What is Psychometric Testing

The psychometric tests are conducted for assessment/measurement of personality or mental ability. Instances of day-to-day life in which these tests are used include the recruitment processes. Psychological thinking and mental abilities of candidates can be assessed with these tests. These office-based tests can also be conducted with the help of software applications. Depending on the depth of these tests, questions can be simple or complicated. Most of the simple tests require 15 minutes to be completed. Let us understand what is psychometric testing used for and the nature of these tests from the information presented below.

Psychometric Testing: Overview

The assessment of a person's ability to solve problems and getting to know more about his/her personality are the main objectives of a psychometric test. The questions for testing a person's abilities/skills are expected to be answered in a time-bound manner. The personality tests are aimed at understanding more about the characteristics/traits of the person in question. More than just understanding what is psychometric testing, information pertaining to its different aspects should be useful.

Assessment of Abilities: The abilities and skills possessed by a person are tested by means of time-bound tests with an objective approach. The cognitive abilities tested in these tests are categorized as verbal, conceptual, numerical, spatial, emotional and mechanical.

• Conceptual Reasoning: The aspect of fluid intelligence of candidates is given importance in the process of assessment of conceptual reasoning. Testing of the ability of understanding complex information and using it for the purpose of problem solving is carried out.
• Mechanical Reasoning: The kinetic role of different objects need to be understood by the candidate in order to excel in the mechanical reasoning test. The different elements and their configuration need to be understood by candidates in order to perform well in mechanical reasoning.
• Numerical Reasoning: The candidate's ability to perform various numerical operations/functions in a proper manner is assessed with the help of numerical reasoning test.
• Verbal Reasoning: The assessment of a candidate's ability to present concepts associated with business in a proper verbal form is carried out in the verbal reasoning test.

Personality Assessment: The personality tests carry out assessment of a person's overall nature and especially, temperament; determining the personality types is possible with the help of this kind of assessment. The employer gets to know whether a candidate is capable of handling situations and people in the given work environment. Questions asked to candidates in these tests do not necessarily have right/wrong answers. Instead, an idea of a person's behavior and inherent nature can be obtained through these tests. The psychometric testing examples for assessment of personality are the 'Jackson's Personality Inventory', 'Hogan Personality Inventory', etc.

Useful Tips on Psychometric Testing

The following tips should prove to be useful in the preparation process leading up to psychometric tests.

• It is very important to keep in mind the time factor. One should try to solve sample tests before the recruitment process in a time-bound manner. Such kind of mock tests should prove to be useful.
• One should have a clear head before appearing for such tests. It is therefore, necessary to take enough rest so as to appear for psychometric tests.
• It is necessary to obtain the assessment feedback. One becomes aware of the improvement he/she has to make with the help of feedback.
• It is advisable to solve crosswords, riddles and other quiz tests in order to get an idea of the actual tests.

The psychometric tests though prove to be of great use in testing a person's capability and nature (to some extent), there are few limitations of this kind of assessment. One can easily manipulate the psychoanalysis procedure by answering in a manner that is expected by the (potential) employer. It is not possible to test whether a person has the drive, sincerity and right kind of attitude to perform the given job. Just like any other testing method/procedure, the psychometric testing too has its own set of advantages and limitations. It is however, necessary to make the best use of psychometric testing.