Anyone use You Science?

[Ginevra]

You Science is an on-line service (for pay) that helps people identify which careers they are suited for. It seems more comprehensive than some of the free aptitude tests and I'm thinking of doing it with DS. A friend of mine IRL told me about; she was very happy with it.

[whitestavern]

That looks interesting! My dd, who up until very recently wanted to study bio/premed in college, is now back to square one, undecided but thinking of maybe majoring in English. This may be a useful tool for her. I found a Cathy Duffy review if you are interested.

 

http://cathyduffyreviews.com/homeschool-extras/college-career-prep/youscience-review

[plansrme]

Yes.  I thought it was fabulous.  I had my then-16 yo do it about a year or so ago.  Its recommendations made a lot of sense to both of us, and it has definitely helped inform her college search.  A few aspects that impressed:

 

1.  The testing focuses on aptitudes other than academics.  For instance, my daughter scored very high (and I am going to get this description all wrong) in something like visually identifying discrepancies.  Her coaches have noted this, i.e., that she can look at someone's stroke and see what is wrong or right with it.  It seems like any good swimmer could do that, but they can't.  That also, however, turns out to be a useful talent in any number of careers, such as physical therapy.  

 

2.  The test takes into accounts your preferences, such as how social you like to be in your daily life, but it gets to this more subtly (and, I think, more accurately) than by asking, "Do you like to be around other people?"  It never asked obvious questions like, "Does the sight of blood make you faint?"

 

3.  It tells you why it recommends each career that it does.  

 

4.  The career recommendations are sortable by educational requirement, e.g., 2-year degree, 4-year degree, as well as by match score.  The career descriptions and salary ranges were pretty spot-on as far as I could tell.

 

5.  You get access to the results for a long time (forever, maybe?).  I am going to have her revisit them shortly, since she will be making a final college decision soon, and her probable major will play into that.

 

6.  Finally, I have spent a lot of time thinking about her strengths and weaknesses, and several of the top career recommendations lined up closely with things I thought would be good matches for her but had never mentioned to her for fear of scaring her off.  So, yeah, I give You Science points for agreeing with me.

[Vida Winter]

Thanks for posting...interesting!

[MerryAtHope]

I had my son do it his senior year. We felt it did a pretty good job of describing him--the description of his work style and many of the individual aptitudes seemed right on target. We did feel one of his aptitude tests came out with a wrong result, and they let him re-do it (and he did get a very different result). It made me wonder how accurate it might be for asynchronous students (I had asked that question of a rep ahead of time and they felt it wouldn't be an issue since he could take as many breaks as needed between tests). Most of the top job results were things he definitely wasn't interested in (like accounting), but a few may be in the right range for him. In the end, it hasn't ended up helping him decide what he wants to do any more (or less) than assessments he has done through college. I don't think that's the fault of You Science--I think there are just some people who are going to find it really difficult to figure out where they fit. But...in hind sight I wouldn't have spent the $200 or whatever it was had I known it really wouldn't move him closer to figuring things out. But, one can't know that ahead of time! I think it's good to know that it probably helps a lot of people but there's a chance it may not help, and just consider the risk.

[katilac]

You Science is an on-line service (for pay) that helps people identify which careers they are suited for. It seems more comprehensive than some of the free aptitude tests and I'm thinking of doing it with DS. A friend of mine IRL told me about; she was very happy with it.

 

I got my results yesterday, thanks for bringing it up in the other thread! Some comments below. 

 

 

But...in hind sight I wouldn't have spent the $200 or whatever it was had I known it really wouldn't move him closer to figuring things out. 

 

Wow, when did you do it? I paid $29 for one profile.

 

I'm still going over my report, but yes, I would recommend. I really like that it used tasks to evaluate skills, as opposed to self-reporting. For example, they had me look at a pattern on a dot grid page and then try to duplicate it on a blank dot grid page, which I think tested visual memory. 

 

They test 6 aptitudes, and then assign you one of three categories within each aptitude. For example, in Inductive Reasoning I am categorized as a diagnostic problem solver, with the other two being investigator and fact checker. They told me several things that would be on the easy side for me in any job (keeping a fast pace, spotting an anomaly), and others that would be hard for me (staying focused on follow-up). I liked the specific examples for each one. 

 

There are optional tests called Amplifiers that test more specific tasks like pattern memory and hand-eye coordination, and they are supposed to refine your results. I would definitely do them, although I *think* you might have a limited time to start them after finishing the basic portion (a timer flashed on the screen, but I didn't really look at it bc I went straight to the tests). For everything else, they save your results and you can finish at another time. 

 

So your aptitudes, interests, and work approach are detailed in a 40-page report, along with what the results might mean in your school, social, and work lives. Lots of specifics and examples. 

 

Then you can go to the career area and explore different careers. You can choose to filter your results by overall fit, aptitude only, or interest only. You can also filter by how much interest is needed. Fits are strong, good, fair, or weak. Click on a match and it tells you which of your aptitudes match this career - it lists two main ones and also does a comparison of the level of each aptitude needed versus the level you have in that aptitude. 

 

The detail helps me. Two jobs may both be strong fits, but I'm suited for one because of my numerical reasoning and another because of my sequential reasoning. I know that utilizing my sequential reasoning style interests me more, so that job moves ahead of the other. 

 

Likewise, it's important to look at the aptitudes for the job that might cause you to struggle. If a job is a good fit for overall, but it says I might struggle with the amount of spatial visualization required, that job moves way down, because that's an area that frustrates me to no end. 

