Are On-Line Skills Assessments Worthwhile?

Dagum writes: "A couple of weeks ago, I applied to expertcity.com to try making a couple of extra bucks. Since I have never gotten around to taking any certification tests in any technical areas, they directed me to brainbench.com to take a couple of free tests in a couple of choice categories. The tests are adaptive, and they are usually 40 questions each. Since then, mostly for curiosity, I've racked up about 27 of them, the titles of at least ten of which actually would make me sound intelligent. Barring the usual griping over 'paper certifications' versus real-world experience, I am curious if any other people have tried any of these tests, if anyone can compare their testing experiences with these tests, if anyone has used other free skills assessment tools on the Web, and the general impressions of other participants."