This website explains everything you need to know about the
psychometric tests used in recruitment and selection. Whether you
are faced with a
personality test, an
aptitude test or an
assessment center, you’ll find all of the information you need to
succeed.
Probably the most common question that people ask when they find
out that they are going to have to sit a test is ‘can psychometric
test examples help?’
There are two distinct types of psychometric test, and you need to
consider both separately.
Personality
Questionnaires, which try to measure aspects of your
personality, and
aptitude/ability tests which try to measure your intellectual
and reasoning abilities.
Personality
Questionnaires
There are three approaches that you can take to the
personality questionnaire. You can either be totally honest and
make no attempt to influence the outcome, you can try to determine
what characteristics you think the employer is looking for and try
to ‘fake’ the test accordingly, or you can learn enough about how
these tests work so that you can be honest whilst ensuring that
you don’t blow your chances because one aspect of your personality
comes over as too extreme or inappropriate.
The only sensible way to approach personality questionnaires to
learn enough about
how they work to make an informed decision
about which approach to take. If you are wondering whether these
tests can be relied on to be fair or whether you can influence the
outcome without being dishonest.
Aptitude Tests
Psychometric aptitude tests are made up of questions which can be
categorised as either: numeric, verbal, abstract, spatial or
mechanical. Some general psychometric tests contain questions of
different types in the same test whereas others may be specific.
For example a
verbal reasoning ability test will only contain
questions designed to measure your ability to understand and
interpret information presented in words.
If you are faced with a psychometric test as part of the job
selection process, then the first step you need to take is to ask
the employer what type of test or tests you are going to be given.
You should be given this information as a matter of course and you
should also be provided with some sample questions.
If you are wondering whether practicing for aptitude tests will
help, the answer is a very definite ‘yes’. Now, you may have heard
that it is very difficult to significantly improve your scores on
these tests. This view is debatable, but even if it were true you
do not need to achieve a significant improvement – a marginal one
will do!
This is because most aptitude tests have relatively few questions,
and the job candidates tend to obtain similar scores.
To illustrate this point, consider a typical aptitude test
consisting of 50 questions. Most of the candidates, who are a
similar group in terms of their educational background and
achievements, will score around 40. Some will score a few less and
some a few more. It is very unlikely that any of them will score
less than 35 marks or more than 45 marks. This means that ten
marks separates the lowest and the highest scores.
BUT, and this is the important bit, the scores will not be evenly
distributed. They will cluster around the average, as shown in the
diagram.
The percentile score refers to the percentage of candidates
with a lower mark. For example 40% of candidates scored less than
39 marks and 60% of candidates scored less than 41 marks. If a
someone is described as being at the 70th percentile then that
means 70% of the other candidates obtained a lower score. Or to
look at it another way, that person is in the ‘top’ 30% of people
who took the test.
Your score will often be compared to the other candidates on this
basis. In other words, if you scored 40 marks you will be at the
50th percentile and if you scored 43 marks you will be at the 90th
percentile. Just three marks will be the difference between being
seen as an average candidate (50th percentile) and an outstanding
candidate (90th percentile).
That is why practicing
psychometric test examples is crucial to
your success.
Go to pass psychometric tests
|
