Psychometric test?
Discussion
I had a phone interview the other day for a potential Chauffeur/assistant type role. Chauffeuring for a private family, all driving duties, vehicle care, looking after property and general business and personal interests.
Sounds great on paper and I think I tick most of the boxes required, the lady on the phone said my CV and cover letter are the best she received, (maybe the only one she received.) I thought she was from a recruitment company, but turns out she is the daughter of the principle so another plus hopefully.
I have now received an email with a link to a couple of online tests I have to do. 1 is an attitude survey, the other being the Psychometric and General Reasoning assessment.
I have been told to allow 45 minutes for these tests, and best to do it in a quiet room. I plan on doing it at the weekend when I'm on my own.
Any hints, tips, or advice would be appreciated as this sort of thing is new to me.
TIA.
Sounds great on paper and I think I tick most of the boxes required, the lady on the phone said my CV and cover letter are the best she received, (maybe the only one she received.) I thought she was from a recruitment company, but turns out she is the daughter of the principle so another plus hopefully.
I have now received an email with a link to a couple of online tests I have to do. 1 is an attitude survey, the other being the Psychometric and General Reasoning assessment.
I have been told to allow 45 minutes for these tests, and best to do it in a quiet room. I plan on doing it at the weekend when I'm on my own.
Any hints, tips, or advice would be appreciated as this sort of thing is new to me.
TIA.
The idea is that the assessment (its NOT a test) is instinctive so don't try to analyse it. If you try to answer what you think they want it will show up as an anomoly. There will also be some questions that have equally justifiable answers - there isn't a wrong answer so go with what you feel to be the most accurate. Like an MOT its only accurate at the exact time you take it & can be effected by outside influences (noise, a recent argument) so you're right to take it in a quiet room but ultimately don't fret about it.
The Leaper said:
The best advice I can give about psychometric tests is not to dwell long on the question, and answer instinctively.
R
This - and don't try and game the system: assessments often have an "impression management" measurement where the system will decide if you are trying to "fit in" and give the answers you think the assessor wants.R
chilistrucker said:
...don't overthink, be honest and go with gut.
Correct; but actually quite hard to do in practice as we all want the job and so want to answer in a way that will make us the candidate of choice.The reality is, I've not seen many companies use these properly (often because they don't understand them). So unless it exposes you as some tyrannical megalomaniac, you should be fine!
Good luck!
There are loads of books on how to do these, read some.
An example:
"I am a gregarious and outgoing person" Yes/No - everyone ticks yes of course, who likes to be a weirdo.
Next question:
"I like playing practical jokes" Yes/No - er, well, I have a sense of humour, so yes.
Now according to the shrinks who write the tests, people who play practical jokes have interaction problems, so they construct a situation (the practical joke) so that they can interact with people.
No idea if is actually true, but this is the sort of game that is played in the tests. Once you understand the reason behind the question, it is easy to come out with whatever characteristics you want.
My favourite game when forced to do these things as "team building" exercises is to deliberately get myself into opposite ends of the spectrum in consecutive tests. Drives them mad....
An example:
"I am a gregarious and outgoing person" Yes/No - everyone ticks yes of course, who likes to be a weirdo.
Next question:
"I like playing practical jokes" Yes/No - er, well, I have a sense of humour, so yes.
Now according to the shrinks who write the tests, people who play practical jokes have interaction problems, so they construct a situation (the practical joke) so that they can interact with people.
No idea if is actually true, but this is the sort of game that is played in the tests. Once you understand the reason behind the question, it is easy to come out with whatever characteristics you want.
My favourite game when forced to do these things as "team building" exercises is to deliberately get myself into opposite ends of the spectrum in consecutive tests. Drives them mad....
chilistrucker said:
I thought she was from a recruitment company, but turns out she is the daughter of the principle so another plus hopefully.
I have now received an email with a link to a couple of online tests I have to do.
Recruitment company/HR I could understand. But a smaller private recruiter? Suggests she doesn't have confidence in her own judgment.I have now received an email with a link to a couple of online tests I have to do.
Could be a pain to work for.
