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Psychometric tests are now a common part of the assessment of job applicants. The term covers both ability or aptitude tests and personality questionnaires.
Different psychometric tests are designed to assess a number of attributes. Some evaluate your reasoning abilities and skills, whereas others look at your preferences and likely responses or judgements in different situations.
The tests that employers use will have been carefully researched and trialled, to ensure that they provide valid and reliable assessment of the people who take them.
Employers frequently use a variety of methods to select the right people. The aim is to improve the quality of candidate evaluations in order to identify candidates with the greatest likelihood of success in the role and the organisation. The greater the variety of situations in which recruiters see you perform, and the more accurate and objective the assessment of your relevant skillset should be. Tests are simply one way of assessing some of the skills and facets that the organisation considers most relevant to a specific job, and should ideally have been designed with that type of work in mind.
From an employer’s point of view, tests are also a reasonably cost-efficient way of assessing a large number of applicants. For example, the biggest UK graduate recruiters will receive tens of thousands of applications and pre-screening candidates on-line provides them with both consistency and high-capacity tools ahead of inviting candidate to (comparatively expensive) interviews.
You are quite likely to come across psychometric tests in a recruitment context, and employers can use psychometric tests at different stages during the recruitment process. Some (the Fast Stream Civil Service, for example) use tests to assist in the decision on whom they should invite to interview; others use them at a later stage, as part of a series of selection exercises.
The companies that develop the psychometric tests will require the recruiting firms to fully understand the limitations of each test. For example, properly developed tests will have clearly understood indicators for the accuracy and reliability of the test-taker’s score, and companies using tests for screening purposed should set their ‘pass’ mark conservatively with due consideration for the known range of uncertainty for any particular score.
Psychometric tests can also be used by you to understand where your strengths lie and what career areas might be most appropriate and of most interest to you. Further details on this are below.
These test either your logical reasoning or thinking performance, usually in verbal, numerical or abstract reasoning; they are neither tests of general knowledge nor of intelligence.
Tests usually consist of a timed series of multiple-choice questions, and are usually computer-based. It does not matter if you do not finish the test (although you should complete as many questions as possible); it is the number of correct answers which counts. Your score is then compared with the results of a ‘norm group’ which has taken the tests in the past. Selectors are then able to assess your reasoning skills in relation to others, and to make judgements about your ability to cope with the tasks involved in a given job.
The significance of your test score will vary depending on where in the selection process the tests are used. Organisations which use these tests to screen candidates ahead of first interview are likely to set a pass/fail score to screen out candidates perhaps in conjunction with a review of an applicaiton form or CV. Good practice would be for any such pass/fail cut off point to be set conservatively (i.e. low) to avoid unintended biases and the inherent difficulties in developing tests that consistently and reliably measure the abilities being assessed. Organisations which use the tests later in the selection process are more likely to use your results as just one of the criteria for overall selection. A less-than-ideal performance on one of the tests, for example, may be compensated for by a good performance in other selection exercises – particularly those measuring the same competency/ability.
Personality questionnaires explore the way you tend to react to, or prefer to deal with, different situations. They are ‘self-report’ questionnaires (meaning that a profile is drawn up from your responses to a number of questions or statements), and focus on a variety of personality factors, such as how you relate to other people, your ability to deal with your own and others’ emotions, your motivations and determination and your general outlook.
Unlike aptitude tests there are no right or wrong answers, and questionnaires are usually completed in your own time. From your responses, the recruiter gains information about your preferences and behaviour and how and why you might choose to do things in your own way; occasionally it might form the basis for discussion at a subsequent interview.
The recruiters will not be looking for a rigid, ‘typical’ personality profile. Whilst certain characteristics may be more or less appropriate for particular jobs or organisations the fact is that a mix of types is good for any part of an organisation, and people are frequently able to apply themselves and succeed by consciously behaving outside their core personality type; for example, a large proportion of highly successful actors are natural introverts, which at first may appear counter-intuitive.
