Is it possible to score perfect on the Character Skills Snapshot?

Let’s suppose an adult took the CSS and answered non-truthfully, with the intent of getting demonstrating in every single category… Is that even possible? It seems like the way that the test is designed, which makes you basically prioritize certain traits over others, would prohibit you from getting demonstrating on all of the treats. Am I right?

Personally, I found the CSS accurate, and I did “well” if thats even possible on something like this. But, I have heard some crazy stories about it. I do think the whole thing is a little arbitrary, and I felt like it would have been easy to cheat the system. I also think that a persons personality, something so unique, is incredibly hard to measure through data and assign a number to. What are some other people’s overall thoghts on this examination?

I think you’d have to keep track of your answers and alternate between the concern for friends and intellectual curiosity answer. It seemed to me my daughter that those were pitted against each other the most. One AO told me I should take it, it’s fun! But I can’t cause I’m not the kid.

Yes, I think I’ve read people on here saying they were demonstrating in every category. I don’t know how you’d do that.

The point of the initial thread was more to create the discussion: Is the CSS valid? Or even, is it ethical? Do we blindly trust the computer to record something so difficult to define?

My guess is that schools are working with EMA to try to validate the CSS as a future tool. I suspect schools are not using it as a current admission tool. They are merely gathering CSS results on data points (our children) now. They cannot do so without permission, so they simply recommend it now. I suspect they will try to later correlate those results with a whole bunch of objective performance measures and see if the CSS is a valid tool. Then, it would become required. If they made it required now, without validation, they’d likely create a PR firestorm and find themselves in a law suit or two.

Just my guess.

Do I blindly trust the computer to record my daughter’s answers? Yes. The computer didn’t come up with the questions, people did. The computer is just a tool used to administer the test and record the results. Would your ethical question exist if it was a pencil and paper test?

@dogsmama1997 the question is less the computer itself, and more assigning a numerical value to something so not easily measurable.

@Altras I hope you are right. That’d be much better for everyone.

eeh, they’ve been quantifying personality forever, since the 40s or 50s. Probably earlier!

@dogsmama1997 True… I just hope this will never become as heavily weighted as something like the SATs are in college admissions.

I don’t think it could be unless there was a large chunk of data correlating results on the CSS to results in boarding school. That would take years along with a lot of work on the part of the schools.

I agree.

Mary Poppins is “Practically Perfect In Every Way” :bz FWIW maybe this Character Skills snapshot isn’t about a score…but maybe you can use those answers and the material down the road?

My son did his and I find the result completely off. I don’t know really know how some of the schools are using this as one of their applications criteria …

I think an overseas applicant mentioned he/she had a demonstrating on every category.

I believe Mother Teresa got a perfect score on her CSS,

For the record there is at least one day school that requires its submission. SwamiJr did fine, I guess, and we chose not to subnit the score to a couple of schools which considered CSS submission optional. We only submitted it where required.

Not saying that this person did, but people on anonymous internet fora have been known to lie.