I first came across the following 8th grade test posted on the soc.culture.irish newsgroup. So much has changed in only a little over a 100 years, and that is quite evident in the subject matter of the test. Good grammar and knowledge of geography were obviously considered more important than they are today, and the math questions were of a very practical nature. Doing well on this test meant you were well prepared to succeed in the business of the day which at least in the midwest was probably going to have something to do with farming, but it also meant that you would be able to correspond with others using the written word and that you had a basic knowledge of American as well as Earth history.

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Its very rare that I bother with these little internet quizzes, but I’ve always had a particular interest in the wide variety of American accents, so this one sucked me in good. I grew up on Long Island, but I’m from what used to be called ‘the sticks’ which means not far enough in to be a city kid and not far enough out to be fashionable. The quiz is very simple, but surprisingly accurate, I think.
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One of the most common things I’ve seen passed around on Myspace is the quiz. Either posted into their profile someplace or sent to their friends as a ‘bulletin’ (translation: spam) the quiz is a short set of questions which are, more often than not, random and trivial, but somehow supposedly intended to reveal your inner personality in 5 questions or less. It’s been amazing to me over the several months I’ve been checking in here how grown men I know will actually take the time to carefully answer all of the questions, and then thoughtfully provide these personal answers to me gratis! I’ll be sure to pass all the info on to the owner of this site, Rupert Murdoch in case any of it will help him market to you better. Needless to say, I very rarely respond to such spam – however, I do occasionally find myself in an introspective mood.

If you’re interested in trying a sophisticated personality test online, you might try the Jung Typology Test. While not universally accepted, the test, developed during WWII based on the psychological types of Carl Jung, is used an an indicator in areas of pedagogy, group dynamics, employee training, leadership training, marriage counseling, and personal development. You can get more details about the test at Wikipedia.

Answering the questions places you in one of several dichotomies (A dichotomy is a division of two mutually exclusive groups, or in this case, type preferences). The dichotomies include four groups:

• Extroversion / Introversion
• Sensing / iNtuition
• Thinking / Feeling
• Judging / Perceiving

After answering the questions, your answers will place you into one of 16 different types which are the combinations of the four dichotomies. I, for example ended up as a supposed iNTj, otherwise known as the Mastermind Rational. I read the entire description out loud to my wife.

She laughed at me.