Personality questionnaires exploring either your interests or values should not be used for selection. These are designed to clarify what fields of work interest you, or what factors make work worthwhile for you and can, therefore, be very useful in helping you to consider what work might be a great natural fit for you. You are more likely to come across them either in a careers guidance setting or in an appraisal/development context once in work. For example, you can bring your ideas and insights from using the Oxford Careers Compass for further discussion in one-to-one meeting with a careers adviser.
For a more structured approach, the careers service offers a monthly three-hour group session on understanding your personal style using the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), which we consider most appropriate for researchers and alumni. These are led by our Alumni Adviser, and there is usually a charge attached to cover the costs of the MBTI test. Details can be found on the event calendar on CareerConnect .
The best way to approach all of these questionnaires is just to answer them as straightforwardly and honestly as you can. Trying to second-guess what the employer or questionnaire is looking for is difficult, and can be counter-productive because tests will also evaluate the internal consistency of your answers and anyone trying to ‘game the test’ is likely to have their results red-flagged as unreliable (and therefore, unusable). Even if you do successfully mislead the tools and the recruiters, it’s worth considering whether you actually want to take on a job which is unlikely to really suit you and your preferred style.
Situational judgement or critical thinking tests are used by some recruiters to assess candidates’ judgement when solving work-related problems. Candidates are presented with work-related scenarios and asked to choose the most effective (and sometimes the least effective as well) from a selection of possible responses, or are asked to rank all the suggested responses in order of effectiveness.
Typically candidates are advised that the best way to approach these tests is to consider the detailed implications of the possible responses and then make an honest judgement, rather than trying to second guess the “best” response. For example, recruiters will recommend applicants to be honest – “just tell the truth and we will pick the best candidate”.
However, it is worth remembering that you will be taking a ‘Judgement’ test for a specific organisation and a particular role. The organisation’s values and culture therefore provide a context for the judgements you will be making, and how your answers will be evaluated. In fact, organisations tend to use ‘senior leaders or experts in the company’ when developing their SJTs to ensure that the preferred answers properly reflect what would be considered ‘most effective and least effective’ within their specific organisation.
One quirk that derives from this is that these tests are not definitively about right and wrong! Answers that will knock you ‘out’ of the recruitment process for one organisation or job function may well keep you ‘in’ for a different organisation or function. For example, what may be required of someone seeking a business development role in a highly competitive industry will be different from someone applying to a Human Resources role to improve management processes and staff development in the same organisation.
So, what can a student do to prepare for such questionnaires? The first step would be to look at all of the advice on the company’s website.
Read this information to try to get under the skin of the firm – who they are, how they see themselves and what that might mean in relation to the people they choose to hire and promote. If you can, meet people at career fairs and presentations – or through your networking – ask them about the organisation’s culture. Seek examples that show:
Usually you will also be given the chance to take some practice questions (and examine the answers) before taking any of these tests. These are your best opportunity to get an insight into the company’s way of thinking. If you get the practice questions right, then great – but any you get wrong, it’s worth reviewing your answer and their answer against the organisation’s stated values and competencies to better understand the subtleties at work. Some organisations provide practice questions anyone can try, with the chance to review your answers, before applying (e.g., Diageo and the Civil Service Fast Stream), but remember, different firms with a different context and ethos may make different judgements and so one-size will not fit every organisation.
Our consistent advice is to make a relatively small number of well researched highly tailored applications rather than a large number of generic and relatively poorly researched applications. There are many potential organisations and roles within them – if your research suggests that you are not a good fit for the firm, move on to those that will be a better match – and if you are weeded out by personality and judgement based tests, it’s perfectly possible that too is a positive outcome for you.
