aptitude tests info

7/27/2019 Aptitude Tests info

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Why use psychometric testing in recruitment?

The word psychometric basically refers to the measurement of the mind. Unlike facets such as

education, skills, experience, appearance and punctuality, the behavioural traits and personality

of a candidate can be much more difficult to assess during an interview.

Some employers choose to use psychometric testing during their recruitment process to help

give a better overall evaluation of a candidate and hopefully secure the best fit for the role.

Theres some debate over the value of psychometric testing, but those who use it believe that it

can give a more objective overview of a candidates character, strengths, weaknesses and

working style. Typically, a psychometric test will never be used in isolation, but as one

component of a wider, integrated evaluation strategy.

For employers, psychometric testing could help to gauge the future performance of a candidate

and hopefully improve employee retention by making successful hiring decisions.

How psychometric testing aids recruitment decisions

Psychometric testing can measure a number of attributes including intelligence, critical

reasoning, motivation and personality profile. An interview process can be fairly subjective and

although employers will normally assess skills and experience fairly accurately, much can still be

left to gut instinct regarding aligned values.

A psychometric test aims to provide measurable, objective data that can give you a better all-round view of a candidates suitability. It could be argued that psychometric testing offers some

scientific credibility and objectivity to the process of recruiting. It perhaps provides a more fair

and accurate way of assessing a candidate, as all applicants will be given a standardised test.

Traditionally, these tests have taken the form of pen and paper, multiple choice questionnaires,

but increasingly theyre moving into a digital realm. This means they can be quick and easy to

integrate into any stage of the process.

Some organisations often favour psychometric testing as a way of screening (and subsequently

eliminating) large amounts of candidates at the start of a recruitment drive. In this case,psychometric testing could help to drastically reduce the hiring managers workload, as it helps

to swiftly identify a smaller pool of suitable applicants who have the potential to perform well

in the later stages of interview.


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Verbal and numerical testing

This method is used to give an indication of a candidates ability to process both verbal and

numerical information while working to a time limit. These tests are conducted either prior to

or on the assessment day, on or offline.

What do they measure?

There are different types of tests, but generally theyll be used to measure how people differ in

their motivation, values, priorities and opinions with regard to different tasks and situations. In

terms of personality, the tests can give an indication of the working style favoured by a

candidate and how they interact with both their environment and fellow workers.

The tests are helpful at analysing the more hidden traits of an individual. Formal education

and past experience will not always provide a clear, up-to-date assessment of these personal

skills. Aptitude tests, for example, could help to provide a better, more realistic and currentview of a candidates abilities than a formal certificate of education.

Appropriate allowances would be applied for those candidates requiring reasonable

adjustments or for whom English is not their first language.

Aptitude Tests

Aptitude tests consist of multiple choice questions and are administered under exam

conditions. They are strictly timed and a typical test might allow 30 minutes for 30 or so

questions. The different types of aptitude tests can be classified as follows:

Verbal Ability - Includes spelling, grammar, ability to understand analogies and followdetailed written instructions. These questions appear in most general aptitude tests

because employers usually want to know how well you can communicate.

Numeric Ability -Includes basic arithmetic, number sequences and simple mathematics.In management level tests you will often be presented with charts and graphs that needto be interpreted. These questions appear in most general aptitude tests because

employers usually want some indication of your ability to use numbers even if this is not

a major part of the job.

Abstract Reasoning- Measures your ability to identify the underlying logic of a patternand then determine the solution. Because abstract reasoning ability is believed to be the
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best indicator of fluid intelligence and your ability to learn new things quickly these

questions appear in most general aptitude tests.

Spatial Ability- Measures your ability to manipulate shapes in two dimensions or tovisualize three-dimensional objects presented as two-dimensional pictures. These

questions not usually found in general aptitude tests unless the job specifically requiresgood spatial skills.

Mechanical Reasoning- Designed to assess your knowledge of physical and mechanicalprinciples. Mechanical reasoning questions are used to select for a wide range of jobs

including the military (Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery), police forces, fire

services, as well as many craft, technical and engineering occupations.

Fault Diagnosis- These tests are used to select technical personnel who need to be ableto find and repair faults in electronic and mechanical systems. As modern equipment of

all types becomes more dependent on electronic control systems (and arguably morecomplex) the ability to approach problems logically in order to find the cause of the fault

is increasingly important.

Data Checking- Measure how quickly and accurately errors can be detected in data andare used to select candidates for clerical and data input jobs.

Work Sample Involves a sample of the work that you will be expected do. These typesof test can be very broad ranging. They may involve exercises using a word processor or

spreadsheet if the job is administrative or they may includegiving a presentation or in-

tray exercises if the job is management or supervisory level

Guidelines for Designing Valid and Reliable Exams

Ideally, effective exams have four characteristics. They are:

Valid, (providing useful information about the concepts they were designed to test), Reliable (allowing consistent measurement and discriminating between different levels

of performance), Recognizable (instruction has prepared students for the assessment), and Realistic (concerning time and effort required to complete the assignment) (Svinicki,

1999).

Most importantly, exams and assignments should focus on the most important content and

behaviors emphasized during the course (or particular section of the course). What are the
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primary ideas, issues, and skills you hope students learn during a particular

course/unit/module? These are the learning outcomes you wish to measure. For example, if

your learning outcome involves memorization, then you should assess for memorization or

classification; if you hope students will develop problem-solving capacities, your exams should

focus on assessing students application and analysis skills. As a general rule, assessments thatfocus too heavily on details (e.g., isolated facts, figures, etc.) will probably lead to better

student retention of the footnotes at the cost of the main points" (Halpern & Hakel, 2003, p.

40). As noted in Table 1, each type of exam item may be better suited to measuring some

learning outcomes than others, and each has its advantages and disadvantages in terms of ease

of design, implementation, and scoring.

Table 1: Advantages and Disadvantages of Commonly Used Types of Achievement Test Items

Type of Item Advantages Disadvantages

True-False Many items can be administered in a

relatively short time. Moderately easyto write; easily scored.

Limited primarily to testing knowledge of

information. Easy to guess correctly onmany items, even if material has not

been mastered.

Multiple-Choice Can be used to assess broad range of

content in a brief period. Skillfully

written items can measure higher order

cognitive skills. Can be scored quickly.

Difficult and time consuming to write

good items. Possible to assess higher

order cognitive skills, but most items

assess only knowledge. Some correct

answers can be guesses.

Matching Items can be written quickly. A broad

range of content can be assessed.

Scoring can be done efficiently.

Higher order cognitive skills are difficult

to assess.

Short Answer or

Completion

Many can be administered in a briefamount of time. Relatively efficient to

score. Moderately easy to write.

Difficult to identify defensible criteria forcorrect answers. Limited to questions

that can be answered or completed in

very few words.

Essay Can be used to measure higher order

cognitive skills. Relatively easy to write

questions. Difficult for respondent to

get correct answer by guessing.

Time consuming to administer and score.

Difficult to identify reliable criteria for

scoring. Only a limited range of content

can be sampled during any one testing

period.

Adapted from Table 10.1 of Worthen, et al., 1993, p. 261.


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Evaluation of Test Results in Psychometric Tests:

In order to evaluate the results, it is categorized in two part exam. The first part where the

examinee takes the exam whether it may be verbal, analytic, cognitive, spatial, etc and the

second part is where he/she is evaluated based from time.

CORRECT SCORES

TOTAL SCORES.75

TIME FINISHED

TIME REQUIRED.25

100%

100%TIME FACTOR

EXAM RESULT

TOTAL RANKING

SCORE


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How to score the examinee

Test score

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