We all know that the SAT score report indicates a student’s proficiency in math and English—but did you know that it also gives insight that can help students in choosing a career? As the SAT is the most popular college admissions exam, students who take it usually have ambitions of earning at least a bachelors’ degree; although, many students aren’t sure what they want to study in particular.
College Board’s new “Career Insights Snapshot” on the digital SAT score report introduces testers to the many different careers that exist as possibilities for them, personalized to their test performance. In this article, we’re diving into this interesting aspect of the Digital SAT report and other resources students can use when deciding on their future major or career path.
The Digital SAT Score Report
The Digital SAT score report includes several useful figures to help students understand their SAT performance. Displayed towards the top left in large, black print is the total SAT score—a figure between 400 and 1600 (the possible score range) that is the cumulative result of all the correctly answered questions on the exam.
This principle score is followed by the math and Reading & Writing section scores, then beside each score is each percentile rank. In a box to the right is the “Knowledge and Skills” portion—a breakdown of the student’s performance across specific topics/question types, showing how they performed on each Reading & Writing and Math topic. You can see this in the example SAT score report below.
Following the student’s scoring information, College Board includes a Career Insights Snapshot.
The Career Insights Snapshot
Your SAT score report includes a list of careers that are personalized to your test performance and the state you live in. This is College Board’s Career Insights Snapshot, intended to inform students about the different types of jobs that are out there and help them start the process of choosing a career. It suggests six careers that show growth in your state, including metrics such as the median yearly income of those in your state with each job, the number of each job projected to be opened after you graduate from a four-year degree (so, in 2028 for the high school class of 2024), and the most common education level of individuals with those jobs.
These careers are also selected based on each student’s SAT performance. For example, if a student had a strong performance on the Geometry and Trigonometry questions, the snapshot could indicate a career in architecture as an example. If they excelled at, say, both Information and Ideas and Problem-Solving and Data Analysis questions, it may propose careers in finance and analytics. This section is intended to show students that they are already on-track for many esteemed careers due to their strong foundational ELA and math capabilities. Take a look at the career snapshot example below to see how this will look on a score report:
While this list is geared towards each student’s skills, the SAT emphasizes that they are not career recommendations; instead, they are just examples to encourage students’ exploration of different careers. Still, it’s a great place to start for students wondering how to choose a career.
Interest Areas
The Career Insights Snapshot proposes one example career for every Interest Area. College Board uses Interest Areas as a way to help students match their personality to their passions and career expectations.
Interest Areas are based on the Holland Codes, which come from psychologist John L. Holland’s theories about career choice as an expression of a person’s character. Think of this as a framework of different personality types in which every person resonates with a few different types. Academic institutions and even the US government utilize Holland’s ideas to help people who are choosing a career path.
Holland’s framework is also referred to by the acronym RIASEC, where each letter stands for one of the six personality types:
- Realistic. “Doers” who like practical, hands-on work.
- Investigative. “Thinkers” who enjoy researching and studying to solve problems.
- Artistic. “Creators” who value self-expression and uniquely creating things.
- Social. “Helpers” who are fulfilled by improving the lives of others and like working with people.
- Enterprising. “Persuaders” who excel at influencing others and negotiating.
- Conventional. “Organizers” who enjoy following set procedures and rules, working in an orderly way.
Each area of interest corresponds to a group of careers that align with that characterization. Just like how each person will resonate with a few different areas of interest, most careers are a combination of two or more aspects of the RIASEC framework.
For example, dentists are described as realistic (practical, working with tools), investigative (research-intensive problem-solving), and social (helping & healing people). Website developers are conventional (systemic processes of building sites), artistic (creative, having a unique vision), and enterprising (often marketing a product or service).
Discovering Your Career Aptitude
If you’re looking to choose a career as a teenager, deciding what role you’d be a good fit for can be hard. The SAT connects its suggested roles with Interest Areas because it understands there’s more to consider than your academic strengths.
Consider your personality and interests when choosing a career! If your work environment is one that you thrive in or you’re passionate about your industry, you’re poised to be successful and enjoy your days at work. Here’s a deeper look at finding your RIASEC types and more career assessments that job-seekers have used for decades to help them find a job that matches their personality.
College Board’s Career Quiz
The Digital SAT score report offers one example career per Interest Area so that students get a variety of example careers to consider. But what if you aren’t sure which areas align with your personality best?
College Board’s career quiz can help you find what your top interest areas are. You simply respond to each of the 60 questions about work activities with how you feel about each one, from “strongly dislike” to “strongly like”. (For example: “Help people with personal or emotional problems.” When you imagine that as your day-to-day work, would you say strongly dislike, dislike, unsure, like, or strongly like?)
When you complete the quiz, you’ll be given a bubble chart like the one below that visualizes your interests based on your answers. (As you can see in the image to the right.)
You can then use these results to inform your research into careers—start by taking another look at your Career Insights and considering the careers that fall under your interest areas.
On your results page, there will be a link to “Explore Your Career Quiz Matches”—this takes you to College Board’s career search page, where you can explore hundreds of possible jobs that align with your career quiz results.
