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The Assessment Edge

VirtualCollegePrep.com was established by Dr. Patrick Callaghan to address a significant gap in the educational system. As a human resources and academic executive he has extensive experience successfully using assessments to select and develop employees in the professional arena. Dr. Callaghan and his consultants have extensive experience in the business world and can talk first hand about what it is going to take to be successful in these careers. This process is designed as a supplement to working with the existing program in your high school. As a team we partner with the parents and the students to make sure they are given the best chance to make excellent decisions to position the student for long-term success!

Among the assessments that are used are The Highlands Ability Battery and the Strong Interests Inventory. Both of these assessments are widely used to work with young adults in providing insights into how interests and abilities impact short, mid-term and long-term career related decision making.

The Highlands Ability Battery is the gold-standard among tools assessing human abilities or aptitudes. Developed from the pioneering clinical studies of Johnson O'Connor, it is an online three-hour objective inquiry into the abilities and ability patterns of the individual who completes it.

The Battery consists of nineteen different worksamples. Each worksample is timed to measure the speed with which the individual is able to do a particular series of similar tasks. The individual's score on each worksample establishes whether a particular task is more or less easy for that individual. Shown together on a personal profile and bar chart, the scores achieved by each individual reveal patterns or “clusters” of abilities which require analysis by a skilled interpreter. Once these patterns or “clusters” are understood, the individual is helped to guide his/her life and work into more productive and satisfying channels.

When a student completes the Highlands Ability Battery, they receive a report specially designed to address the student's need to make important choices among options in study and career. When a student knows and understands his/her true abilities, he/she is more likely to pursue studies and a career which will produce the greatest measure of satisfaction and stability throughout his/her life.

The Strong Interest Inventory® assessments provide time-tested and research-validated insights to help young adults in their search for a rich, fulfilling career. Developed for career counselors and academic advisors who support college and high school students, as well as all practitioners who help adults with career decisions, the Strong empowers young adults to discover their true interests so they can better identify, understand, and often expand their career options.

The Strong generates an in-depth assessment of the young adult's interests among a broad range of occupations, work and leisure activities, and educational subjects. Newly revised to reflect all the latest changes in the world of work and study, this authoritative assessment of unparalleled reliability and validity is more powerful than ever, with:

More focus on business and technology careers
Response options expanded to 5-point (Likert-type) format
Shorter inventory—291 items, reduced from 317
Norm group representative of ethnic, racial, and demographic workforce diversity
Updated General Occupational Themes
Expanded Basic Interest Scales, Occupational Scales, and Personal Style Scales
User-friendly, well-organized, highly intuitive results presentation

The most respected and widely used career development instrument in the world, the Strong is a powerful tool for anyone starting a career, considering a career change, looking for career enrichment, or seeking work–life balance.