PSYCHOMETRICTESTINGThewhat’sandhow’sofpreparingforpsychometrictesting

ByEllieKinahan

Psychometric testing sounds scary, but it’s really not. Unlike a lot of other aspects of the

clerkshipapplicationprocess,psychometrictestingisonethatyoucanprepareforandcontrol.

Withsomanyfacetstotheapplicationprocess,itwouldbeashametohaveanoutstanding

applicationandflopinthepsychometrictestingstage.Notallfirmsusepsychometrictesting,

and others use it in varying ways, but there’s a general theme to the testing. Essentially,

psychometric testing gives firms a way in which to ‘objectively’ compare applicants.

Therearemanycomponentstothetestingprocess, includingnumerical,verbal, logicaland

behaviouraltesting.Differentcompanieswillhavedifferentnamesforthesecategoriesoreven

sub-categories, but it all boils down tobehaviour and logic. Perhaps thehardest aspectof

psychometrictestingthoughisthefactthatitis(almostalways)timed.Akeyskillthattheyare

testingisyourabilitytosucceedundertimeconditions–storyofourlife.Thisistheareain

whichpreparationiskey,andthesooneryoustartpractising,theeasieritwillbeduringyour

clerkshipapplicationstage.

Alloftheexamplesprovidedhavebeentakenfrompractiseaptitudetests.com.Theyareagood

exampleofthelevelofdifficultywhichyoumayneedtobepreparedfor.Differentfirmswill

usedifferentpsychometrictestingprovidersanddonotopenlysharepractisequestions,soit

isessentiallyimpossibletoknowwhatyouareupagainst.Thepurposeofthisarticleisforyou

tobecomeawareofthedifferentthemesofquestionsthatmaybeaskedandtohelpyouto

understand how to best prepare yourself for whatever test they give you.

NUMERIC

ThroughthevariouspractisetestsIhavefound,thereappearstobetwodifferentcategories

ofnumerictesting.Whilstarangeofbasicmathematicsskillsisessential,thegeneraltheme

ofthesetests isnumericreasoningand interpretingsituationsthatdealwithnumbers.The

firstcategoryappearstobetestinggeneralnumericreasoningi.e.‘ifDavehas10applesand

gives4toJanehowmanyapplesdoesDavehave?’(butnotasbasicobviously).Thesecond

categoryismuchmorecommonandinvolvesastrongcommercial/economictheme.Typically,

thesetypesoftestwillgiveyouatableorchartshowing,forexample,acompany’sprofit,loss

andpercentagegrowthoverseveralyearsandtheywillaskquestionssuchas‘Ifthegrowth

rateandlossremainsconstant inthenextyear,whatwillthecompany’sprofitbe?’.Again,

thesearesimplifiedexamples.Thequestionscangetrathercomplicated,butthemoreyoudo,

theeasieritistoknowwhattolookfor.

Example1:

Example2:

VERBAL

Averbalreasoningtestisbasicallyamorecomplexversionofthereadingcomprehensiontests

wegotinHighSchool,buttheyaren’ttoofarfromwhatweareusedto.Aswithcomprehension

tests,oneofthehardestpartsofthistestisusingyourtimeefficiently.Thetestwillgiveyoua

passageoftextandthenaskaquestionrelatedtowhatyouhavejustread.Theymaygiveyou

adifferentpassageforeachquestion,ortheremaybeseveralquestionsbasedontheonetext.

Thebesttechniqueforcompletingsuchatestistoreadthequestionfirst,asitgivesyoua

purposewhen you’re reading the text and allows you to automatically disregard any non-

essentiallines.Youcanthenre-readthetextifneedsbe,butatleastifyoufindtheanswer

straightawaythereisnoneedtocontinue.Thekeywiththesequestionsistobeobjectivein

answeringthequestionas,unlikeourmultiplechoicetestsatUniversity,thecorrectansweris

justaslikelytobetheelusive‘cannottell’or‘alloftheabove’responses.Youarenotallowed

tomakeassumptionsfromthetext.Ifthetextdoesnotexplicitlysupportthestatement,you

cannotinferthatitdoes.

