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XAMS
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SELF-RATING QUESTIONS
The self-rating sections of federal examinations are set up to look like multiple-choice tests and are timed
like tests, but they are not really tests at all. There are no right or wrong answers. You cannot study for
the self-rating questions; your preparation consists only of gathering statistical records from your school
years and thinking about what you achieved and when. On a typical self-rating section, you will find
questions about your best and worst grades in school and about your favorite and least favorite subjects,
questions about your extracurricular activities in school and college (if you went to college) and about
your participation in sports, and questions about attendance, part-time jobs, and leadership positions.
Other questions refer to your working life or school relationships. These questions ask what you think
your peers think of you; others ask similar questions with respect to your supervisors or teachers. The
questions ask how you think your teachers or employers might rate you on specific traits. Similar
questions ask you to suggest what your friends might say about you. Still other questions ask how you
rate yourself against others.
Some of these questions offer hard choices, but you do not have time to dwell on the answers. The self-
rating sections are timed in the same manner as test questions. Just answer honestly and to the best of your
ability. Do not try to second-guess and give the answers you think the examiners want. Some exams
include two separate self-rating sections to check for honesty. Even where there is only one such section,
it has built-in measures of general consistency.
There are no official self-rating sample questions. The following questions are representative.
1.
My favorite subject in high school was
(A) math.
(B) English.
(C) physical education.
(D) social studies.
(E) science.
2.
My GPA upon graduation from high school
(on a 4.0 scale) was
(A) lower than 2.51.
(B) 2.51 to 2.80.
(C) 2.81 to 3.25.
(D) 3.26 to 3.60.
(E) higher than 3.60.
3.
In my second year of high school, I was
absent
(A) never.
(B) not more than 3 days.
(C) 4 to 10 days.
(D) more often than 10 days.
(E) an amount that I do not recall.
4.
My best grades in high school were in
(A) art.
(B) math.
(C) English.
(D) social studies.
(E) music.
5.
While in high school, I participated in
(A) one sport.
(B) two sports and one other extracurricu-
lar activity.
(C) three nonathletic extracurricular
activities.
(D) no extracurricular activities.
(E) something other than the above.
6.
During my senior year in high school, I held
a paying job
(A) 0 hours a week.
(B) 1 to 5 hours a week.
(C) 6 to 10 hours a week.
(D) 11 to 16 hours a week.
(E) more than 16 hours a week.
7.
The number of semesters in which I failed a
course in high school was
(A) none.
(B) one.
(C) two or three.
(D) four or five.
(E) more than five
8.
In high school, I did volunteer work
(A) more than 10 hours a week.
(B) 5 to 10 hours a week on a regular basis.
(C) sporadically.
(D) seldom.
(E) not at all.
