To best support our students in considering career pathways St Catherine’s School utilises a range of resources and tools. 

One such tool is the Morrisby Assessment undertaken by our Year 10 students each year. 

The Morrisby Assessment has been operating for over 50 years. The Assessment provides comprehensive testing, allowing for the collection and blending of data across three main areas; abilities and aptitudes, career interests and personality. The data can help provide well thought-through career suggestions, in addition to secondary school subject and post-school study options.  

To best understand the benefits of the Morrisby Assessment this article will explain what is involved during the assessment for our Year 10 students. 

Morrisby Assessment – What’s Involved?

Timed Section  

The timed section of the Morrisby Assessment includes: 

• Verbal reasoning (seeing links between concepts presented in words); 
• Numerical reasoning (qualitative thinking); 
• Abstract reasoning (understanding information presented in pictures and diagrams); and 
• Mechanical and spatial reasoning.  

These types of reasoning tests help determine differential ability. Rather than determining what a student can and cannot do, Morrisby results help to highlight what students are most suited to, largely aligning them with areas of Arts, Science, Commercial/Organisational Services, or into a balanced profile (all-rounders). 

Untimed Section 

The untimed section of the Morrisby Assessment involves the completion of a questionnaire that helps to gauge a student’s career interests, including the opportunity to nominate one’s talents, for example sports, music, arts. 

Although these responses are unable to be measured by the Morrisby Assessment, the talents nominated assist in career planning with the students.  

Personality Questionnaire 

Finally, a personality questionnaire poses questions to students to answer as if others were answering the questions about them, and how the students would like to act/behave/answer themselves. 

Accessing and Interpreting Morrisby Assessment Data 

All Morrisby Assessment results are provided in a password protected account. In the ‘About Me’ tab, a pattern of coloured bars is provided; orange for theoretical (verbal, numerical, abstract) and green for practical (spatial/mechanical) aptitudes or abilities. The patterning helps align the types of careers considered most suitable. 

At the bottom of the page, an overview provides an explanation of what has been measured and types of careers a student could be suited to.  

The overall results are broken down into focus areas: 

• Aptitudes 
• Interests 
• Work style 
• Workplace 
• Personality (how you think/feel/behave) 
• Priorities (preferences / motivations) 
• Learning styles 
• Study interests 

A student’s interests are separated into areas of careers working closely with people, those focused on handling information, or those working with real things that can be seen and touched. 

A ‘world of work chart’ is also available. This Chart highlights a student’s interests in a visual chart. It is important to compare a student’s main interests and their aptitude scores. Mismatches here allow for the opportunity to further speak through and clarify priority career areas to explore. When viewing the results it is important to focus on one’s strengths, rather than general scores.  

Under ‘My Choices’, careers will be listed that best match a student’s blend of aptitudes, interests, and personality. This can be set at an academic attainment level (i.e. straight out of school, diploma, Bachelor etc.). Career overviews including videos are provided, as are career pathways. Resources are also provided on this page, including links to professional bodies, national websites, and pay scale information.  

When considering an individual student’s results, it is important that the student considers whether the list confirms their ideas, suggests new ideas, appeals to them, and whether they favour any of them. If a student’s career interest is not listed, they can look those up in the search function. Altering between the interest and aptitude options under ‘Focus On’ can provide a feel for consistency of motivation and suitability to the career areas suggested.  

Benefits of Morrisby Assessments 

Morrisby Assessments help students along a journey of self-discovery that makes career guidance enjoyable, fun, worthwhile, and relevant for each individual student. 

The Assessments are unique to each student’s interests, aptitudes, and motivations. It provides discussion points for evaluating suitability and prepares students to make a supported and informed decision on career options.  

Through resources such as Morrisby, St Catherine’s School is supporting each of our girls to make informed decisions about their careers and future satisfaction and happiness.