In the last few years, we have witnessed a growing skepticism about the conventional devices for matching high school and college students to the right majors and careers. More and more, we recognize that students need help in reaching their decisions. College admissions officers decry the inadequacy of the tools available for their admissions decisions - grades, class rank, SAT results, the ACT test, student essays. They want a tool that is more incisive, more definitive, and more responsive to individual differences.

What about a test that measures a student's natural abilities - what about the Highlands Ability Battery (tHAB)? Why are so many counselors and advisors so reluctant to turn to an assessment that provides so many insights into a student's potential?

Because so little is available to educators to identify a student's natural abilities and to relate them to his or her career choices, the Highlands Company has asked two of its most experienced Affiliates to write a book describing the benefits of the Ability Battery. The book, Highlands: The Right Choice, by Leslie H. Martin and Kathleen T. Danelo, is specifically for students who want to discover or confirm a career direction that will make maximum use of their talents and abilities. No student wants to spend the four most crucial and formative years of her life only to discover at the end that she's in the wrong theatre on the wrong night with the wrong script.

Highlands: The Right Choice builds on a student's results on tHAB. The Battery requires the student to perform 19 hands-on worksamples online. At the end of the Battery, the student receives a 32-page report analyzing her results. The Report is interpreted during a two-hour feedback by a certified Highlands Affiliate and can be shared with the student's parents and advisors. Assessment, report, feedback, and Highlands: The Right Choice - the ideal process for putting a student on the right path.