A fairly large number of our students have transferred from another institution at some point or another, so we're working with all those variables. The eight abilities are what defines for us a liberal arts education. They're an arbitrary set. They could be broken out in a variety of ways, but what's important is that all faculty agreed on them for all students. Problem solving and analytical thinking are similar but different.
Problem solving is a very active way of making sense of the world.
Analysis or critical thinking is a more reflective way of making sense out of the world. Another important ability is valuing and decision making , not to be confused with holding a particular set of values. Unless you have mined everybody's collective wisdom, then you may come to a consensus, but it may not be a good decision. Coming to consensus by itself is not a virtue. In fact, it can be peacemaking of a very negative sort.