 

I think it will be helpful, and my kids are both going to do it as well. If anyone has a specific question, I can try to answer. 

Edited July 28, 2017 by katilac

[MerryAtHope]

Wow, when did you do it? I paid $29 for one profile.

 

 

This was 3 years ago (and there were 12 or 15 aptitude tests then), but wow, that's a huge price difference. Maybe they've changed somewhat, but still. I might actually contact them.

Edited July 28, 2017 by MerryAtHope

[katilac]

This was 3 years ago (and there were 12 or 15 aptitude tests then), but wow, that's a huge price difference. Maybe they've changed somewhat, but still. I might actually contact them.

 

There are 15 different tests total: 4 personal approach, 6 aptitude, and 5 amplifiers (which build on the aptitude).

 

When I was unsuccessfully hunting for promo codes, I definitely did see old references to discounts on higher prices. There are no current discounts that I could find for the lower price, so maybe they switched their business model in addition to getting more efficient and stuff. 

[Guest]

I got my results yesterday, thanks for bringing it up in the other thread! Some comments below.

 

 

 

Wow, when did you do it? I paid $29 for one profile.

 

I'm still going over my report, but yes, I would recommend. I really like that it used tasks to evaluate skills, as opposed to self-reporting. For example, they had me look at a pattern on a dot grid page and then try to duplicate it on a blank dot grid page, which I think tested visual memory.

 

They test 6 aptitudes, and then assign you one of three categories within each aptitude. For example, in Inductive Reasoning I am categorized as a diagnostic problem solver, with the other two being investigator and fact checker. They told me several things that would be on the easy side for me in any job (keeping a fast pace, spotting an anomaly), and others that would be hard for me (staying focused on follow-up). I liked the specific examples for each one.

 

There are optional tests called Amplifiers that test more specific tasks like pattern memory and hand-eye coordination, and they are supposed to refine your results. I would definitely do them, although I *think* you might have a limited time to start them after finishing the basic portion (a timer flashed on the screen, but I didn't really look at it bc I went straight to the tests). For everything else, they save your results and you can finish at another time.

 

So your aptitudes, interests, and work approach are detailed in a 40-page report, along with what the results might mean in your school, social, and work lives. Lots of specifics and examples.

 

Then you can go to the career area and explore different careers. You can choose to filter your results by overall fit, aptitude only, or interest only. You can also filter by how much interest is needed. Fits are strong, good, fair, or weak. Click on a match and it tells you which of your aptitudes match this career - it lists two main ones and also does a comparison of the level of each aptitude needed versus the level you have in that aptitude.

 

The detail helps me. Two jobs may both be strong fits, but I'm suited for one because of my numerical reasoning and another because of my sequential reasoning. I know that utilizing my sequential reasoning style interests me more, so that job moves ahead of the other.

 

Likewise, it's important to look at the aptitudes for the job that might cause you to struggle. If a job is a good fit for overall, but it says I might struggle with the amount of spatial visualization required, that job moves way down, because that's an area that frustrates me to no end.

 

I think it will be helpful, and my kids are both going to do it as well. If anyone has a specific question, I can try to answer.

I ended up doing one for myself and my DS17 did one, too. I thought it was amazing! I only a little bit jokingly say that it figures my DS' strong fit careers are all these things with a salary range in six digits, but requiring only a Bachelor's (or less!), while all my strong fit careers are Masters or Doctorate necessary and some of them are not even big dollar jobs. Our household joke now is that he's going to become an Aquaculturist. Skip college and go directly to an $80k career.

 

But it was interesting that my strongest fit careers are the ones I am most attracted to as well.

[katilac]

 But it was interesting that my strongest fit careers are the ones I am most attracted to as well.

 

Some of mine are not ones that I am traditionally attracted to, but when I drill down I can see why they were recommended. Accounting, for example: good skill match, good personality match in terms of following rules and being organized. 

 

I've had no prior interest in it, and was pretty "meh" about the description and details. However, if I look at things that require more training and experience, financial fraud detection is high on the list, with a few similar ones, and that I do find much more interesting. So, the combination of recommendations would make a lot of sense for a younger person with time to work their way up from accounting to auditing or financial fraud investigation. 

 

And, accounting-type jobs are actually an excellent suggestion for my strengths and time-frame, so I'm glad it was a suggestion. I know that I can get a job in that area fairly quickly around here, without a ton of training, which may wind up being the operative details!

Edited August 14, 2017 by katilac

[Hoggirl]

So, do you all think this would be beneficial for someone beginning to explore "encore" careers?

[katilac]

So, do you all think this would be beneficial for someone beginning to explore "encore" careers?

 

That is exactly what I used it for. If you are 50+ like me, you are going to have fewer results to actually take action on, simply because of time constraints and payoff considerations - setting aside all thoughts of age discrimination, I'm not prepared to pay for a new bachelor's and then spend 5-10 years working my way up to the interesting stuff, lol. 

 

But it did give me some avenues to explore in my situation, and I definitely felt it was worth $29. 

Edited August 14, 2017 by katilac

[Guest]

That is exactly what I used it for. If you are 50+ like me, you are going to have fewer results to actually take action on, simply because of time constraints and payoff considerations - setting aside all thoughts of age discrimination, I'm not prepared to pay for a new bachelor's and then spend 5-10 years working my way up to the interesting stuff, lol.

 

But it did give me some avenues to explore in my situation, and I definitely felt it was worth $29.

Yes, same here. It's a little crishing to see things I would love to pursue but which don't make much sense now.

[Hoggirl]

Thanks!