Preparing for Psychometric Tests

Practical tips and resources to help you ace psychometric tests

Many of us experience fear and anxiety when faced with the prospect of sitting a psychometric or aptitude test. Employers sometimes use psychometric, aptitude and personality tests as part of their selection process during the process of identifying the best talent to bring on board. Psychometric or aptitude tests are made up of numerical, verbal and spatial reasoning tests that measure your cognitive abilities.

As part of a selection process you might also be subjected to personality assessment which assesses your personality based on the ‘Big 5 model of personality’ which measures traits such as: openness, agreeableness, extrovertism, neuroticism and conscientiousness. Personality assessments can be challenging as the ‘right’ answers can be subjective and vary depending on what qualities or traits an employer is seeking.

The best way to prepare for testing is to spend some time becoming familiar with the kinds of questions you will face. You can do this by taking practice tests that pose example questions for you to practice answering. I’ve compiled a list of practical test sites where you can sit practice tests to help you become more comfortable and competent in answering typical psychometric and personality test questions.

Practice psychometric and personality assessment sites:

Practice Aptitude Tests
Psychometric Success
Cubiks online assessments
Team Technology: Free Personality Test
Human Metrics: Jung Typology Test

Other helpful resources to learn more about psychometric and personality assessments:

Prospects Guide to Psychometric tests
University of Kent: How to pass graduate aptitude tests
PwC Psychometric e-learn
TARGETjobs

Top test taking tips:

• Dedicate some time to undergo practice testing at least a week before your testing date and to re-sit the practice tests until you feel more confident
• Make sure you arrive at the test location early (at least 10 minutes beforehand) so that you have plenty of time to get your bearings and put yourself in the right frame of mind
• Take your time and read through all instructions before you start the test to ensure you fully understand what is expected of you
• Once you’ve started the test, work methodically through each question making sure you understand the question before answering and submitting your responses
• Be mindful of time as most tests will be timed and in some cases the length of time taken impacts on your results (this is where dedicating enough time to practice really helps)
• Stay calm and keep breathing, reassure yourself with some positive self-talk if you are overcome with anxiety or doubt.