MSCEIT is an ability-based scale that measures how well people perform tasks and solve emotional problems, as opposed to a scale that relies on an individual's subjective assessment of their perceived emotional skills. 

The Mayer-Salovey-Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test (MSCEIT™) is an assessment designed to measure the four branches of the emotional intelligence ability model.  MSCEIT is an ability-based scale that measures how well people perform tasks and solve emotional problems, as opposed to a scale that relies on an individual's subjective assessment of their perceived emotional skills. MSCEIT was developed from an intelligence-testing tradition formed by the emerging scientific understanding of emotions and their function and from the first published ability measure specifically intended to assess emotional intelligence, the Multifactor Emotional Intelligence Scale (MEIS).

Responses to MSCEIT represent actual abilities at solving emotional problems. This means that scores are relatively unaffected by self-concept, response set, emotional state, and other confounds. The theory of emotional intelligence is based on several key ideas, and, through empirical study and research the Four-Branch Model of emotional intelligence was established.

MSCEIT provides 15 main scores: Total EI score, two Area scores, four Branch scores, and eight Task scores. In addition to these 15 scores, there are three Supplemental scores.

The Four Branches of Emotional Intelligence
Perceiving Emotions: The ability to perceive emotions in oneself and others as well as in objects, art, stories, music, and other stimuli.

Facilitating Thought: The ability to generate, use, and feel emotion as necessary to communicate feelings or employ them in other cognitive processes.

Understanding Emotions: The ability to understand emotional information, to understand how emotions combine and progress through relationship transitions, and to appreciate such emotional meanings.

Managing Emotions: The ability to be open to feelings, and to modulate them in oneself and others so as to promote personal understanding and growth.