Richmond Solutions' quick guide to preparing for psychometric and personality tests.

1. Psychometric tests:
Preparation and why
there’s nothing to fear
by Heidi Nicholson, Richmond Solutions and
Stephenie Curnock, Amber Occupational Psychology Solutions
Let’s begin >>
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2. Be yourself...
There’s a lot less to remember
.
In our time we have been asked by friends, “so how do I make A recent CIPD survey showed that 35% of
myself look really good in these tests?” The spur for the businesses now use a combination of interviews and
question is invariably that someone has been confronted by psychometrics when recruiting for a role and research
having to do psychometric tests for the first time. They are an suggests that this combined approach increases the
unknown, and as a result the people posing the question are likelihood of employing the best candidate.
fearful that the tests will reveal a side to their character they Psychometrics are typically used to corroborate other
would rather not discuss or, worse still, that they will not be parts of the selection procedure, not supersede it.
offered the job on the strength of performance in the tests
alone. The second bit of good news is
that effective preparation
Psychometrics assessments fall in to two main categories – can help.
aptitude tests, which assess cognitive capacity such as numerical
and verbal reasoning ability, and personality questionnaires
which assess behavioural and motivation characteristics.
The first bit of good news is that it is highly unlikely that you
will lose a job opportunity on the strength of the psychometric
tests alone.
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3. Improving your performance
on aptitude tests
Aptitude Tests comprise of multiple choice Therefore with several factors different affecting shown to reduce errors made when completing
questions, each question having one correct answer. performance on aptitude tests, the strategies you subsequent tests. Reducing test anxiety means there
They are designed to measure an individual’s employ to help you perform at your best will largely is more ‘mental energy’ available during the test for
capacity to think logically and solve problems depend on the time you have before the test. It may reasoning activities rather than being wasted on
independent of prior knowledge (such as abstract not be practical or possible to change your emotional worry. Feedback on relative strengths and
reasoning tests) and the capacity to learn from past educational background in the short term, however areas of weakness from practicing tests can also help
experiences and apply this to new situations (such there is always benefit in the medium term to ditch to target your energies beforehand so that you
as numerical reasoning and verbal reasoning tests). the calculator and complete lots of Sudoku puzzles focus your preparation on the areas where you need
When assessments are conducted scores are or crosswords in order to exercise those critical to.
derived for actual ability (as opposed to ability reasoning skills or brush up on the mental
relative to other candidates) and are established by arithmetic. However if the test is looming and you’re By practising these
comparing scores to a “norm group”. A norm group short on preparation time, in the short term, tests, not only will you
consists of scores collected from a comparison practicing actual psychometric test under similar increase your
group of individuals of a similar level of attainment. test conditions presents the best gains in helping confidence when it
you to perform at your best. comes to the real
In the case of aptitude assessments, research thing, but you will be
indicates that several factors influence performance Research has also indicated that practice with high able to develop your
on these tests - such as level of attainment and the quality test materials in a similar form these tests test-taking strategies
recency of completing formal education, the are delivered (e.g. timed and online) also helps to and, having gained an
frequency of using critical reasoning skills on a day reduce test anxiety. Test anxiety is made up of insight into your
to day basis, previous experience of taking several factors – such as emotional worry, performance, work on
psychometric tests and familiarity with the types of unfamiliarity and lack of confidence. Reducing test improving your results.
questions and information these tests include. anxiety through practice and feedback has been
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4. Improving your performance
in personality profiling
Alongside the ability based test, the other major how their motives and talents may interact with your answers and to what extent you have tried to
part of psychometric assessment is personality other factors such as the organisation’s culture, key present a favourable impression. With so many
profiling. This is conducted through completion of a aspects of the job and the working environment. integral checks, trying to present a certain image can
questionnaire (usually online these days) followed up This all helps to determine the potential result in a confused or distorted profile and will act
by an interview or feedback session. performance and competency in the role. as ‘red flags’ to the trained eye. So when answering
personality questionnaires, it is always best to
Personality assessment helps to establish a profile of Where ability tests have clear ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ answer honestly based on accurate self-reflection of
individual behavioural preferences, needs and talents. answers, this is not so with personality assessments, your typical behaviours.
This can include motivation and perceived so you can’t necessarily ‘improve’ your performance.
effectiveness and, since these are self-report However in the case of personality assessments it is
questionnaires, it is important that the data gathered rather a situation of gaining a greater insight into
is validated through discussion with an individual your own strengths and limitations through prior
who is trained to accurately interpret the profile self-reflection in order to help you prepare for your
(such as a Psychologist). Personality questionnaires feedback session or interview.
are considered to be fair and objective tools with an
established reputation for predicting performance. It is important to point out that when responding to
personality questionnaires don’t try to second guess
Situational factors may impact on a personality what you should say: much research has been
profile and the feedback session can help establish carried out into response styles. The more robust
why an individual has responded in a particular way. and reputable assessments have now incorporated
The root cause can then be identified and discussed. multiple checks to measure response styles
Profiling provides an interviewing panel with a throughout the questionnaire. These response style
deeper understanding of what drives a person and scales measure how consistent you have been in
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5. The benefits for preparing
for these tests
▪ Gaining an understanding of how different ▪ Developing strategies to address likely areas of ▪ Understanding the structure for challenging and
behaviours, needs, motives and preferences might limitation - demonstrating strength of character questioning the findings of personality profiling
interact with aspects of an organisation’s culture, and self-awareness to an employer. during feedback.
the job and the work environment.
