Ultimate Psychometric Tests

1000 Questions and Answers for Verbal, Numerical, and Personality Tests

Mike Bryon

• Publisher: Kogan Page
• Year: 2021
• Print ISBN: 9781398602380
• eBook ISBN: 9781398602397
• Edition: 5
• Topic: Personal Development
• Subtopic: Careers

Don't let a psychometric test - or your nerves - stand between you and your dream job. Many interviews and assessment centres include psychometric testing as part of the hiring process, and fears about tests are all too common and undermine confidence and performance on the day. But practice makes perfect - and with over 1, 000 exercises from all the major types of test, Ultimate Psychometric Tests is the ideal tool to help you get to grips with:
-verbal and numerical reasoning
-personality questionnaires
-non-verbal and diagrammatic reasoning
-spatial recognition and visual estimation
-situational awareness
-quantities and conversion testsWith each test supported by detailed answers and explanations, Ultimate Psychometric Tests will boost your confidence and your performance on the day, to help you land your next dream job. About the Ultimate series...
The Ultimate series contains practical advice on essential job search skills to give you the best chance of getting the job you want. Taking you all the way from starting your job search to completing an interview, it includes guidance on CV or resume and cover letter writing, practice questions for passing aptitude, psychometric and IQ tests, and reliable advice for interviewing.

1

Psychometric tests and questionnaires: what are they?

A psychometric test is not like a blood sample test where you simply roll up your sleeve and feel the discomfort of the needle. You have no control over the outcome of a blood test but in a psychometric test you should be totally in control. You achieve this through hard work, systematic preparation and a good test technique.

Employers use tests and questionnaires to obtain information not available from CVs, application forms or interviews. They do this to ensure a fairer and more informed employment decision. There are many types in use. Some are specific to a particular course or profession, for example those used to select people for medical school. Others are general behavioural, ability or situational judgement assessments and are used by a wide range of commercial giants like L’Oréal, Colgate-Palmolive, Ford, Sony, Philips, Kraft Foods, Ericsson and Vodafone to name but a few. They may test your mental stamina and endurance as well as your interests, personality and abilities. Whatever the task involved, they are designed so the test administrator can draw comparisons between candidates, and the whole point when used for recruitment is that it will allow the administrator to conclude that candidate A did better than candidate B and that candidates F, G, H, I, J and K can be rejected!

If you face a psychometric test or questionnaire as a part of a recruitment process for a job or course of study, then it is reasonable to assume that lots of people have applied and there are fewer vacancies or places than applicants. Many organizations attract 40 applicants for every vacancy; sometimes many hundreds apply for each position. The employer or college relies on the test to identify the more suitable candidates in as fair and objective a way as is economically possible. Every applicant will be invited to take the test or complete the questionnaire and the results will be compared to decide who should be asked to the next stage of the recruitment process.

As soon as you realize that you need to pass a test or complete a questionnaire, go about finding out as much as you can about it. The organization that has invited you may provide, or direct you to, a description and some sample questions. You will not be able to get hold of past papers or real copies of the test. Be sure to do some research about the organization and the sort of personal qualities they expect from their employees.

Doing well in any test is not simply a matter of intelligence or ability. Hard work and determination play a big part too. If at the end of the test you do not feel tired then you may have not done yourself justice. So go for it and be sure to adopt the right mental approach. The candidates that do best are not usually the ones who are fearful or who feel resentment about having to take a test. The winning approach is one that looks forward to the challenge and the opportunity it represents. You are there to demonstrate your abilities and prove to the organization that you are a suitable candidate. This should not discourage you. Everyone can develop this approach. The secret is preparation. Take it fully prepared for the challenge and use it to demonstrate how good you have become. Be sure to spend hours practising beforehand so you address any areas of weakness and are ready to take full advantage of your strengths.

Do not underestimate how long it can take to prepare. Start as soon as you receive notice that you have to take a test. It is really important that you carefully read the instructions provided. You may well be feeling nervous or excited and this may affect your concentration, so make yourself focus. Much of the information may be a repeat of the description emailed along with the invitation to take the test. So read and reread this description before the day of the test. Pay particular attention to instructions on the number of questions there will be and how long each test lasts, and be sure you are familiar with the demands of each style of question.

Tests usually have tight time constraints so keep track of the time during the test and manage how long you spend on any one question. You must keep going right up to the end. Aim to get the balance right between speed and accuracy. It is better that you risk getting some questions wrong but attempt every question rather than double-check each answer and then run out of time before you have finished. Practice can really help develop this skill. If you hit a difficult section of questions don’t lose heart. Keep going – everyone gets some ­questions wrong. You may find that you come next to a section of questions in which you can excel. If you do not know the answer to a question, then educated guessing is well worth a try. If you are unsure of an answer to a multiple-choice question, then look at the suggested answers and try ruling some out as wrong. This way you can reduce the number of suggested answers from which to guess and hopefully increase your chances of guessing correctly.

In the case of questionnaires there is unlikely to be a time limit, so take time over each question and answer them in a way that stresses the parts of your personality that matches your understanding of the organization’s culture and preferred way of working. The best candidates approach a questionnaire with confidence in themselves and their abilities. Allow yourself sufficient time. Do not underestimate how long it can take to give proper consideration to the hypothetical situations and suggested answers. Only answer the questions in the context of how you would respond at work. You might give a very different response if you were out with friends or relaxing at home. But such responses might be inappropriate at work so for every situation in the questionnaire remind yourself that the context is strictly how you would respond at work.

