“Ever take the MMPI (Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory)”
I took that at an employment agency in around 1985. They said I scored the highest of anyone they’d tested. I thought it was fun.
I think you have confused the MMPI with another test. The MMPI is not scored high or low. It is used to evaluate your mental health.
The best I can do to describe it is that they ask you about 500 questions which are variations of a much smaller bank of questions.
By asking the same questions in various ways they presume to be able to judge; truthfulness, paranoia and other personality traits.
It is meant to be followed up with a session with a psychologist or psychiatrist.
I have had to take it every 5 years for the last 35 years to maintain my security clearance.
It takes about a half a day to complete the test and interview.
But some of the questions are really off the wall. One of memorable one is ‘Do you ever have black tarry stool?’. Of course there is the ‘Do you hate your mother’
In high school, I took the ASVAB and aced it. All summer long I had recruiters calling me. My friend and I took it to get out of class for a couple of hours.
I took the naval aviator aptitude test, and score the highest in the region.
I could not pass calculus with anything less than a C. It was boring to me.
Finance class? I ate that up. Statistics? Loved it.
I always knew I was “smart.” Throughout my grammar school days, I was grouped with seven other kids and we were accelerated because we were wrapping up elementary school by the start of fourth grade.
If we were in Russia at the time we would have been swept up by the state and taken to special schools.
But in the end, the group has ended up in variuos careers from police officers to bank Presidents. It has more to do with drive, interest, and personality. We all had similar capacity. We all had different personalities.
It was like we all had high performance engines. Some wanted them to be fine tunes race cars, while others were happy cruising down country roads. The “wunderkid” phenomenon of the 1960s would be an interesting read.