CheckIt Professional Guidance provides clarification, fuels ambition, and drives achievement

Often, young college students appear anxious, depressed, and their grades suffer. Family members are left scratching their heads and asking, “Why is my child, who did so well in high school, struggling to succeed in college?” Sometimes these students are characterized as having a mental illness and their parents even question if they “missed” identifying a learning disability when their son or daughter was younger.

Fortunately, there is often a simpler and less pathological explanation for the struggles of so many young college students. Put simply: they have no clue what they want to do with their life! And who could blame them? Eighteen years of age, the typical age a student enters college, is an arbitrary and even premature age at which young students are compelled to decide a college major and career direction. The pressure is immense and students commonly select majors that they have no passion for, lack the skills for, or even find distressing (e.g., a socially anxious 18-year-old who unwittingly selects communication as their major because they think it’s “easy” without realizing there is a heavy public speaking component). In any event, these ill-selected college majors can lead to poor attendance, failing grades, and a general sense of disillusionment with school.

So how can a CheckIt Psychoeducational Evaluation help?

A CheckIt Psychoeducational Professional Guidance Assessment is multi-faceted. First, like a general psychoeducational assessment battery data will be collected that can identify intellectual strengths and academic skill variations that will inform college major choice. For instance, a superior range Verbal IQ score may suggest that a student has a proclivity for law. Alternately, an above average Perceptual Reasoning Index (a measure of non-verbal IQ) can suggest that a student may find success pursuing medicine. Academically speaking, a CheckIt Assessment can determine strengths and weaknesses in reading, math, and written language, and can identify why a student may be struggling in a given area. For instance, a student who has dreamed of engineering may believe they are not good at math. However, a CheckIt evaluation may reveal that the student has a form of inattention that leads to careless errors in math (and resulting poor grades), while they actually possess innately superior math abilities. Thus, by identifying why they are struggling in math and providing an explanation, the student can remediate their weakness and ultimately pursue their dream of being an engineer.

But evaluating cognitive and academic skillsets is only one piece of the evaluation. At CheckIt, we also possess the ability to assess aptitude, career-oriented personality traits, and “best fit” career choices. We do this by having the student complete an individually tailored and powerful set of personality tests, interest and aptitude surveys, and career assessment batteries. Through these assessments we can determine a career that suits the student’s personality (e.g., a shy student who requires alone time to “recharge,” and who is also good at math, may be suited to work as an accountant verses an investment banker); their aptitudes (e.g., determining that a student will find most success in a career that involves a strong writing component); and their interests (e.g., correlating a student’s interest profile with similar others who report satisfaction with their current job).

Do not suffer through repeated major changes and academic probations

It is easy to see why this comprehensive assessment will bring clarity. Take a student who is languishing as an English major and is becoming depressed. They undergo a CheckIt Professional Guidance Package and learn that they are stronger at math and science, tend to perform better in “hands on” types of jobs, and have personality similarities with people who conduct research and work in the biological sciences. Based upon this information, they switch their major to biology and set a course towards becoming a biology professor.

In the above example, the student was not depressed, they did not have learning issue, they simply had not formed a cohesive academic and career plan based upon statistically derived information. If you are student who is confused about your college major, or you have a son or daughter who is not succeeding in college, then please contact us about our professional guidance services. Goal clarification, motivation, and collegiate and career success can be achieved through our efficient and powerful evaluation.