Career resources

Pyschometric testing

While selection methods such as group discussions and presentations measure the effectiveness of behaviour, psychometric tests measure more inherent characteristics in three basic areas:

• Ability: peoples’ capacity to work with  numbers, words, diagrams and systems.
• Attainment: what people actually know about an area.
• Personality: how people are typically likely or prefer to act. This covers a huge range of aspects from peoples’  preferred work styles to their motivations and values.

 It is strongly recommended that you complete any example questions you are provided with. If none are made available, you may find it beneficial to look at any of the following websites

 Major Test Suppliers such as ASE and SHL publish example questions on their websites.

The British Psychological Society psychometric testing website provides a more in-depth document that may act as an informative guide.

These practice questions will not increase your ability, but can improve your performance by making you more confident about the format of current ability tests.
When completing the practice questions do not just check answers are correct, but try
to understand why those answers are correct. If you did not get the answers correct first time, do not panic, but ensure you understand why the answer was wrong.

There are no formal requirements to prepare for the psychometric testing but there are some common sense guidelines, which may help with your performance on the day:

• Get a good night sleep before the assessment.
• If you have any disabilities or special requirements, contact the assessor in advance.
• Allow plenty of time to get to the session.
• Prepare any questions you might have.
• Listen carefully to the instructions given at the outset of each test.
• If in doubt - ask!