Some of the traits that companies may be interested in and which can be evaluated by tests relate to other facets of performance: speed and flexibility of thought; how many different facts or ideas you can hold in your head; you capacity to concentrate, or follow a stream of increasingly complicated instructions or requirements; reaction time. You may well have encountered some of these in apps and games that you play: Metro Trains Melbourne’s “Dumb Ways to Die” app is a really good example.
Psychologists, recruiters and game developers are beginning to introduce these kinds of games into the recruitment mix. Sites or apps to try include Pymetrics and the MENSA Brain training app (free 7 day trial) – if you find other, please let us know. Play the games to get a sense of them, and the extent to which practising will enhance your performance – as with other psychometric tools, initial practice and familiarisation will help you to improve your scores quickly, but expect your performance to quite quickly get close to you natural peak and further practise is likely to provide only marginal improvement.
You can prepare for the most commonly encountered tests of ability/aptitude tests. These are designed to assess your ‘potential’ rather than your ‘knowledge’ and your preparation should therefore be focused on test-technique and knowledge so you are ready for the test you are about to take rather than trying to learn new information:
Ability tests often evaluating aspects mental agility and intelligence, and it can be helpful to play a variety of word games, mathematical teasers and diagrammatic puzzles to switch your brain on and get you into a logical and analytical frame of mind. The following ideas may help.
It is very useful to practice a few tests beforehand to get used to the variety of questions you may come across, and the time pressures you will face. Many tests are designed so that very few people will complete all the questions, and may get harder as you go through them – computer based systems now allow for adaptive questioning so that the difficulty of the next questions increases or decreases according to whether you got the previous question correct, and this allows test designers to more accurately pinpoint each individual’s maximum level of performance.
There are a large number of ‘practice tests’ you can access free of charge, and any recruiting organisation that invites you to take a test should provide some practice materials – these are particularly important as they should match the style of questions you will encounter in the actual tests (but students quite often claim the examples tend to be easier than the tests!).
From the beginning of September 2018 the Careers Service will provide free access to a very extensive range of practice material provided by JobTestPrep. An additional free resource offering a whole bank of tests to anyone registering with an Oxford University email address (i.e. one ending .ox.ac.uk) is provided for us by Practice Aptitude Tests.
The companies that develop and sell tests also often provide access to free practice tests. Often these will be questions in development and are most likely to mirror the tests that organisations are already using. However, usually you will only get overall-test feedback rather than being able to review your responses question-by-question against the correct answers because these questions may end up in actual assessment tests and the firms cannot provide the correct answers in case that reduces the validity of the final assessments.
Remember that, unless a job requires a very high level of numeracy, numerical tests are not likely to be pitched higher than GCSE-level maths.
Practise basic mental arithmetic with and without a calculator. Addition, subtraction, division, multiplication and calculations of percentages and ratios are commonly required, and the ability to extract information from charts and graphs can be as important as the actual calculations in these tests. It can be useful to reading financial reports and studying data in charts (e.g. in the quality or financial press), but you can also play games and set yourself (and your friends) challenges, such as estimate: how many times will your bike wheel rotate between College and the Careers Service/sports ground or boathouse/(parents’) home?; how many lamp-posts are there in Oxford? How may parcels a day does the Royal Mail handle?
The Careers Service also offers sessions to refresh numeracy skills for aptitude tests.
Verbal reasoning skills – these are more difficult to brush up quickly than mathematical techniques. Reading manuals, technical reports or academic and business journals may help. Practise extracting and summarising the main points from passages of information.
The best thing that you can do is take some practices tests online. The Careers Service has arranged free online access to a series of complete aptitude tests (see Our Resources below) and other sites where you can practice are listed in External Resources.
Practice can help you to feel more confident about sitting these tests, but remember that the tests are intended to assess your natural aptitude. Be realistic, and note that once you have practised a little, the additional ‘return’ on spending a lot of time preparing for tests will rapidly diminish. In particular, if you are in your final year, keep in mind that your degree result will be more significant in your future career than an aptitude test result.
