Psychometric Tests

WHAT ARE PSYCHOMETRIC TESTS?

Aim to measure aspects of your mental ability, aptitude or your personality

Used as part of the recruitment or selection process

Provides employers with a method of selecting the most suitable job applicants or candidates for promotion

Used by 80% of Fortune 500 and 75% of Times Top 100 companies

What do psychometric tests measure?

• How well you work with other people

• How well you handle stress

• Whether you will be able to cope with the intellectual demands of the job

• Your personality, preferences and abilities • Analyze your emotional or psychological stability

• Best match of individual to occupation and working environment

What are the different types of tests?

Personality Tests You will be presented with statements describing various ways of feeling or acting and

asked to answer each one on a 2 point, 5 point or 7 point scale. The number of questions you are expected to answer varies from about 50 to 200, depending on the duration of the test.

 

1. I prefer to avoid conflict.

 

A) True B) False

2. I enjoy parties and other social occasions.

 A) strongly disagree B) disagree C) neutrals D) agree E) strongly agree

3. Work is the most important thing in my life.

 

A) very strongly disagree B) strongly disagrees C) disagree D) neutral E) agree F)strongly  agree G) very strongly agree

•  

Types of aptitude and ability tests

Some of the popular psychometric tests are:

16 PF MBTI OPQ32 Thomas Personal Profiling System Gordon’s Personal Profile Inventory Rorschach Ink-Blot Test FIRO-B Picture Frustration Test Thematic Apperception Tests (TAT)

Basis of these tests:

Five personality traits:

• Openness

• Conscientiousness

• Extraversion

• Agreeableness

• Neuroticism

Five Factor Scoring:

-ve +ve

Extraversion

Agreeableness

Conscientiousness

Neuroticism

Openness to experience

16 Personality Factor model (16PF)

Developed in the 1940s and refined in the 60s

Attempts to define the basic underlying personality

Questionnaire based

Analysis using 16 personality factors

Factor Descriptors

A Warmth Reserved Outgoing

B ReasoningLess

IntelligentMore Intelligent

CEmotional Stability

Affected by feelings

Emotionally stable

E Dominance Humble Assertive

F Liveliness Sober Happy-go-lucky

GRule Consciousness

Expedient Conscientious

H Social Boldness Shy Venturesome

I SensitivityTough-minded

Tender-minded

L Vigilance Trusting Suspicious

M Abstractedness Practical Imaginative

N PrivatenessStraightforwa

rdShrewd

O Apprehension Self-Assured Apprehensive

Q1Openness to Change

Conservative Experimenting

Q2 Self-RelianceGroup-

dependentSelf-sufficient

Q3 Perfectionism Self-conflict Self-control

Q4 Tension Relaxed Tense

The 16 factors with their word descriptors of each scale

Colour Test

• Select one colour

• Pink

• Blue

• Red

• Yellow

• Green

• Black

• Pink - People who choose pink have the gentle side of human nature, health, abundance and youth.

• Blue -People who prefer blue usually dislike confrontations and play the role of the diplomat in order to avoid continued conflict. They are good orators, capable of giving a good speech.

• Red- A person who prefers red is one who enjoys life to the fullest. These individuals usually live according to their own rules and often do not follow the traditional norms. They avoid boring people and always try to experience the maximum fun and excitement from any endeavor.

• Green – People who choose green are capable of creating a balance between positive and negative emotions. They are capable of seeing both sides of an issue, have a strong moral sense of right and wrong, and tend to be idealistic.

• Black -People who like black hold things inside and do not want to be touched.  they are hard-working fixers who zero in on the essence of any problem. They tenaciously love to find the mistakes and faults of others like detectives or puzzle fans. 

• Yellow -People who choose yellow are very business minded and like to be thought of as educated. They use their minds to achieve their goals and as a result, love games and are particularly good at chess.