Chapter 1
Graduate psychometric tests
I have been accepted by Procter & Gamble for a graduate position, so after 60 applications the search for a job is finally over. I am due to start work in October, which gives me time to go travelling, so I have booked a trip to the Far East, travelling to China, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand and ending in Singapore. Itās scary to imagine but I am actually going to work.
(A graduate candidate)
Psychometric tests are multiple-choice or short-answer tests completed online or with paper and pen. Graduate candidates should concern themselves with two principal types: tests of ability and personality questionnaires. Both are designed by occupational psychologists to apply standardized scientific methods and statistical techniques to provide a numerical measurement of the extent to which you demonstrate a particular trait or set of traits. These tests are used in a host of applications: for example, to select people for redundancy, diagnose peopleās strengths and weaknesses, allocate staff to the most appropriate tasks, identify training need and recruitment.
In recruitment ā and in graduate recruitment in particular ā psychometric tests are competitions; there are invariably more applicants than positions. The ability tests are also tests of endurance. They comprise a series or battery of tests sat one after the other, often against tight constraints. To complete the whole battery can take a number of hours and when you finish, you should feel worn out. I say āshouldā because you have to apply yourself and really go for it if you are going to show your full potential and stand out from the crowd.
As a graduate you are bound to come across these tests in your search for work. If you are making a whole series of applications to most or all of the graduate recruitment campaigns, then it is likely that you will sit the same test a number of times.
The challenge of open and fair recruitment
A lot of good candidates are put off by tests and a lot more candidates fail to show their true potential in them. Test authors and employers go to considerable lengths to reassure us that their tests are objective and reliable and that they afford the selection of candidates with the potential to succeed in the given career or position.
From an employerās perspective, recruitment is a notoriously difficult business. Bad decisions and bad recruitment practice carry risks of damaging a business and may be open to legal challenge. To attract good applicants, many employers advertise their vacancies widely. To help to scrutinize large numbers of applicants objectively, employers use tools such as psychometric tests.
You, the candidate, will naturally try to get the best possible score and cover up any area of weakness when taking a test. The test author on the other hand must produce a test that offers as an objective an assessment of a candidateās ability while the candidate is trying to distort the outcome.
All tests should be recognized as less than perfect. This is because before a test can predict potential job performance, there first has to be a set of criteria against which to assess each candidate. However, job performance is a complex tapestry of factors and influences that is very hard to quantify numerically. Tests therefore risk attributing to the workplace too simplistic a set of performance indicators. Things are made more complex by the fact that their content ā the questions ā do not exactly measure the behavioural traits under investigation and inadvertently measure traits that are irrelevant to the post.
The introduction of cut-off points to reduce the number of people who pass through to the next stage in a recruitment process adds to the imperfection. It is usual for a company to reject candidates who do not beat a particular score. Alternatively, they fix an upper limit on the number of applicants allowed through. Such cut-off points create problems because they result in the rejection of many candidates who have the potential to do the job. The fact that tests are unavoidably imperfect also means that they will inadvertently overestimate the potential of some candidates who will be allowed through to the next stage.
It is important that you realize that when test authors talk about the objectivity of their test, they mean something quantifiably different from the objectivity obtained in the natural sciences. By āobjectiveā they mean that their test is more objective than alternative recruitment and selection methods. They might mean, for example, that their test is more reliable at predicting job performance than, say, an interview.
The maximum benefit of practice in ability tests
Taking a psychometric test is not a matter of simply rolling up your sleeve and putting up with the discomfort of the needle while the scientist takes a sample. There is no ambiguity attached to a blood-type classification; there is very little prospect of its changing according to the circumstances on the day on which the sample was taken. The objectivity of psychometric tests is quantifiably different. They are at best only indicators of potential. Had you not been suffering from a cold, had you been more familiar with the test conditions, been less nervous, better practised in mental arithmetic, not made that silly mistakeā¦ then you might have been classified differently. You might have passed something that, in the event, you failed.
Psychometric tests lack the certainty associated with the natural sciences. Accordingly, you, the subject, have considerable influence over the outcome. To a large extent the result will come down to the approach you take and how much you prepare.
