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The Aptitude Test is a yearly assessment taken by every 16 year old. Test takers are injected with a variation of Simulation Serum. This serum, like others, will transform reality into an altered state in your mind, to help decide which faction you are, helping you choose which faction you belong to for the rest of your lives before permanently choosing the next day at the Choosing Ceremony.

This test is administered the day before initiation in school.

Examination[]

The Examination itself is taken by drinking a water-like serum which causes the initiate to hallucinate, during the hallucination they get two choices; knives or cheese (in the book, but in the movie it’s meat).

Ceremony[]

Choosing Ceremony is a ceremony where test-takers must choose which faction they will enter into. They can either leave their family and choose an entirely new faction or they can stay with them. Their Aptitude Test result is usually taken into account by the takers, but the final decision is left up to them.

Administration[]

Test[]

The tests are administered every year to children reaching the age of sixteen which is considered adulthood in Divergent. The test cannot be administered by a member of the teenager's own faction, so the volunteer test evaluators usually consist of eight Abnegation, who test the non-Abnegation teenagers, with two evaluators from the other four factions to test the two Abnegation-born ones, since ten tests are taken simultaneously. One non-Abnegation test evaluate is Tori, who is Dauntless and performs Tris' test and hides the secret that her results show she is Divergent.

Before the test

before the test

Rooms[]

There are 10 rooms for aptitude tests. Two from each faction are called in at a time. The administrators are mostly Abnegation volunteers, but there are two from other factions to do the Abnegation, as the rules state that you cannot be tested by someone from your own faction.

Simulation And The Scenarios[]

In the simulation it is through the process of elimination after each of the stages, that determines what faction are you, example:

First: On one of the tables, there are two baskets, one of which has a wedge of cheese in it, and the other one, which has a knife. Then you hear a woman's voice yell 'Choose!'. Dauntless often choose the knife and Amity often choose the cheese.

In Beatrice Prior's case she refuses to choose either and submits to the dog that occurs, an Erudite response, and when a child appears and the dog runs at her, Beatrice throws herself at the dog - a Dauntless and Abnegation response. 

(In further detail) Then, a vicious-looking dog appears and begins to chase you. If you remain calm, the dog will walk up to you and start licking your face, its aggressive manner melting away. If you use you calm the dog in an intelligent way, you might be Erudite.Then a little girl in a white dress appears on the other side of the room. She screams 'Puppy!' and starts to run towards the animal right as it bares its teeth and sties to pounce on her. If you're Dauntless, you chase and jump, and use the knife to kill the dog. If you're Abnegation, then you protect the child from any harm, usually by jumping in between the girl and the dog. If you're Amity, you feed the cheese block to the dog trying to help diffuse the tension. (This full scene is also in the film).

Another simulation scenario includes one on a bus where a burnt (scarred) man reading a newspaper asks you if you know the man featured on the front page, If you do not admit to knowing the culprit, that eliminates you as Candor. 

(In further detail)  

There’s also the bus scene, in which the man says 'Do you know this guy?' (and shows an image of the person in a newspaper that says "Brutal Murderer Finally Apprehended"). You get a feeling that the person in the photo is familiar to you, but that it will be a 'very bad idea' if you tell him. You can sense that something terrible will happen to you. If you'reCandor, you tell the truth, that you do know this man. If you say 'no', then the man says in an abrasive tone that you are lying. If you deny this again the man will say, 'If you know him, you could save me!' If you say yes to the man now, then you are most likely Abnegation. Then your aptitude test is concluded. 

 

Results[]

If the test is inconclusive, resulting in the elimination of only three or less factions, the taker is either a Divergent or knows what to do in order to appear as one. In Tris' case, only two were eliminated, with the other three being inconclusive as well because of her contradicting decisions and her refusal to make a choice in the beginning, ending up with an equal apr aptitude test, and having an aptitude for three factions.

The results that the teenagers could have[]

  • Abnegation - They are considered selfless.
  • Amity - They value kindness, nature, and peace.
  • Candor - They feel the truth should be shared and refuse to lie, black and white thinking.
  • Dauntless - They are considered brave and daring.
  • Erudite - They are considered curious and intelligent.
  • Divergent - They don't fit into the faction society, and therefore threaten the faction system. Less able to be controlled. Although, being Divergent was originally supposed to be a good thing.

Which faction did you get?[]

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