GOGSoc Episode VI: The GoG, the Bad and the Ugly

Debate topic:

MBTI - the thinking man's Cosmo quiz?

I just had a look at one but having spent all of the questions deciding what personality I would like to perceive myself as having conciously or otherwise - I failed to see the point in looking at the result and seeing it as anything other than falsely validating a particular self perception.

I used this http://www.personalitypathways.com/type_inventory.html
Took about a minute

Debate topic:

MBTI - the thinking man's Cosmo quiz?

I just had a look at one but having spent all of the questions deciding what personality I would like to perceive myself as having conciously or otherwise - I failed to see the point in looking at the result and seeing it as anything other than falsely validating a particular self perception.

One of the biggest adjustments for me was that before a PhD, you can hand in your work when you've had enough. You have the luxury of saying 'ok I don't care if this gets a 2.1, I'm finished with it now'. But at a PhD, nothing less than publishable standard is accepted. So if you hand something in that's sub par, it will come back to you again and again.
Also because the standard for completing a PhD, is publication standard, that also means that when you are accepted to a PhD, first class standard work is no longer a big deal. You don't get a clap on the back and respect. That is the minimum standard you are supposed to be operating at, so when you satisfy that basic requirement nobody is surprised or impressed. Its taken for granted, so they will just move to pointing out those areas that haven't made that minimum standard.
Furthermore, before a PhD, your education is structured so that you have regular feedback. This is because your qualification is broken up into different segments over time, and each receives an objective mark afterwards. There are no more marks at PhD, and apart from the transfer stage, there is no official assessment or grading of your work until the viva. So you go from having had regular evidence of your progress to absolutely nothing for three years. This can be very stressful and depressing, because in the past you would have been buoyed on by evidence of good grades. Now you just have to push yourself through on confidence. The only way to get good feedback is to go out on a limb and present at conferences or do something like blog.
You also realise that your supervisors aren't necessarily even able to indicate the grade of your work, since they will not necessarily be an expert in the niche you're carving, and in the context of trying to achieve peer review standard, their one or two opinions might not feel enough to really tell you much.

Debate topic:

MBTI - the thinking man's Cosmo quiz?

I just had a look at one but having spent all of the questions deciding what personality I would like to perceive myself as having conciously or otherwise - I failed to see the point in looking at the result and seeing it as anything other than falsely validating a particular self perception.

I've not done one of them either. Can anyone recommend a good site? Tried the BBC one but it didn't give me a category just some waffle.

What site did you use?

I haven't done a personality test

I've used this one:
http://www.humanmetrics.com/cgi-win/jtypes2.asp It agreed with my result from the official test

Debate topic:

MBTI - the thinking man's Cosmo quiz?

I just had a look at one but having spent all of the questions deciding what personality I would like to perceive myself as having conciously or otherwise - I failed to see the point in looking at the result and seeing it as anything other than falsely validating a particular self perception.

What a coincidence. I had an interview thing for some training I am being put forward for at work last Friday, and one of the first things I am supposed to do is a MBTI! Like you, I am conscious of my own self-perception. I know I am more outgoing at work than I am naturally because I see the benefits of having a mask I can put on and take off when needed.

OK peeps. Went to Liverpool today (I'm am SO FAR UP NORTH it is unreal ) and fell in love. I have to get into Liverpool Uni for my PhD. Somehow. Expect to be recruited/wailed at for/during the application process

That is the kind of thing that bugs me - when corporate types take that **** seriously and attempt to use it for anything in the workplace.

I always treat that sort of situation as BBB (bull**** baffles brains) and would thus tick all of the boxes at random.

Liverpool is okay. North? No. I am another 200 miles north of Liverpool, and then there is... Scotland!