Example1:

Example2:

LOGIC

Inmyopinion,thisisoneofthehardesttypesoftesting.IfanyonedidtheUMATinYear12,

theywillknowthis.Unliketheothercategories,whenyoustartpractisingthistypeoftesting,

itdoesnotcometoyounaturally.Italmostseemsimpossible.Butthere’sgoodnews–it’sone

oftheeasiestteststopractiseandthereisanabundanceofpractisequestionsofalldifficulties.

Logictestsevaluateyourinductivereasoningthroughyourabilitytointerpretpatternsfrom

shapes.Themoreyoudo,theeasiertheybecome.Youcantrainyourbraintorecognisecertain

patternsquitequickly,andifitdoesn’tcometoyoustraightaway,thereareafewcheckboxes

youcangothrough.

The bestway to start to understand these patterns is to go throughworked examples, or

throughtrialanderror.Here’sonetogetyoustarted(blocktheparagraphunderneathoutif

youdon’twanttoseetheanswer):

Workedexample:

ThecorrectanswerforthisquestionisA.ThefirstpatternthatIlookedforwhenanswering

thisquestionwasthewayinwhichtheblackdiamondmoved.It’sagoodstartingpointtolook

foranobviousmarker–adarker shadedshape.Theblackdiamondmoves2pointsof the

heptagonalongeverytimeinacounter-clockwisedirection.Thisnarrowsdownouroptionsto

A, B and D where the black diamond is in the left middle point of the heptagon.

Thesecondshapetolookatisthetriangle.Coincidentallyitfollowstheexactsamepatternas

the black diamond, just from a different starting position. This narrows down our options

further toAandBwhere the triangle is in the top righthandcornerof theheptagon.The

featurethatdistinguishesAfromBisthecircle,sowemustnowlookatthewayinwhichthe

circle moves. The circle appears to be jumping 3 points of the heptagon every time in a

clockwisedirection, leavinguswiththecorrectanswerofA.This isagoodfirstexampleto

work through as the patterns are quite simple. Some other patterns to look for in future

examplesinclude:

• Numberofpointsintheshapes/objections

• Shadingofshapes/objects

• Chronologicallyincreasingnumberofjumps(i.e.2points,then3points,then4points)

• Directionthatshapes/objectsarepointing

Thekeytologictestingisthat,asthenameinfers,therewillalwaysbelogicalreasoningbehind

theanswer.Thismeansthattherewillalwaysbeadecipherablepattern,youjustneedtoknow

whattolookfor.Therearesomemoreexamplesbelow.

Example1:

Example2:

BEHAVIOURAL

Thisisnotascommoninalotoftheonlinepsychometricpractisetests,butitislikelytofeature

inalawfirmstestingscheme.Thebestwaytogetagrasponsomeone’spersonalitybefore

meetingthemface-to-facemightbethroughabehaviouraltest.Oftenintheseteststhereisn’t

aright/wrongansweroragood/badscore.Thescorethatyougetmightbeputagainstascale

andmightindicateyourtypeofpersonality.Itisunknownhowpersuasivethesetestsarein

the application process, but they are often situational and are probably purpose

picked/designedbythefirmthemselves.Oftenwiththesequestionsitiseasytoseewhatthe

objectiveofthequestionis–forexample,ifit’saskingaboutastressfulsituationtheywillbe

lookingatyourresponsetoseehowyoumightreactinreallife.Sothinkcarefullyaboutyour

response,andwhatanidealcandidatewouldsay!

Example1:

Example2:

RESOURCES

Thereareanumberofgreatfreeresourcesonline.Theseareagreatstart,buttheyoftenonly

offer one level of difficulty, donot provide answer guides (just anoverall score) andhave

limitedpractisequestions.Therearealsoanumberofcompanieswhichyoucanbuycoaching

andpractisepackagesoff.Thereareevencoursesthatyoucanattend. It isuptoyouhow

mucheffort,timeorexpenseyouwanttocontributetopreparingyourselfforpsychometric

testing.

Herearesomegreatfreeresources:

• http://www.practiceaptitudetests.com/

• https://www.assessmentday.co.uk/aptitudetests_verbal.htm

• http://www.psychometricinstitute.co.uk/

• http://elearn.pwc.co.uk/psychometric/try.html(Highlyrecommended)

• http://www.psychometric-success.com/downloads/download-practice-tests.htm

• http://www.similarminds.com/personality_tests.html#.V5q7g5N97fY

• https://www.cebglobal.com/shldirect/en/practice-tests/