▪ Being prepared for what aspects of your ▪ Getting an insight into how personality profiling
▪ Being aware of key factors that are likely to inhibit personality a psychologist may be particularly can influence questions asked at the interview
or enhance your success in a particular role. interested in. stage, so that you are as prepared as possible to
face any panel.
▪ Being aware of the pitfalls of attempting to
second-guess desired traits in a personality
questionnaire.
▪ Understanding your strengths and how to use
them to the full.
▪ Being aware of the pitfalls of ‘overplaying’ certain
key strengths and how to reduce their potential
negative impacts.
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6. Conclusion
There is really no mystery to psychometric
assessment.You may hear that preparation is not
effective but research has shown that several
factors contribute to effective performance and
practice can help. Being prepared can not only
improve your familiarity and reduce errors but will
increase your confidence. Since they are an
increasingly popular part of selection processes,
being prepared for them is an important part of
the job hunting process.
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7. Some of the most commonly used tests:
Personality Profiling
• Wave® Professional Styles and Wave® • OPQ32r® (SHL) • 16PF® (OPP) measures 16 traits that describe
Focus Styles (Saville Consulting) provides detailed information on 32 specific and predict a person's behaviour in a variety of
is a powerful measurement of personality. It personality characteristics which support contexts. It looks as an individual’s whole
measures an individual’s motives, talents, performance on key job competencies and is personality, revealing potential, capacity to sustain
preferred culture and competency potential in a designed solely for use in a business performance, and helping identify development
single questionnaire. It enables employers to environment. It measures aspects of behaviour needs.
look at an individual’s job fit and organisation fit crucial to performance potential which cannot
and provides information on factors that be identified through other means, such as a CV
enhance and limit performance. The profile is or an interview. It offers a clear, simple
split into 4 clusters, and provides detail in up to framework for understanding the impact of
108 different facets. The Wave® Focus Styles is a personality on job performance.
shorter version of the Wave® Professional Styles
questionnaire.
• NEO PI-R™ (Hogrefe)
is a highly-regarded, well-researched assessment
of personality. It concisely measures the five
major domains of personality (the five factor
model) along with traits or facets that define
each domain.
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8. Some of the most commonly used tests:
Ability/Aptitude tests
• Saville Consulting Aptitude • SHL Verify™ is a range of online
Assessments includes a range of tests for (unsupervised) ability tests which are followed
Directors, Managers, Graduates and up by a short (supervised) verification test at an
Professionals designed to measure different interview or assessment centre. The tests
aspects of an individual’s aptitude. These tests measure an individual’s ability to evaluate the
come in a variety of formats (online and hard logic of various kinds of argument presented in
copy) and assess an individual’s ability to evaluate written form, the ability to draw inferences and
complex written information, evaluate numerical understand the relationships between various
data and evaluate processes represented through concepts independent of acquired and the
diagrams. Some tests also include information on ability to make correct decisions or inferences
test taking style including accuracy, speed and from numerical or statistical data set in a realistic
caution. workplace context. The Verify™ item bank
creates unique online tests for every test taker,
• Watson-Glaser Critical Thinking improving security and reducing the risk of
Appraisal assesses an individual’s critical cheating.
thinking skills relevant to problem solving and
decision making. This includes the ability to
define and select relevant information to solve
problems, recognise assumptions, evaluate
arguments, formulate and select relevant
hypotheses, judge inferences and draw valid
conclusions.
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9. Some of the most commonly used tests:
AbilityTests (continued)
• Leadership Judgment Indicator • ABLE® Series tests (OPP) are based on
(Hogrefe) provides valuable insight into the real-life scenarios and work simulations. They
relative leadership strengths and provides an measure an individual's potential to learn a given
assessment of the degree to which the leader task, adapt to changing work environments and
can flex away from his or her preferred style to their ability to handle future work challenges.
the most appropriate one for the particular These tests are used to supplement information
situation. It is a scenario-based assessment which about and individual’s past experience based on
measures an individual’s preferred style in evidence collected from the interview and or
addition to how well the individual understands CV.
the importance of sometimes behaving against
their preferred style.
• Scenarios Assessing Managerial
Judgement (SHL) comes in three editions,
Graduate, Managerial and Executive. The test
measures an individual’s ability to weigh up real-
life situations and decide on appropriate and
effective ways of handling them. The test
provides an overall rating of managerial
judgement which is also broken down into key
components including Managing Objectives,
People Management and Reputation
Management.
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10. Richmond Solutions offer psychometric familiarisation as one
of their services. For further details, please contact Heidi
Nicholson,Partner at info@richmondsolutions.co.uk
If you would like a free review of your CV or LinkedIn profile,
please contact us via our website.
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