You can be asked to do a test online in your own time, or in a formal test-setting as part of an assessment day, and don’t be surprised if you are re-tested at an assessment centre as this is quite common. If you have a disability and think you may require special provision, discuss this with the employer in advance of the test session, and they will be able to make additional provision for you, as you can expect to in your University examinations. See the section below for a fuller explanation.
Whether it is advisable to guess answers will depend on how the test is being marked. Some tests simply award marks for correct answers, whilst others also penalise wrong ones. If you are not told the marking policy during the introduction to the test, you can try asking to help determine your strategy. The best approach is probably to go for your best choice but to avoid wild guessing.
If you have not done well on a test, remember that there can be a number of reasons for poor performance. These could include feeling tired or under the weather, being unable to concentrate due to personal problems, misunderstanding what you had to do, answering questions too slowly or panicking. Poor test results on the day do not necessarily mean that you lack ability, so you may like to discuss your test technique with a Careers Adviser, or to sit a practice test to get feedback on what might be going wrong.
Whilst everyone has certain innate abilities, it is possible (given time) to further develop particular abilities using some of the practice resources suggested on this sheet. It is, however, a fact that some people will not reach the required standard, and inevitably some of these will fall short by only a very narrow margin. Also, some organisations do set the bar high, quite often after testing recent hires and staff to calibrate an appropriate ‘score’ for the organisation.
Psychometric tests can often be useful in creating a level-playing field for those with a disability, as it is a form of selection that is less open to the biases emanating from other systems, such as interviews. Everyone who takes a psychometric test is given an equivalent assessment, and takes them under the same conditions.
However, most companies will ensure that reasonable adjustments are made to ensure a level playing-field. These might include setting a lower pass mark, providing a personal reader/writer or signer, allowing extra time to do the test or providing specialised equipment (e.g. loop systems/Braille keyboards).
If English is not your first language, you may be anxious about the effect this might have on your performance in psychometric tests, in particular in verbal reasoning tests. While recruiters may take your concerns about your level of English into account, different companies will be more or less flexible about this. Test providers sometimes give employers an idea of the extent to which language ability may affect scores. Remember though that good English language ability will be important to them for working in the UK, and so compensation for lack of ability in this area is likely to be minimal.
From the beginning of September 2018 the Careers Service will provide free access to a very extensive range of practice material provided by JobTestPrep. The JobTestPrep resources include not only the core numerical, verbal and abstract reasoning tests, but also extensive resources for Situational Judgement Tests; the Waston Glaser tests (frequently used by law firms); practice e-tray exercises; and an expanding number of practice tests designed to match tests used by specific employers.
An additional free resource offering a whole bank of tests to anyone registering with an Oxford University email address (i.e. one ending .ox.ac.uk) is provided for us by Practice Aptitude Tests.
Many employers who use these tests also offer practice versions on their own websites, and we recommend you use these to practise and prepare too if applying to that particular employer.
At KPMG, our purpose is to “Inspire Confidence and Empower Change”, helping China to open its doors to the rest of the world and work with our clients to create the future. As one of the world’s leading professional firms offering audit, tax and advisory services, we have around 12,000 partners and staff working across 19 cities in China.
With our first-class learning and development programme for new joiners, you will be able to unleash your potential and become an integral part of a multi-disciplinary team to help our clients excel in the changing market environment. Our reputation as a leading professional service provider is reinforced by the wide range of awards KPMG has received over the years as the employer of choice, for our strong community involvement and our wealth of knowledge in the professional industries. A perfect place to start an extraordinary career!
Early offer opportunity
This year, you have an ‘early offer opportunity’ which will allow you to secure a place on our world-class graduate programme before returning back to university for your final year thus allowing you to focus on your studies. Don’t miss your chance to stay one step ahead of your peers! All degree disciplines are welcome. This unique opportunity means that you can go through the selection process in August. We strongly encourage you to complete the application now or before 5 August to ensure that you don’t miss out on the chance to secure a position for 2019 before you enter your final year, leaving you free to focus on your studies.
