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Ability Areas

Ability Areas & Required Proficiency Explanation

Learn about the abilities which are most important for the selected profession. Do you need to be good with numbers or comfortable communicating your ideas orally? Do you need to be physically fit?

Each ability is given two scores of 0-100. The first score indicates how important a given ability is for success in the profession. The second score indicates the level of proficiency needed. The proficiency score is accompanied by a scale that helps you interpret the score.

Ability Area Scores

Oral Expression
The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.

Cancel newspaper delivery by phone	Give instructions to a lost motorist	Explain advanced principles of genetics to college freshmen

Speech Clarity
The ability to speak clearly so others can understand you.

Call numbers in a bingo game	Make announcements over the loudspeaker at a sports event	Give a lecture to a large audience

Oral Comprehension
The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.

Understand a television commercial	Understand a coach's oral instructions for a sport	Understand a lecture on advanced physics

Written Comprehension
The ability to read and understand information and ideas presented in writing.

Understand signs on the highway	Understand an apartment lease	Understand an instruction book on repairing missile guidance systems

Speech Recognition
The ability to identify and understand the speech of another person.

Recognize the voice of a coworker	Identify a former customer's voice over the telephone	Understand a speech presented by someone with a strange accent

Written Expression
The ability to communicate information and ideas in writing so others will understand.

Write a note to remind someone to take food out of the freezer	Write a job recommendation for a subordinate	Write an advanced economics textbook

Originality
The ability to come up with unusual or clever ideas about a given topic or situation, or to develop creative ways to solve a problem.

Use a credit card to open a locked door	Redesign job tasks to be interesting for employees	Invent a new type of man-made fiber

Near Vision
The ability to see details at close range (within a few feet of the observer).

Read dials on the dashboard of a car	Read the fine print of a legal document	Detect minor defects in a diamond

Information Ordering
The ability to arrange things or actions in a certain order or pattern according to a specific rule or set of rules (e.g., patterns of numbers, letters, words, pictures, mathematical operations).

Put things in numerical order	Follow the correct steps to make change	Assemble a nuclear warhead

Inductive Reasoning
The ability to combine pieces of information to form general rules or conclusions (includes finding a relationship among seemingly unrelated events).

Decide what to wear based on the weather report	Determine the prime suspect based on crime scene evidence	Diagnose a disease using results of many different lab tests