Guidelines for Machine-Scoring Interpretation

This tutorial is designed to help you interpret the COPSystem results. You will need an examinee's summary results page and the COPSystem Comprehensive Career Guide.

The COPSystem Summary consists of five sections. It is designed to provide a visual presentation of an examinee's results profile for the COPS Interest Inventory, the CAPS ability battery, and the COPES work values survey. The last section is a comprehensive summary that integrates results from all three assessments to provide the examinee with a comprehensive career guidance plan.

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Section I. COPS - Interests

Occupational Interests - The top three highest interest career groups are presented in the blue box on the left side of the Summary.

These are the three highest percentile scores on the COPS Interest Inventory profile.

Sometimes a tie occurs among the top three career clusters.

Needs Assessment - This section lists all of the subject areas in which an examinee indicated they need help or additional information. The Needs Assessment Summary is presented in the form of two questions at the end of the COPS Interest Inventory. Examinees are asked to indicate either a 'yes' or 'no' to a list of 19 skills given the prompt "I need help in..." the following areas.

The complete COPS interest profile is shown in the shaded box, with a total raw score for each of the 14 career clusters printed in the left column next to the career cluster title.

A percentile is located at the end of the bar and represents an examinee's interest level compared to others at the same educational level.

For an interest score of 50, nearly half (or 50%) had a lower interest level on that particular cluster. The higher the score, the greater the interest is as compared to others at the same educational level. Typically, a score of 70% or higher indicates a very high degree of interest in a cluster. Whereas, a score of 25% or lower indicates a significantly lower level of interest.

Section II. CAPS - Abilities

Job Related Abilities - Plus symbols (+) represent occupational areas that are compatible with an examinee's skills and abilities.

This section provides an overview of the two results tables for the Career Ability Placement Survey (CAPS).

The CAPS CAREER PROFILE matches an examinee's ability level to the appropriate COPSystem career clusters. Each of the CAPS tests measure a specific ability that is related to the type of tasks commonly performed in the jobs that comprise each career cluster. This helps examinees identify their strengths and weaknesses in relation to the skills they will need to perform well at work.

Scores that appear in the white area of the table receive a plus (+) next to the career cluster that corresponds to that row.

Scores that appear in the upper-bound area of the lightly shaded portion also receive a plus.

When interpreting the profile, concentrate on the distance of the scores from the shaded area. The further the score is from the shaded area, the greater the likelihood that the examinee's ability level will enable them to succeed in jobs from that career cluster.

The CAPS ABILITY PROFILE shows an examinee's abilities compared to others at a similar educational level.

In the CAPS Ability Profile, scores are represented by a row of x's, rather than a single point. The row of x's represents a confidence interval- the actual score for the test is the mark in the middle of the band that represents the stanine score.

Stanine scores are percentile equivalent scores that indicate how the examinee's score compares to others at the same educational level. Stanines range from 1-9. Scores from 1 to 3 are below average, 4 to 6 arer average, and 7 to 9 are above average. If a score is a stanine 5, which is near the 50th percentile, about half (50 percent) of examinees who took the CAPS scored lower and half scored higher.

Which CAPS subtests are related to each career group?

Section III. COPES - work values

In the COPES profile, scores are represented by a line of x's. Scores falling to the left of the center show strength in values described on the left and scores to the right of center show strength in those values given on the right. Values scores farthest from the center on the left or right represent the most extreme values scores which are then related to the career clusters. The relationship of the COPES values to COPSystem clusters is listed in the COPES Manual. The COPSystem Comprehensive Career Guide includes a description of each of the COPES values.

Section IV. SUMMARY - Integrating Interests, Abilities, and Work Values

The final table in the COPSystem Summary printout is an integrated summary of interests, abilities, and values. The highest interests, abilities, and values scores are marked with a plus (+) to indicate the career clusters most relevant to the examinee.

Career Clusters with three plus marks should be considered for initial exploration because high levels of interests, abilities, and values have converged, which indicate a high degree of compatibility with jobs that comprise that career group.

Another recommendation is to have the examinee consider career areas that show high levels of interests and values. With additional training over time, areas that show relatively low ability scores may be improved. A convergence of interests and values, as shown by two plus marks, reveals important information that may be used to direct an examinee toward future career options.

Finally, counsel the examinee to consider the fourth or fifth highest scoring career clusters from SECTION I. Occupational interests play a critical role in an individual's future career choice. By beginning with a broad set of career options, the chances that an individual will benefit from career exploration and the research process increases because they are better able to identify jobs that are compatible with their view of themselves.

The SUMMARY section of the results printout integrates assessment scores from the COPS, CAPS, and COPES. This unique characteristic of the testing system allows an examinee to continue their career exploration process with a more holistic understanding of how their interests, values, and abilities converge in the world of work.

This career guide defines each career cluster, lists multiple examples of occupations, including related courses of study, and the skills and abilities required to perform these jobs successfully. Ideas and activities that foster a meaningful career exploration experience are also included in this important reference.