So I took the S.A.T. this weekend, no not the one you take in your Junior year of high school. This is the Soundman Aptitude Test from Ear For Sound, Inc. Their philosophy is simple, Test then Train. You wouldn’t train a blind person to drive a school bus, so why would you train a “deaf” person to run a sound system.
We bought the 2 CD set to help us qualify volunteers who express an interest in the media team, in order to know what I am asking others to do I took the test first. This week I am going to have our other sound engineer take the test and last night I had my wife take the test. Not sure if she was completely interested in being a volunteer but this let me know how much instruction she will need to be able to cover me when I have to leave the board for a bit. Or who knows maybe I can get her to go early and setup and I will come later with the kids, wait - who am I kidding, that is too much work!
Anyway, the test is a personal listening test. So a good pair of headphones is really a necessity and it is best to be able to do the test where you won’t be interrupted - in a house with four kids that means after bedtime and even that isn’t a guarantee.
Scoring the test is broken into a couple of sections. Ear For Sound, Inc has had a lot of sound professionals review/take the test and based on the majority of takers there are 6 core questions and a second group of 5 questions, if you get all 11 correct then you are given a high recommendation, however if you miss anything in the core group the recommendation is that you spend some time working as an apprentice to an experienced soundperson until your listening skills have improved.
I know, you want to know how I did. Well out of the 11 “important” questions I missed one from the 6 core tracks. While listening to the answer/explanation CD I actually stopped it, and put the test CD back in to figure out how in the world I completely missed the right answer. All I can claim is that it must have been one of the three times that I was distracted during my test (that’s my story and I am sticking to it). I really have no idea how I missed one of the core questions, upon hearing the track again during the answer/explanation CD, even before they said anything I could hear what the issue was and couldn’t believe I had something else written down. But then again I am a drummer and being on key really isn’t a skill that I have had to develop to a great deal, and that is also the key reason why I got kicked out of the music department my first year of college… I can play it, I can write it, got the theories, just couldn’t hear it or sing it for nothing.
So, I highly recommend the Soundman Aptitude Test for anyone looking to qualify potential sound engineers in any setting. I think this will be some of the best $ we have spent.
update - I scored my wife’s test after she finished and we had near identical results. We missed the same question in the 6 core questions. The problem is there are a couple of things wrong with the track, the answer that the test is looking for is not the main problem with the track and given the severity of the example, it is within reason to assume that it is intentional. I plan on sending a comment to Ear For Sound. I still find the test very valuable but will grade it on my own curve.