A critical thinking skills test will engage you in using your critical thinking.

 

To be a valid, a critical thinking skills test must enable a person with strong skills to reach the correct answer by applying those skills.  To do this, the test will typically use questions that present information in scenarios.  You, the test-taker, are then invited to analyze, interpret, evaluate, or draw a reasonable conclusion based on that information.  Good critical thinking tests typically do not require any specialized content knowledge or memorization of material.  Scoring well on tests of critical thinking skills often requires sustained cognitive engagement.  It is not a good idea to take a critical thinking skills test when you are tired or distracted, for example.

A critical thinking dispositions measure typically presents series of short statements. The statements express beliefs, intentions, values, and attitudes.  The person taking the survey is invited to express the extent to which they agree or disagree with each statement. A survey of a person’s critical thinking habits of mind typically can be completed quickly and easily.

• One good way to strengthen your critical thinking is by using the innovative and interactive online critical thinking personal development tools available at INSIGHT BASECAMP. The educational materials there include Skill Builders, Mindset Boosters, Deep Dives, Quizzes and Surveys. The product descriptions tell which critical thinking skills, mindset attributes, or facet of human reasoning and decision-making each product addresses.

• Another way to strengthen your critical thinking is by working through a critical thinking text book. We highly recommend THINK Critically by Dr. Peter Facione and Dr. Carol Gittens, two of our test authors. Follow this link THINK Critically for a webpage that describes the books content and then click on the book title on that webpage to go directly to Pearson Education for online subscription pricing.

Insight Assessment does not offer test-prep or practice-test materials directly targeting any of our specific assessment tools.  Because strong critical thinking is valuable in so many ways throughout a person’s life, we encourage everyone to build their critical thinking by using enduring educational tools like those available at INSIGHT BASECAMP.

 

• To gain an overview of critical thinking and how the skills and habits of mind go together in problem solving and decision making, we suggest “Critical Thinking: What It Is and Why It Counts,” which you can download from our website.

• Here are some college level sample thinking skills questions and sample mindset attributes items from our Resources library.