the questions—even though they have a logic to them, they are all meaningless.    The essence of it all is that if you miss the initial direction (and this can be taken in the spiritual sense as well), all the rest of the work you do goes to waste. So if you learn the lesson now, it will serve you well throughout the rest of your life. Even though this test does not tell much about intelligence per se, the ability to follow directions will enhance whatever intelligence you do have.     I created this test myself, but it is based on a somewhat similar test one of my teachers gave us in junior high school. (A paper version more similar to that original test can be found through the link below.) I failed it back then. But I have remembered the lesson ever since.    Now, even if you initially failed the test, if you have patiently read my explanation here and have gained some wisdom from it, then, ultimately, you have passed a test. Thankfully, we can learn even from our mistakes.[1] After all, this is what most characterizes a real psychological test: an encounter with the unexpected that reveals more about ourselves than logic and reason can tell us. In contrast, those who grumble angrily that I have wasted their time really have failed a test—and sadly they will continue to fail many more tests throughout their lives until they come to terms with what drives their anger: the unconscious resentments that derive from the family dysfunction of their childhood.   ___________ 1. Alfred Whitehead spoke about intelligence as something that allows us to profit from our mistakes without being slaughtered by them. See Alfred N. Whitehead, Process and Reality. (New York: Macmillan, 1929), p. 256.   Download a printable version, similar to this one, that you can print and give to all your friends.        Back to Testing   No advertising—no sponsor—just the simple truth . . . Huh? Freewill website? What’s this about?   A Guide to Psychology and its Practice www.GuideToPsychology.com   Copyright © 1997-2009 Raymond Lloyd Richmond, Ph.D. All rights reserved. San Francisco   All material on this website is copyrighted. You may copy or print selections for your private, personal use only. Any other reproduction or distribution without my permission is forbidden.