Myers–Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)
The questions on the Myers–Briggs Type Indicator seek a stronger understanding of your personality traits, but the College Board Career Quiz generally asks how you feel about specific tasks or jobs, from “develop a spreadsheet using computer software” to “study ways to reduce water pollution.” While looking at your interests can determine what fields or roles you’d be successful in, your personality can play a part, too.
The Myers–Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) is a personality questionnaire that takes a deeper look into your personality and how you interact with people around you. While considering your interests is a
It uses four “preference pairs” to describe your personality:
- Extroversion (E) and Introversion (I): Whether you feel more energized by interacting with others (E) or by reflecting on ideas on your own (I).
- Sensing (S) or Intuition (N): Whether you pay more attention to concrete, tangible information (S) or to patterns, connections, and “gut feelings” (N).
- Thinking (T) or Feeling (F): Whether, when confronted with a decision, you put more weight on objectivity and impersonal facts (T) or on personal concerns and moral values (F).
- Judging (J) or Perceiving (P): Whether you prefer to have an organized and structured lifestyle (J) or a more flexible lifestyle that leaves things open-ended (P).
These type preferences are simply what you have a predisposition towards, so there are no wrong answers. Maybe you can have fun whether you’re at an event with others or alone at home with a book or video game, but you probably have a natural inclination towards one or the other after a long day at school. That preference would indicate whether you are extroverted or introverted.
Your preferences among each of the four pairs are joined to become your MBTI type. Each combination of preferences corresponds to one of 16 types. For instance, those who are ESTJ are extroverted, sensing, thinking, and judging—they thrive in a social environment, prioritize facts and logic when navigating the world around them, and excel when they have structure in their daily lives.
Like the RIASEC interest areas, a person’s MBTI can help individuals choosing a career find one that fits well with their personality. An individual who’s introverted may be more inclined to work independently than extroverted individuals, and those who are judging would prefer a structured day-to-day work life while those who are perceiving would be more open to daily tasks that have a lot more variation.
The Big Five Personality Test
The final test we’re discussing that can provide career aptitude insight is the Big Five personality test. Also called the five-factor model of personality, the Big Five is the most commonly used model of personality in the world of psychology. When you take the Big Five personality test, you’ll be measured by your alignment with each of five traits:
- Openness to Experience (curiosity vs. cautiousness)
- Conscientiousness (efficiency vs. carelessness)
- Extroversion (outgoing vs. solitary)
- Agreeableness (compassion vs. judgement)
- Neuroticism (sensitivity vs. confidence)
Like the MBTI, the Big Five test questions ask if you agree or disagree with certain statements as they relate to your personality, like “I get stressed out easily,” or “I have difficulty understanding abstract ideas.”
You are scored by the percentage of how intensely your answers resonate with each trait, giving you a clear idea of which traits are your strongest (and your weakest). Your results will look something like the image below, followed by descriptions of each trait. As you can see, this individual scored highest in Intellect/Imagination (A.K.A. Openness to Experience) and Conscientiousness, and lowest in Emotional stability and Extroversion.
While College Board’s career quiz will help you narrow down an industry you’d be passionate about, the Big Five personality test (like the MBTI) will help you identify the type of work culture you’d excel in. Those who score high in openness will appreciate careers that require a certain amount of travel or involve substantial research. If you score high in neuroticism (or low in emotional stability), a career that is predictable and secure will offer you stability, or one that allows self-expression may soothe you in your day-to-day life.
Personality Psychology & Vocation
While personality tests can be great tools in self-reflection, psychologists agree that they are not a perfect means to categorize an individual. Your personality is how you present yourself to the world around you—after all, the Latin root for “personality” is persona—”a mask; a character played by an actor.”
The dynamic nature of personalities means that your MBTI label, RIASEC type, and Big 5 traits are not ways to permanently label yourself. A personality is formed by the way you present yourself and the choices you make in your everyday life, so it can change over time and across different circumstances.
Still, these personality tests are useful tools to use when you want to research what aligns with both your academic strengths and your inner ambitions. When you’re passionate about your work and your traits help you navigate the role with ease, you’re more likely to be successful in building that career.
Skill-Building and SAT Prep with Piqosity
Choosing a career is hard—to decide what to study, you need to find roles that fit your salary expectations, skill strengths, and interests. We hope this breakdown of the digital SAT score report’s Career Insights section helped you find more options to consider when it comes to finding that dream role.
Even if you have a long way to go in improving your academic abilities, there are still so many possibilities ahead of you. If you want to strengthen your English & math abilities to score high on the SAT and improve your chances at whatever career gets your attention, that starts with dedicated test-prep and personalized practice of the topics you struggle to get in school. For an abundance of affordable resources to help you on your post-high school academic journey, Piqosity is here to help!
On top of our full-length, online ELA and Math courses for grades 5-11, we offer full SAT (and ACT) test prep courses, each of which includes 12 practice exams, dozens of concept lessons, personalized practice software, and more.
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