How to prepare for and pass psychometric tests

Psychometric tests are used regularly by organisations during their recruitment process. Ultimately, they are designed to test a candidate’s skills, abilities and personality to ensure they get the right person for the job.

If you are currently applying for graduate jobs, internships, work placements or school leaver programmes you have probably heard of psychometric tests. Take a look at our guide below to learn more about the different types of tests and how you can prepare.

What are psychometric tests?

Psychometric tests are designed to test your skills, abilities, verbal/numerical reasoning, personality traits, knowledge and motivations. They are often used in the early stages of a recruitment process either as part of the application or at an assessment centre. Usually, these are completed online but sometimes they may be completed on paper.

Types of psychometric tests

There are two main types of psychometric tests – personality tests and aptitude tests.

Personality Tests

Personality tests are designed to gain an understanding of your character, emotions, behaviours, style of work, interests and motivations. Here the employer is seeking to identify whether you would fit in with the organisation and whether you have the skill set they are looking for.

Usually, you will be presented with several statements including feelings, behaviours, ways of working or actions and asked to indicate which you most align with. Sometimes you will be asked to indicate your level of agreement or support for each statement using a five or seven-point scale.

Aptitude Tests

Aptitude tests are designed to test your cognitive and reasoning abilities. They are usually completed under exam conditions and can take several formats:

Numerical Reasoning. Here the employer is seeking to understand how well you work with numbers, in particular your ability to answer questions about or draw conclusions from data, numbers, graphs or statistics. Sometimes you may be asked about percentages, currencies, rates or trends.

Diagrammatic Reasoning. Also known as ‘abstract reasoning’ this tests your ability to identify relationships or patterns from a series of shapes, sequences or images.

Verbal Reasoning. These assess your ability to understand written information. You will be given some text to read before answering some questions.

Situational Judgement. Similar to a role-play exercise you will be given some hypothetical situations and asked how you will respond. Usually, you will need to choose between several responses based on how you would deal with the situation. Sometimes you will need to indicate what you believe is the most effective and least effective response.

How to prepare for psychometric tests

Practise

There are lots of psychometric assessments available online that you can use to practice. These will help you see how information and questions will be presented to you and what sort of questions will be asked. Practising psychometric tests will help you identify which areas you are struggling with and become confident with answering questions under time constraints.

Your university or college careers service may also have practice tests that you can use. They may also offer sessions where you can take a psychometric test under time constraints (just like an employer would). Some employers may also offer practice assessments on their recruitment websites.

Research the company

It may be worthwhile researching the company to see if you can find out whether psychometric tests are used during their recruitment process and the type of tests they use. Some organisations may provide this information on their website or you may be informed during the application process. If you cannot find any information on the employer’s website try independent careers websites such as Glassdoor which feature reviews from current or former employees.

Tips for passing a psychometric test

Read the instructions carefully

Before you start the test read through the instructions to ensure you understand exactly what you need to do. Look over any information you have been given such as graphs, tables, images or numbers and think about what you will need to do with them.

Be honest

When it comes to the personality test there are no right or wrong answers. The whole point is to give the company a true reflection of what you are like. Don’t try to tailor your answers to what you think the company wants to hear (they can usually tell if you have done this).

Pay attention to the time

Find out how much time you have to complete the test and work out how long you will have to spend on each question. If you get stuck on a particular question move on to another question and come back to it later. No point in wasting time on one question when there are other questions for you to complete.

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