How psychometric tests have turned a new leaf over

You are in the second round of your interview and handed a pen along with a pencil for a basic question and answer session. The person is going to state that after completion of the psychometric tests you would be called for a personal round of interview. You are in a state of confusion and thinking on the lines of what is the method of interview shortlisting.

No need to worry as this is a question that millions of candidates keep on worrying. The answer to this question is simple as psychometric screening tests are conducted in order to figure out the tasks that you are good at during the course of an interview. Trust me in such tests there are no wrong or good answers.

More about the psychometric tests and how did it evolve

Psychometric as the name suggests is an interpretation of your mind. The nature of such tests is to figure out on how your brain works and then how your mental ability is being measured. The evolution of these tests dates back to the starting phase of the 18th century. Though the first form of personality test did began in 1917. This did pave way for numerous other discoveries and to this date some of the models are being put to use.

The main reason why this test is undertaken is because of a couple of reasons

  • In order to assess the personal qualities in order to figure more about the feelings, beliefs or even the thought process. No form of right or wrong answer exists here
  • So as to measure your performance, in order to have an idea about the profiles you are looking. Though these questions are known to have right or wrong answers.

There needs to be a paradigm shift from recruitment to the concept of personality. Ever since the time it was put to use for WWI recruitment’s these sorts of tests have made rapid progress as far as large organizations are concerned. The best part about such tests is that educational institutions are using it on a large level.  Some interesting numbers have emerged that might make us ponder over. Over 78 % of HR department considers these tests as a powerful tool of hiring. Mostly the Fortune 500 companies are relying on these tests as a powerful source of recruitment. This is one of the powerful tools in terms of recruitment.

Recruitment along with education

This is a test that is normally put to use by large organizations. They go on to recruit graduates and filter out the excess candidates when there is large number of candidates applying for a particular job role. Not only is that it used among the existing employee in terms of staff training and for application of internal performance appraisal process. Even the educational institutions go on to rely on such tests in order to check out the ability and aptitude of the test.

The types of aptitude test

Psychometric tests are divided into major groups and let us go through as follows

Ability and aptitude test

The test goes on to check out the competence or intellectual ability of an individual. Even the analytical and logical skills of a candidate are figured out so as to outline the capacity and performance in job oriented skills. Being part of the test there are various assessments. Examples of them are verbal reasoning, strategic reasoning, and numerical reasoning to name a few.

Questionnaire and personality test

Here the prime goal of the test is to have an idea about the behaviour of a candidate in an individual situation, preference, reaction or action. When a recruiter uses this module in the process of selecting a candidate they can figure out whether they fit into the process and are they the profile whether they are on the lookout for. At this juncture, opinions, values interests all come into picture. Here mostly you will find paper based questions.

Time factor

Each one of us is capable of achieving extraordinary things but the main point of consideration is the speed by which you accomplish the tasks. In other words time is one of the important factors in case of psychometric tests. The tests are known to have a strict time limit so as to gauge the speed of a candidate. So, no doubt,the speed is an essence in psychometric tests.

There are some tests where speed is an important pointer as certain jobs might require speed. Though in certain tests there is no time limit as the onus would be to figure out how many questions that a candidate can attempt in a given time frame. The candidate is expected to be judged on how many questions they have been able to answer within a definite time module.

In some cases the tests are expected to fall in between both the extremes. There is going to be a time limit, but people do get sufficient time in order to complete the test. In order to be successful you need to complete the test as soon as possible and in an accurate manner.

Different modes

Paper based and computer based psychometric tests are a couple of widely used modes of testing. In fact for the test verbal mode was one of the most sought out ones. In exams or recruitment, candidates are asked to write on a piece of paper or even they can do it online. The test is going to be undertaken under supervision so that there is no scope of cheating

Conclusion

As per research inputs available, nearly 80 % of the employees in an organization have not been part of any test themselves in order to be recruited for a role. An enormous potential for growth exists in the domain of psychometric tests. The large organizations along with HR department needs to take heed of these thoughts whereby improving the quality of recruits and ensuring better organizational growth.

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