How to Align Life Skills to Academic Programs

When considering how to align your life skills with academic programs, it is important to understand your various abilities. According to psychologist David Wechsler's theory of IQ testing, individuals generally possess varying degrees of verbal proficiency, visual problem-solving skills and abstract reasoning abilities. Each of these areas may be aligned with academic tracks. Understanding your own intellectual strengths and weaknesses is key to creating the right alignment between school and life. Several everyday activities can help you figure out what you are good at.

Things You'll Need

• Two crossword puzzles of medium to difficult level
• 100-piece puzzle
• Stopwatch
• Deck of playing cards

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Instructions

Test Verbal, Visual and Abstract Reasoning Skills

• 1

  Test verbal ability by completing a medium- to difficult-level crossword puzzle. Record the amount of time it takes to complete each puzzle. A crossword puzzle measures verbal abilities in a few important ways. Solving the clues correctly shows verbal abstract reasoning skills, while knowing a particular word tests vocabulary. The speed at which you finish the crossword puzzle speaks to verbal processing speed and flexibility.

• 2

  Check visual problem-solving skills by completing a100-piece puzzle as quickly as possible. Record the time from start to finish. Putting together a puzzle reveals your visual problem-solving and reasoning ability. For instance, starting with edges and working inward versus trying to complete details instead of the whole speaks to efficient visual strategy-making. As with verbal tests, the speed at which a puzzle is completed measures processing speed.

• 3

  Measure abstract reasoning abilities by sorting a deck of cards in as many ways as possible. Use the stopwatch to record time from start to finish. Try and generate as many different ways to sort the cards as you can. For instance, sort by numbers or suits. Continue until you simply cannot come up with new categories. Though you have nothing to compare your results to per se, the length of time until you cannot generate new categories provides useful information about executive functioning and mental flexibility.

• 4

  After finishing the verbal, visual and abstract reasoning measures, use a piece of paper to compare your task completion times. Also note your feelings while completing each task. Rank your skills in order from strongest to weakest. This provides a quick estimate of intellectual aptitude.

• 5

  Make a list of academic programs you are considering and rank them from most interesting to least interesting. Compare this list to your skill set ranking and look for congruency. In their book, "A Compendium of Neuropsychological Tests," Esther Spreen and Otfried Strauss discuss the matching of intellectual skills and practical life. For instance, high verbal abilities will align best with programs involving literature, law or social sciences. Visual problem-solving matches well with programs such as biological sciences, architecture or art. Abstract reasoning abilities often flourish in tracks involving computer science or finance.