What is a Psychometric Assessment?

Psychometric assessments are structured exercises designed to assess individual characteristics, abilities, or responses to different situations. They are usually in the form of multiple-choice questions and results are often compared to how others have scored previously, such as current or past employees.

When psychometric assessments are used during the recruitment process, the aim is to identify candidates who would be a suitable match for the role they are applying for.

Types of Assessment

 

Personality Assessments

The objective of personality assessments is to quantify individual personality traits or types. A personality trait is assumed to be an enduring feature that differentiates individuals from one another. Since personality represents the characteristic way in which a person responds to situations and to others, these tools are used to gather more information about predicting one’s suitability for a job and the traits are considered more or less useful depending on the job.

Aptitude and Ability Assessments

Aptitude and ability tests, unlike personality assessments, generally have definitive right and wrong answers and are administered to indicate candidates’ skills in relevant areas. For example:

  • Verbal ability tests appear in most aptitude tests to indicate one’s ability to communicate and understand verbal instructions.
  • Numerical ability tests are also common and indicate one’s ability to work with numbers, even if this isn’t a key feature of the job.
  • Abstract reasoning is used as an indication of fluid intelligence and speed of learning.
  • Mechanical reasoning tests are designed to test candidates’ knowledge of physical and mechanical principles and are often used for technical and engineering roles.

Preparing for a Psychometric Assessment

There are a number of things you can do in order to prepare if you’ve been invited for a psychometric assessment.

  • Ensure that you are well rested, you will need to be focused and alert so it’s important that you’re not fatigued when going for a psychometric assessment.
  • Make sure you let your test administrator know in advance if there are any facilities you require in order to sit the assessment. These can be arranged ahead of time.
  • If you are completing the assessment remotely, make sure that you are in a quiet location free from distractions and noise. In most cases you will need internet access so ensure that it’s reliable before you begin. It’s important that you do the assessment on your own without any help as results are often validated at a later stage and discrepancies could result in you being eliminated from the process.
  • Look up practice tests on line in order to familiarise yourself with their appearance, format, etc…
  • Before the assessment begins, ensure you understand the instructions thoroughly. If there is something you are not sure about ask the assessment administrator, that’s what they are there for!
  • Once the assessment begins, take note of the time limits given for each section. The objective is to work as quickly and as accurately as you can.
  • Do not spend too much time on any one question, it’s important that you use your time wisely. If you get stuck on a question, mark your best answer and move on.

Best of luck!

Nicola Larkin,
Organisational Psychologist & Senior Recruitment Consultant

Specialisation: Manufacturing & Production and Psychometric Assessments

Office: Galway

Nicola is an Organisational Psychology professional with a Primary Psychology Degree and Higher Diploma from NUI Galway. She also holds a Master’s Degree in Work and Organisational Psychology from UL. Nicola specialises in contingent recruitment; designing and implementing the recruitment process for production operatives in client companies and managing these accounts.

 

Nicola has completed the level A and B psychometric training and profiling course and is a registered Psychometric practitioner with the British Psychological Society. She is responsible for psychometric assessments which CREGG Recruitment have developed; administering, scoring and preparing reports for clients.

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