Assignment frenzy 3 days to planned hand in...

I have spent the last 3 days doing lots of psychometric tests. I found "Psychometric Testing, 1000 ways to assess your personality, creativity, intelligence and lateral thinking" by Philip Carter and Ken Russell in the library on Tuesday and had a go with regard to my Personal Development portfolio... And have learned some intriguing things:
1. You come across a load of stuff like this in Women's and health and "awareness" magazines, I generally approach them with the attitude "something to do, but of course take the results with a pinch of salt as the science behind the tests is probably not very rigorous and at the end of the day they are likely to be preying on people's insecurities to try and sell more magazines" However I just assumed because this book came out of the university library the science would be valid, and the tests fair and have realistic results - no references at the back no author profile at the front - from a series of books "the IQ workout series" that's all I know. So why? Does this make them invalid I wondered? At this point I guess I could have given up but they are kind of addictive so I continued.
2. As the assumption is you are doing these tests to get a genuine profile they do not hid the questions that are going to give you obvious outcomes - makes marking nice and easy and reinforces the fact that you are doing this for yourself not to compare with others - plus I felt the lack of hiding made me more comfortable that there were no rights and wrongs - although the titles said what the test was about and sometimes you felt "well I'd like to be..." So it was tempting to tweak the answers.
3. As I worked my way through the tests I started to notice a clear gender bias... It was definitely assumed that the person completing the questionnaires was male, I suspect white, middle class lower management male and the conversion from the American to the British market was very shoddy.
4. I found the questions that gave a, b,c options gave a more true outline of me than the yes/no/don't know ones - but the latter had the most obvious of the bias outlined in 3 which would explain a lot.
5. I have no interest in the IQ tests - I gave up even trying them. This is slightly concerning as these are the kind of things potential employer tests are more likely to be, however I have always had little patience with these in newspapers etc. I did one spacial reasoning one (score - average) looked at the beginning of the logic one and gave up at that point. Shortly before this I had worked out 3 above and I suspect lost confidence in the validity of the book temporarily.

The above aside I do feel I have explored quite a lot about myself - the very surprised reactions of my partner and my housemate when told some of the results (especially ones I felt showed the underlying me rather than the public me) was enlightening - my housemate was somewhat sniffy about it all, "how do you fall into the average range on so many things? Seems wrong to me" and my partner was just plain "oh but it would be nice to think of you as..." unconstructive, although we did have an interesting discussion or two spinning off from the interpretation of things.

So what did I find...
Well in the pick which word describes you best tests I agreed strongly with the results - borderline balance/weak personality - key words both fitted, especially the "you are not exploring your potential to the full" (recurring theme it then transpires)
I scored as highly emotional - well yes in terms of this I was - however I haven't perceived myself as such because I'm not demonstrative, it puts a lot of my confusions into perspective. I think I should stop seeing myself as such a cold fish. However in the yes/no/don't know format I'm average emotional.
I scored less than satisfied with my life - at odds with much of the rest of the tests, but I think I most definitely am, mostly because the learning curve I'm on via this course has shown me how far short I am falling on potential so am at a turning point in life...
The next batch of tests were the pick a, b,c variety. These were useful -
confidence - generally OK and +ve. Tact - borderline extremely tactful! Really - I tend to remember the times I drop clangers and think of myself as being tactless, when in fact "direct" would be a better descriptor. I forget that yes, in the main, I am very considerate, and can be the soul of discretion and I do get upset at hurting other peoples feelings.
Came out as dead centre bi-lateral brain (see other section on feelings about right/left brain). This comments section was useful as it pointed out the problems of this - without the dominance of one side it is sometimes hard to interpret the wealth of data as nothing is dismissed, however it helps to see both the big picture and the details and helps widen options and give flexibility. Perhaps some day I should work on how to switch on and off the different modes...
Success - average potential, something to work on, average risk taker. Average saint/sinner - living life in the middle of right and wrong. Average night/day party person. Average imagination (it's what I think I am, just not what others say I am with their accusations of flights of fancy)
Shrinking Violet!!! Well, but again in terms of this yes I am - I just have the Mask that puts me to the fore. I think that the confidence issues skewed this one. Was average aggression which fits with the low "placid" on the assertiveness scores - This is me after 2 years work on that...
Optimism - mid band realist apparently Yeh! Sod all those people who say I'm a hopeless optimist, I always knew I had a realistic view of the world, just on the sunny edge of it that. I have above average humour, average worrier along with this.
I'm somewhat absent minded (yes, but it's random, in other respects I'm stunningly organised)
Aggression - generally on passive side, although can drag it up if necessary -
leadership qualities good - Conscientious team-player, patient, philosophical, I'd agree (words for the skills profile, that I wouldn't necessarily have identified otherwise)
Right Job? - bizarrely yes! However another one showed I liked to work, also it reminded me that yes I do actually like my job, I just recognise that I not really stretching myself and will start to regret it in a few years if I settle for this long term, the stagnation and if onlys will overwhelm me one day. Not very ambitious doesn't help I guess
Strong Sense of justice - yes I agree, however it says I'm average honesty/honorable and above average tolerance
It suggested I was very relaxed - clearly in big picture mode when answering that one!
Didn't try the creativity stuff - says a lot really! - the yes/no/don't know said slightly below average on this one.

Conclusions:
I think that it was a useful exercise despite my reservations about the validity of the tests. I got to circle lots of things and check of the results that suggest I'm pretty well balanced, I have areas to develop to fulfill my potential and I have lots of positive traits. No ones going to sell me many magazines exploiting my insecurities on this one. Maybe the gender bias worked in my favour after all... Seriously I have lots of food for thought and a healthy positive attitude to myself has been set to start the next bit - the skills profile. Very different from the one I had 3 days ago, and that is very very important. I really was not in a sensible place to do myself justice. And I also have a nice little exercise to look back on when I get attacks of inadequacy and "oh I don't want to think I'm that different" in future. RESULT!