Aptitude Testing
What is an aptitude/psychometric test?
Sometimes, when applying for a job, you may be invited to sit either an aptitude or an ability test or indeed, as they are more commonly known, a psychometric test. The whole idea of aptitude testing is for you to go through a series of very short tests which look at your trainability in the workplace, i.e. your response to new information. By setting aptitude tests, employers are not looking at your raw intelligence, but your trainability in the workplace or how quickly you can pick up new information in the new role.
What will be expected of me?
If you're asked to complete a psychometric test, make sure that you don't have a hangover and that you feel nice and fresh on the day. Make sure that you are relaxed and that you have plenty of pens, because you will be sitting an exam of sorts. The instructions for the aptitude test will be given to you and then you'll be asked to complete the paper as quickly and as accurately as you can. They are normally multiple choice, and they normally take between three and five minutes to complete.
How is an aptitude/psychometric test calculated?
Once you've completed an aptitude test, a computer program will score it for you, and provide a score in terms percentile ranking: nought being the lowest percent, one hundred being the highest, fifty percent is Mr. or Mrs. Average. Somebody who scores fifty on aptitude testing will have an average response to learning new information. Anybody who scores at the higher end - towards 90 or 80 - is going to learn their information that much quicker. Somebody who scores lower than 50 on the aptitude test is going to be somewhat slower than the average person.
What are the golden rules of surviving an aptitude/psychometric test?
You certainly can't learn a psychometric test by rote. You can't improve your score on a psychometric test, the score you get is the score you get. What you can do, however, is familiarize yourself with the process that a psychometric test involves. The best way to do this is to go to a test takers area on a website of a leading psychometric company.
