Preparing for Psychometric Tests

Preparing for psychometric tests

Employers and careers services, amongst others, are increasingly aware of the value of psychometric tests. ‘Psychometric’ means the tests have been carefully developed to measure abilities, aptitudes, skills, interests or aspects of personality. The ones you will most commonly encounter are ‘ability’/‘aptitude’ tests or ‘personality’ measures.

THE ADANTAGES OF PSYCHOMETRIC TESTS

Psychometric tests are an additional opportunity to demonstrate your skills

In a careers or job interview, it is impossible to give the full picture of your skills and personality. A person’s c.v. and qualifications may say very little about them if their strengths lie in areas which are not covered by conventional qualifications. Certain skills are, in fact, better measured using carefully constructed psychometric tests (e.g. problem-solving, spatial ability).

Psychometric tests provide a fairer assessment of your skills

Psychometric tests provide an objective way of assessing your strengths and weaknesses. They are developed by trained psychologists using rigorous methods to ensure that the tests are unbiased and do not contain material which could favour certain candidates. The tests are ‘standardised’, meaning they have been tested on people of a similar age and background and performance is interpreted relative to that standard.

Psychometric tests are also objective in terms of scoring. Most tests use multiple-choice questions with set right and wrong answers, so there is no room for bias in marking.

Psychometric tests can help you understand more about your abilities

Psychometric tests are useful to employers because, having identified which skills or ‘competancies’ are necessary to perform well in a given job, psychologists can provide tests which are tailor-made to assess those skills.

Finding a ‘best-match’ between person and job is a two-way process, however; a psychometric test may suggest that you are