History Main / HiddenPurposeTest

* Officials wanting to become civil servants in the Imperial Chinese Bureaucracy often had to pass extremely difficult and esoteric exams requiring precise forms of answer on irrelevant subjects. They weren't looking for your knowledge of the useless subjects--they were looking for your ability to master and apply a technical skill. This was so they could slot you in wherever you were needed--for China's famed bureaucracy was not very large at all (contrary to stereotype.)

* In the ''Series/LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnit'' episode [[Recap/LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnitS7E1Demons "Demons"]], Elliot must pretend to be a pedophile to [[PedoHunt help root out another]], and Huang is coaching him on how to fake a psychological test where they will show them various images and ask them to rate them. Elliot starts saying that it's obvious, then realizes that, no, an actual pedophile '''wouldn't''' rate the kids higher, then pauses. Then Huang tells him that the scores they give are irrelevant, [[DistractedByTheSexy the test measures how long you spend watching each image]].

* ''[[Literature/WhateleyUniverse Whateley]]'' recently had its own version of the Kobayashi Maru. However, [[UnwinnableTrainingSimulation the test's purpose is the same]]. Teach Team Kimba that they cannot win everything. They were hit with a TotalPartyKill.
** In her first year and a half at Whateley, [[RulesLawyer Loophole]] had been so careful to avoid confrontation that her mutant powers remained only partly active, and she fought in court to be legally considered a baseline human. In the first Combat Final of her sophomore year, she goes so far as to [[TakeAThirdOption refuse to fight, and talks her opponent into joining her]]. This leads Gunny Bardue, the adminstrator of the Combat Final, to change the parameters of the test: instead of facing each other, they would instead be attacked by simulated opponents ''with the safeties off'' (he does turn them back on partway through, but doesn't tell them that). His real goal is to [[DieOrFly force Loophole's mutation to fully activate]] - [[BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor which it does]] - but she's only told about that part afterwards. In a half-twist, she ''still'' manages to get away with TakingAThirdOption by using her {{Technopath}} powers to attack the simulation rather than fighting their opponents, but the only reason she's given a passing grade - despite having cheated - is that it provided the powers researchers a wealth of new information about mutant activation.

** Discussed in [[https://youtu.be/UoMaxMPGU3s?feature=shared a vide by Dewayne Noel]] of Dry Creek Wrangler School, in a video called "The Test is NOT the Test". Noel reapplied to be a police officer in Alaska after many years away from the force, which [[MildlyMilitary wasn't a military unit but mostly run like one]]. Early in training, the recruits were given [[ImpossibleTask a list of tasks so long that there was no way to complete it]]. And even if they somehow did, [[ScrewTheRulesIMakeThem the veteran officers would just find ways to fail the recruits]], such as telling a recruit to clean a room and then pulling dryer lint from their own pocket as "evidence" that the room wasn't clean. Noel already figured out what was going on, which he explained to the younger recruits: the test wasn't whether or not the recruit could get the task list done, but instead what the recruit prioritized and how they responded to failure. Noel knew this because, much as he had done before, the recruits were going to be sent to remote towns in Alaska where they would basically be the only law enforcement for miles, and had to learn what was important to take care of first.

* ''Series/{{Castle}}'': In the seventh season finale, Detective Kate Beckett fields some harsh questions from the police commissioner regarding her relationship with Richard Castle, as part of her captain's exam. After Beckett passionately defends her conviction record and her love for Richard, the commissioner admits that his questions were a way of testing how she deals under stress, and reveals that he wants her to consider a run for state senate.

** In "Thine Own Self", Deanna Troi repeatedly takes — and fails — the bridge officer's test, unable to come up with {{Technobabble}} fast enough to keep the ship from exploding during the holodeck simulation. She's only able to succeed when she realizes that the test is not whether she can memorize minutiae about the ship's operation but [[TheChainsOfCommanding whether she can order someone who has the necessary knowledge to do the task knowing they'll die doing so.]]

* Creator/RobertAHeinlein's ''Literature/SpaceCadet'':

* Whateley recently had its own version of the Kobayashi Maru. However, [[UnwinnableTrainingSimulation the test's purpose is the same]]. Teach Team Kimba that they cannot win everything. They were hit with a TotalPartyKill.

* In episode six of ''Mad Mad House'', a short-lived [=SyFy=] Channel reality show in which contestants are voted out by five alternate-lifestyle adherents, the contestants were challenged to select who'd be eliminated next. After the contestants all reveal their choices, the "Alts" announce that ''no one'' is being voted out that day: it was staged so that the Alts could gain more insight into the players' thinking.