Everyone, if they practise, can improve their test score. You can improve your score in every sort of test, even in a test where the questions are randomly selected so that they are different each time. The more interesting issue is not āCan I improve my score?ā but āCan I improve my score sufficiently to pass something I would otherwise have failed?ā The answer for most candidates is a resounding āyesā.
Practice is almost certain to ensure that the candidate who is otherwise likely to fail by only a few marks, passes. Candidates who have little previous experience of psychometric tests can through practice demonstrate a quite considerable improvement in their score. Typically, the biggest gains are achieved quickly, and then the rate of improvement slows.
Psychometric ability tests nearly always include numerical and English usage sub-tests. Depending on your graduate course of study, these are subjects you may not have studied for many years. Practice in advance of these challenges can most definitely mean the difference between pass and fail.
Finally, practice can help you become familiar with the often unusual manner in which these questions are posed. It can help build speed and accuracy and help deal with nervousness and improve accuracy.
How much and what kind of practice?
Practice works best with material that is as much like the real questions as possible. The employer should have sent you or directed you towards a description of the test and in many cases a source of practice questions. Study this information carefully and seek out much more, and harder, practice material that closely resembles it.
It is best if you undertake two sorts of practice. You should:
1 Practise without time constraint and in an informal relaxed situation. The aim of this practice is that you realize the demands of the questions, understand how to approach them, and gain speed and confidence in your ability to answer them.
2 Practise on realistic questions against a strict time constraint and under as realistic test conditions as you can organize. The aim of this sort of practice is to get used to answering the questions under pressure. This will help you avoid mistakes and become faster.
Over weeks, aim to undertake a minimum of 12 hoursā practice. If you can obtain sufficient practice material, then practise for as much as 20 hours. If you know that you need to make major gains in respect to your maths or English, then be prepared to commit significantly more time than this on a really quite major programme of work.
Your schedule of work should look something like this:
1 Study the test description.
2 Seek out as much free relevant material as you can.
3 Find further ā and, especially, harder ā practice questions from sources such as this and other titles in the Kogan Page testing series.
4 Go through practice questions at your own pace.
5 Set yourself a realistic practice test against a strict time limit.
6 Score your test and spend time understanding where you went wrong.
7 Undertake more practice without time constrictions, concentrating on the types of questions that you got wrong in your first practice test.
8 Sit further practice tests under strict timed conditions.
9 Repeat stage 7 as required.
If you are having any difficulty obtaining sufficient practice material or material of a certain type, then by all means contact me at [email protected] . If I know of any, then I will be more than happy to suggest sources.
You will find free practice tests (you have to register at the first two sites) at www.shl.com, www.PSL.co.uk, www.mypsychometrictests.com and www.mikebryon.com. Be aware, however, that these examples serve only to introduce the style of questions, and the questions in the real test may be quite a bit harder.
Test-taking strategies
Each kind of test requires a slightly different strategy. However, the following points about the approach that you should adopt are universal in that they apply to all psychometric tests of ability.
The best-scoring candidates are the ones who arrive prepared. You should be fully aware of the demands of each sub-test before you attend on the day. Prior to the start of the test the computer program or test administrator will allow you to practise on a number of example questions and explain to you the question types and time allowed. You should already be entirely familiar with this information. It will all be available prior to the day on leaflets, websites or free practice test downloads. Your programme of practice should have included all types of sub-test involved.
It is critical that you approach the test with confidence in your abilities. The candidates who do best are the ones who look forward to the challenge and the opportunity to demonstrate their abilities. They realize they have nothing to lose if they do their very best and āgo for itā. Preparation is the key to this.
It is essential that you keep track of time during the test and manage how long you spend on any one question. You must keep going right up to the end and, if it is possible (a few tests do not allow you to review your past answers), take the last few minutes to check your work.
You have to practise at getting the balance between speed and accuracy right. In many tests, to do well you have to work really quickly while making the minimum of mistakes. In some tests, time is really tight. You have to work pretty quickly in the Citigroup online numerical test, and the time limit is also tough in the numerical test used by Deloitte.
Remember, the negative effect of being under pressure to work quickly may be made worse if, understandably, y...