An automated method of diagnosing professionally significant mental properties of the students choosing the profession of a driver has been developed. The test consists of the series of the problem tasks ("The Effective Shortcut" type), the successful solving of which is determined by the student's ability to correctly analyze conditional situations, to quikly make a decision and to implement it under the conditions of stress. The method is standardized. The estimation scale of the senior schoolchildren operative thinking development level is given in the article.