How useful is a personality test?

I found one via Triangulations I hadn’t heard of: O.C.E.A.N so obviously I had to give it a shot. I’m sure I answered honestly, but still was bummed over results.

And I admit right now I altered the colour of this to be a lot more sunny than the original pea soup colour existing on site.

So, to define my results:

Openness to Experience/Intellect: High scorers tend to be original, creative, curious, complex; Low scorers tend to be conventional, down to earth, narrow interests, uncreative.

You typically don’t seek out new experiences. (Your percentile: 59)

Well, I’m working on that at least. That’s part of what the whole Freethinkers thing is about. Get out, do something different and meet new people for a change. My rut is so deep I can barely see over it.

Conscientiousness: High scorers tend to be reliable, well-organized, self-disciplined, careful; Low scorers tend to be disorganized, undependable, negligent.

You tend to do things somewhat haphazardly. (Your percentile: 35)

Yeah, I’ll buy that. I’d prove it with photos of my level of apartment cleanliness but why embarrass myself. I think it comes down to priorities and I don’t see housecleaning as one of them. I could take a lot more care with the stickers I put on books at work and measure just so and carefully apply tape but I have so much to do it’d be a waste of my day to be that focused on identical tape strips and level application. I need to be quick, efficient, and accurate but perfectionism is not required. I don’t tend to be negligent or late, though. And if I say I’ll do something, I’ll follow through.

Extraversion: High scorers tend to be sociable, friendly, fun loving, talkative; Low scorers tend to be introverted, reserved, inhibited, quiet.

You tend to shy away from social situations. (Your percentile: 27)

And again, I’m working on it. I do spend too much time alone. Growing up most of my social stuff was with family and cousins will put up with a lot more weirdness than kids at school might. And I was a weird bird back then and shy about getting mocked by people whose opinions “mattered” to me in some way. Silly now. I should have just done what I liked instead of worrying about how much I’d be teased over the actors I liked (i.e. Wil Wheaton) or shows I watched (Fraggle Rock).

Agreeableness: High scorers tend to be good natured, sympathetic, forgiving, courteous; Low scorers tend to be critical, rude, harsh, callous.

You find it easy to express irritation with others. (Your percentile: 38)

This is the one that bugs me, but more because it’s true, I suppose. But I am good natured and courteous and I do have sympathy and some capacity of forgiveness. Just not enough, apparently. I can also choose to look at this as a good trait, at least in terms of not being willing to take shit from people and call it jam. If I’m bothered, there might be a real reason for it. It won’t be an overreaction every single time. Not by a long shot. And not every thing that happens in a day is going to cause me irritation. I’d get nothing accomplished if I groused about everything to everyone. Some things aren’t worth making a case over and can be dropped without a feather out of place.

Neuroticism: High scorers tend to be nervous, high-strung, insecure, worrying; Low scorers tend to be calm, relaxed, secure, hardy.

You are generally relaxed. (Your percentile: 37)

In this case a low score seems to be good. Awesome. It ties into the previous a bit, too. I could freak out over all the unknowns and unlikes and unappreciateds but why? It doesn’t fix anything. It doesn’t make anything better. All it does is eat up time better spent working and it ruins the time I set aside for fun.

Someone else do this test and let me know how it goes. Is it accurate, or do you feel it misrepresents what or who you are? How does it relate to any other tests you’ve tried? I don’t remember what I scored last time I played with the Myers-Briggs. INFJ, ISTP? I’ve been both at different times of my life. Maybe now I’d get something else. Thoughts?