If you’re interested in our 2018/19 KPMG graduate programme, please apply here
(select “2019 Graduate Programme” in the system). For further details, please visit
our website. Personal data will be collected for recruitment purposes only.
Should you have any queries, feel free to email us at graduates.hk@kpmg.com or call
our hotline (+852) 2525 5845.
We have a team member – Maria Forrest, dedicated to mainland Chinese / Hong Kong
students wishing to return home after graduation. Please feel free to contact her with
any enquiries at maria.forrest@kpmg.com.
When: 22 and 23 August 2018
Where: Plantation Place, 30 Fenchurch Street, London, EC3M 3BD
Be yourself, make a difference
At Accenture, we feel strongly about the importance of inclusion and diversity. We’re holding two events for students and graduates this August as a fantastic opportunity to help you explore career options as you plan your future. Each event will have panel discussions where you can ask questions about everything from employability skills, the work we do and our culture.
You will have a tour of our innovation centre, get involved in employability and recruitment sessions, as well as network with experts across various business areas over drinks and nibbles. To attend, students should be in their second year of study (about to go into their third), or recently graduated with 340+ UCAS points (or equivalent) in their top three A-Levels and be from a BAME background.
There are limited spaces available. So, apply today by sending your CV and a covering letter stating why you wish to attend to events@staffordlong.co.uk
In 6th week Trinity Term, the Careers Service invited five Finalist who all held offers for the UK Civil Service (3x Fast Streamers; +1 Direct entry; +1 HMT Graduate programme) to talk about their experiences in the application and interview process, including their attendance of numerous assessment centres:
The Careers Service has a comprehensive written account of this presentation that is available to current students through the Careers Service’s Interview Database.
If you are considering an application for the civil service this autumn, expect positions to open from mid-August or early September, and to close in the 3rd week of October. Last year, all Fast Stream programmes, including the early and summer diversity internship programmes had the same early application deadline.
If you are well prepared, you should be able to navigate the early stages before term starts, which will mean you have ample time to prepare for each new phase. You can use the account of our offer-holders panel together with our Government and Public Sector briefing paper to get your bearings and make a start with your preparations. And remember, support from the Careers Service is available throughout the summer, wherever you are.
*Alumni cannot access our interview database. Any recent alumni considering applications to the Civil Service can request their own copy of the panel session by writing to reception@careers.ox.ac.uk with details of their College, Oxford Degree course and their year of completion.
The Stelios Award is a business award run in partnership between Leonard Cheshire and with the Stelios Philanthropic Foundation. It recognises the exceptional spirit and business ability of disabled entrepreneurs. It is open to disabled applicants operating in the UK exclusively, the award uses the Equality Act 2010 definition of disability, which includes long-term mental and physical health conditions, to measure eligibility.
Each of the five finalists win £10,000 with the winner receiving an extra £20,000 to help kickstart their business or take it to the next level.
All forms of entrepreneurship and planned business activity in the UK, including start-ups, social enterprise or up-and-running businesses, can apply.
Deadline for applications is 1 October 2018. For more information and how to apply visit the Stelios Philanthropic Foundation Facebook page, or the Leonard Cheshire website.
Come up with a problem-solving idea or innovation that will improve the UK automotive business and you could win £8,000 plus a five-month work experience placement at Horiba Mira, Jaguar Land Rover, McLaren Automotive, Nissan and Toyota.
Describe an idea or innovation that would improve the UK automotive business. The idea should fall into one of five categories – Mobility, Connectivity, Sustainability, Customer Experience, or Marketing and Communications – and it could focus on any area of the automotive business, from concept through to the sales showroom, car ownership and the aftermarket.
The deadline for entries is 17:00 on Friday, 31 August 2018.
Visit the website and enter today.
Terms and conditions apply. See website for details.
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