If you suffer a disability that will adversely affect your ability to complete the test or any aspect of the recruitment process, then inform the organization at the first opportunity. They should be prepared to organize things differently to better accommodate your needs, and for certain conditions they may allow extra time to complete the test.

2

How to pass psychometric tests and questionnaires

Doing well in a psychometric test or questionnaire is not just down to intelligence but also requires determination and hard work. If passing is important, then be prepared both to set aside hours in which to research and practise and to work hard.

The value of preparation and practice

You must achieve the best possible score to be sure that you pass. Other candidates will be trying to do this, so you must too, otherwise you risk coming a poor second.

The secret is preparation and practice. Everyone can improve their score and for many candidates practice will mean the difference between pass and fail.

Practice works best on material that is as much like the real questions as possible. Select from this book questions that are similar to those in the real test or questionnaire and restrict your practice to these questions. I have included material that will benefit most readers but this may mean that not all the material is appropriate to you. So select the most appropriate material and if necessary obtain more from other titles in the Kogan Page Testing Series. Look online as well. Lots of sites offer free practice.

Get wise

Most psychometric questionnaires occur during the early stages of the application process so do your research first. Before you answer a personality questionnaire, find out about the organization and decide whether you like its culture and if it’s the kind of place you will thrive in. If it is, then apply confident in that knowledge, take time over each question and answer it in a way that shows you as the ideal candidate for the role and company. Treat every question as an opportunity to show just how suitable you are. Many candidates do not take sufficient care or time over questionnaires and fail to allow themselves enough time to reflect on every question, ensuring that they answer every question in a way that best supports their application.

If you face a test, then be sure to get test wise. Most psychometric tests comprise a series of smaller tests or sub-tests taken one after the other, with a short pause between the papers. They might include, for example, first a sub-test on verbal reasoning, then a numerical reasoning sub-test and finally a non-verbal reasoning sub-test. But this is only one of many possible combinations. The series of sub-tests is called a battery.

It is really important that you understand what the test you face involves. You will be astonished at how many people begin the test not knowing what to expect. The first time they learn of the type of questions involved is when the test begins for real. Don’t make this mistake. You need to know the nature of the challenge as soon as possible.

The organization to which you have applied may provide a description of the type of questions and the format of the test. If they do then be sure to get details on:

how many sub-tests the test battery comprises;

what the title of each sub-test is;

what sort of question makes up a sub-test (ask them to describe an example of each type of question);

how many questions each sub-test includes;

how long you are allowed to complete each sub-test;

whether it is multiple choice or short answer;

whether you complete it with pen and paper or at a computer terminal;

whether or not a calculator is allowed.

Armed with this information you can now find hundreds of practice questions on which to set about a systematic programme of preparation.

How much and what kind of practice

Once you have a very clear idea of the test you face, you need to set about finding hundreds of relevant practice questions. You need hundreds because to get the most from practice you should undertake a minimum of 20 hours. If you are weak in maths or English, then you may well have to practise a lot more than this. This book contains 1,000 practice questions and will be an ideal source of practice material for many candidates. But you are unlikely to find all the practice material you need in one publication. This book will best suit the candidate at the intermediate level and introduces material at the graduate level, so if you face a psychometric test for a graduate, managerial or professional position you should move on from this title to other more advanced material also available in the Kogan Page Testing Series. In most chapters I have suggested sources of further material.

Undertake two sorts of practice

Type 1

Practise on realistic questions in a relaxed situation without time constraint. The aim is to become really familiar with the types of question and to realize what skills are being examined. Take one question at a time, looking at the answer and any explanation. If you get any wrong, try to understand why. Use this time to recognize which part of the test represents the greatest challenge for you and use this information to plan the amount of practice you need to undertake for each part of the test. Spend most time on your personal areas of weakness.

Type 2

Once you feel confident in each of the types of question that you face, start practising on realistic questions under strict time constraints and under realistic exam-type conditions. You can make up these ‘mock tests’ by taking, for example, 40 questions and allowing yourself 25 minutes to attempt them. Time yourself and be sure to stop when you have run out of time. Even get someone to administer the test for you, telling you when to turn over the page and begin and to stop when you have run out of time. If you don’t find your first mock test much of a challenge, then either increase the number of questions or reduce the time you allow yourself. The aim of this second sort of practice is to get used to answering questions under the pressure of time and to build up your speed and accuracy. Take this practice seriously, try to make every point count and work very quickly against what should feel like a tight time limit.

Set yourself a personal challenge

To get the most out of your practice and to help make it feel more realistic, set yourself the challenge of trying to beat your own score. To do this you will have to try hard and take the challenge seriously, and then you will have to try harder still. Try the following 10-step approach:

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Table of contents

• Preface
• 1 Psychometric tests and questionnaires: what are they?
• 2 How to pass psychometric tests and questionnaires
• 3 Situational judgement and personality questionnaires
• 4 Verbal reasoning
• 5 Numerical reasoning
• 6 Non-verbal reasoning, mechanical comprehension and data interpretation
• 7 In-work tests
• 8 Answers and explanations