Practise several of them, as there are loads online for free. They all follow a fairly similar setup. Never hurts to see if a family member has a particular gift for them either, see if they will sit with you on the 'practise' tests to advise you as go along....?
edit: Be mindful of the clock, don't spend 20mins on one question and end up not answering the last few.
edit: Be mindful of the clock, don't spend 20mins on one question and end up not answering the last few.
Edited by Andehh on Friday 27th January 11:11
chilistrucker said:
Blimey, glad I asked now. Thank you.
Quiet room, don't overthink, be honest and go with gut.
That pretty much nails it......and your mood can impact so don't do it when you are raging because of traffic or tired at the end of the day. Just honesty and consistency in answers though.Quiet room, don't overthink, be honest and go with gut.
Expect lots of "choose between these words" type questions, or "I am............" choose between absolutely no way or bang on mate (score 1 to 5)
Try some online for free to get a flavour
chilistrucker said:
Blimey, glad I asked now. Thank you.
Quiet room, don't overthink, be honest and go with gut.
Neil, good luck with the tests - btw recruiters often Google email addresses and forum user names so you may want to edit your profile accordingly / declare the head injury and loss of licence etcQuiet room, don't overthink, be honest and go with gut.
rxe said:
There are loads of books on how to do these, read some.
An example:
"I am a gregarious and outgoing person" Yes/No - everyone ticks yes of course, who likes to be a weirdo.
Next question:
"I like playing practical jokes" Yes/No - er, well, I have a sense of humour, so yes.
Now according to the shrinks who write the tests, people who play practical jokes have interaction problems, so they construct a situation (the practical joke) so that they can interact with people.
Shrinks are psychiatrists, psychometric tests are generally written by psychologists. Relying on subjective opinion and correct interpretation of the questions all psychometric tests are/can be wildly inaccurate. The practical joke scenario is a question about personality... Your point about 'interaction problems' is only a theory, and one that is pretty well discredited as it happens. OP - as others have said, just relax and answer the questions as best you can. Employers know these tests aren't worth much anyway.An example:
"I am a gregarious and outgoing person" Yes/No - everyone ticks yes of course, who likes to be a weirdo.
Next question:
"I like playing practical jokes" Yes/No - er, well, I have a sense of humour, so yes.
Now according to the shrinks who write the tests, people who play practical jokes have interaction problems, so they construct a situation (the practical joke) so that they can interact with people.
I have only ever had to 2 do, both times I passed. It was standard stuff, you are an outgoing person, agree, disagree, or varying degrees inbetween, I just answer looking at it from a business point of view.
They are never accurate really as no test like that is EVER answered honestly.
They are never accurate really as no test like that is EVER answered honestly.
J1JPE said:
chilistrucker said:
Blimey, glad I asked now. Thank you.
Quiet room, don't overthink, be honest and go with gut.
Neil, good luck with the tests - btw recruiters often Google email addresses and forum user names so you may want to edit your profile accordingly / declare the head injury and loss of licence etcQuiet room, don't overthink, be honest and go with gut.
I plan to do a couple of trial online runs in the morning as advised on here. The Mrs is out PM tomorrow so I will have my proper crack at it then as i will have silence in the house and can concentrate properly.
I'll give it my best shot as always, but will stay 100% honest and true to myself, rather than trying to trick the system so to speak. If I can't progress to the next stage without being myself, then its probably not the job for me.
It would be their loss obviously
Monkeylegend said:
Post the questions, we will help you answer them, should be ok 
That would go well 
I did a couple of trial runs this morning, 1st one was dire, other 2 were fine. I answered honestly in all assessments including the 3 'actual' tests that I have just completed.
The second assessment, which was timed was answering simple questions, what letter or number is next in this sequence, or what word of these five is closest to...... This was all fine, but I timed out which I'm annoyed at myself about as I thought I was making good progress.
The other 2 were 'OK' 1 was mainly asking me to rate myself as a person in relation to each question and the last assessment was how you would act in work related scenarios, e.g. A work colleague is taking drugs at work, would you report them to your supervisor?
Have you ever hugged a work colleague?
Sometimes at work you are happy to do just enough?
Everybody knowingly uses their bank overdraft?
You are happier working as part of a team?
You are happier working on your own?
Etc,etc,etc.
These questions had 5 possible boxes to tick from strongly agree, to strongly disagree.
Its done now, so we'll see
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