Many employers now use graduate psychometric tests as part of their recruitment process to test your suitability for a job. These tests are designed to evaluate your intelligence and personality by analysing your behaviour and reasoning skills.
In the modern super-competitive job market, psychometric tests are used by firms to reduce the number of viable candidates without having to interview them.
Employers will also have different tests to measure the desired qualities for different types of roles. You can greatly improve your chances of doing well on psychometric tests by preparing properly. Here is a list of useful tips to teach you how to prepare for Graduate Psychometric Tests in order to do the best you can.
What types of psychometric tests are there?
The areas that psychometric tests usually aim to test are your verbal, numerical, and reasoning abilities. Basically, these tests are designed to judge your cognitive abilities and there will be many challenging questions.
It’s worth taking the time to learn about the different varieties of psychometric tests and how they are designed.
Graduate psychometric or aptitude tests have five main varieties:
1. Numerical Reasoning Test
If you are applying for a position in finance, you will likely take a difficult numerical reasoning test made to identify the best-qualified candidates. Other sectors may have more basic numerical tests as well. Numerical reasoning tests cover a variety of areas, including financial analysis, data interpretation, currency conversion, percentages, and ratios.
2. Verbal Reasoning Test
Verbal skills are important in management, law, economics, and other fields that rely on reading, writing and analysis of texts. Verbal reasoning tests focus on reading comprehension, with topics varying by industry and job.
3. Abstract Reasoning Test
Abstract reasoning tests challenge your ability to recognise patterns in shapes and images. These skills are required in a variety of fields and positions. An abstract reasoning test will require you to recognise patterns in a series of diagrams.
4. Mechanical Aptitude Test
Mechanical aptitude tests measure your ability to use mechanical concepts to solve problems. Candidates for engineering jobs will usually take complex mechanical aptitude tests.
5. Inductive Reasoning Test
Inductive reasoning tests are used to measure your general intelligence, creativity, and capacity to learn and apply new information. You may be presented with diagrams and asked to find the pattern. Inductive reasoning tests are often taken by candidates in all fields.
Preparation tips
A useful clue on how to prepare for Graduate Psychometric tests is in the job descriptions. Different companies will desire different traits and skills depending on their own values and the roles that you are applying for. Make sure to do your homework and research the company and the details of the specific role.
Make a note of the skills and character that they are looking for as stated in the job advertisement, and investigate the values and interests of the company. If you are applying for a job in engineering or finance, the psychometric tests are going to be focused more on your mathematical and analytical skills.
It’s important to know that normally the tests do not offer different scores for different questions. This means you will get the same mark for answering an easy question as you would a hard question.
Practice tests
Practice is important in any discipline. The more you practice psychometric and aptitude tests, the better you will get and you will also feel more confident. Whether the questions involve pattern recognition or deducing conclusions from a text, practice will always help get your brain accustomed to solving the specific problems.
Make sure to practice the parts of the test you find most difficult, whether numerical or verbal reasoning. You can go here to practise aptitude tests.
Understanding the Test Questions
Usually, the tests are formed of multiple-choice questions relating to verbal and numerical reasoning skills. These questions can be about multiple topics including the sciences, economics, business, and marketing.
There may also be an abstract aptitude test with questions using shapes and figures. You will be more confident with psychometric tests if you have a good understanding of the structure and types of questions. You can click here for some examples of test questions.
Revision Exercises
If your psychometric test will involve verbal and numerical reasoning tests, there are some basic revision activities you can do.
You could practice puzzles online, study some maths for revision, relearning how certain difficult words may be spelt, or looking up definitions.
Keeping on Time
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If the test is timed then you need to finish it within the designated time, so if you find yourself taking too long on a question you should move on.
On some tests, you will be able to return to questions that you didn’t answer, so don’t worry about skipping hard questions and coming back to them at the end.
There are also some types of psychometric tests that are not made to be completed. They will instead be testing how many questions you can answer within a certain time limit. Bear this in mind when you are stuck on a question, it’s better to move onto to find a question you can answer.
Updated Browser
Usually, employers require applicants to do the tests online, maybe on a specific platform. These platforms might have trouble running correctly on an old internet browser.
Therefore, make sure your computer has the latest browser version if you have a test coming up.
Verbal Reasoning
Verbal aptitude tests are the section of psychometric tests designed to measure the reading and comprehension skills of candidates.
One way to help yourself prepare for this is by researching various topics that relate to the field of the company you are applying for and the specific role. You can practice verbal reasoning tests at wikijob.
Be Well Rested
You want to be in the right head-space when taking your psychometric test. Try to prepare in good time to reduce stress and also get a good night’s sleep to give yourself the best chance possible.
Some long tests might have breaks, you should make use of these opportunities to take a breath and keep yourself alert.
Honesty and Consistency
It’s important to present yourself honestly at all stages of the recruitment process, and this applies to psychometric tests as well. If there is a section of the test on your personality, you should answer as truthfully as you can.
Inconsistencies might be found out later. Also attempts to improve your score by lying might be detected and reduce your score. You should also try to keep similar or consistent patterns when answering personality test questions.
Often the questions given may be written or framed differently, whilst still essentially asking the same thing. So, consistency is important to make the employer believe that you are answering honestly.
Test Instructions
Going over the instructions on a test is crucial, as they usually provide guidance to understand the questions given and the format of the test. Be sure to read the instructions carefully before starting the test.
Psychometric tests are aimed at gathering information about applicants that might be difficult to get through interviews alone. To do this the tests use scientifically based selection methods.
Your chances of getting the job are vastly improved if you research and prepare well for your psychometric tests.
Conclusion
Graduate Psychometric tests can be difficult and stressful but it’s important to know that you can always improve on them. Research and preparation go a long way. The best way to do this is to take practice tests until you are accustomed to the questions and format. The more experience you have taking the tests, the easier it will get.
You can go to Graduate Coach for help with other stages of the recruitment process such as CV writing and interviews.
Written by Harry Gorvin
Featured Photo by Vlada Karpovich from Pexels
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