Preparation for Psychometric tests - Aptitude, Reasoning, Cognitive, Emotional Intelligence and Personality tests
This comprehensive psychometric test guide, developed by the Psychometric Institute’s experienced Australian psychometricians, explains what psychometric tests are, what they measure, how employers use them in recruitment, and how to prepare effectively for employment assessments.
Psychometric testing includes aptitude tests, personality tests, emotional intelligence assessments and other job-related evaluations. These tests help employers assess candidates’ cognitive abilities, behavioural characteristics, problem-solving skills and suitability for specific roles.
Effective psychometric test preparation should be specific to the occupation, job level and specific assessment requirements. Different employers and occupations use different combinations of tests, question styles and difficulty levels.
Drawing on extensive experience in psychometric testing, the Psychometric Institute provides expert guidance, free psychometric practice tests, sample questions, detailed answer explanations and job-specific preparation resources to help candidates understand their strengths, improve their test-taking skills and approach employment assessments with greater confidence.
What is a Psychometric Test?
A Psychometric test is a standardised assessment used to measure characteristics such as cognitive ability, aptitude, reasoning, personality or behavioural preferences.
Australian employers commonly use psychometric assessments during recruitment to compare candidates against requirements associated with a particular role.
Employers and recruiters sometimes use other names for Psychometric tests. They might use aptitude tests, personality tests, or reasoning tests. All those are types of psychometric tests.
Why is it important to prepare for a Psychometric Test?
Psychometric tests are designed to measure candidates abilities and behavioural preferences. However, these tests' scores are very much impacted by candidates' level of stress, ability to perform under pressure and ability to cope with unfamiliar situations. All these make candidates' preparation a key element in their capability to attain a high score on these tests.
What types of Psychometric tests are there?
There are many types of Psychometric tests. Each type measures a candidate's specific cognitive ability or personality characteristics.
The most common type of psychometric tests are the Reasoning tests or Cognitive tests or Aptitude tests. These tests measure candidates' abilities in a wide range of cognitive or aptitude areas. These test are also used by employers as measurement of candidates' specific intelligence.
The most popular reasoning tests are:
- Abstract or inductive reasoning tests. These tests measure candidate's ability to quickly think on their feet, solve problems and think strategic.
- Verbal reasoning tests. These tests measure candidates' ability to quickly and logically process written information and to identify key issues as well as draw conclusions.
- Numerical reasoning tests. These tests measure candidates' ability to quickly process numerical information and draw conclusions.
- Spatial reasoning tests. These tests measure candidates' ability to understand, visualise and mentally manipulate objects in space.
- Mechanical reasoning tests. These tests measure candidates' ability to quickly understand and apply basic mechanical principles to solve problems.
Employers will typically use several types of reasoning or cognitive tests to measure candidates' suitability for a job, The type of tests the used depends on the job requirements.
Another very common type of Psychometric tests are the Personality tests. These tests measure candidates' characteristics, behaviours, attitudes and preferences. Employers typically use these tests to identify potential risks in recruiting candidates.
There are many types of personality tests used by employers. Each personality test measures a slightly different combination of characteristics, preferences, behaviours and attitudes.
There are several types of personality tests:
- General personality tests. These tests measure candidates' overall characteristics, behaviour and preferences.
- Work Safety tests. These tests measure candidates' specific characteristics and preferences that relate to work safety.
- Emotional intelligence tests. These tests measure candidates' characteristics that relate to emotional intelligence. These tests typically measure candidates' ability to identify emotions, predict emotional responses and manage emotions.
Preparation for Psychometric tests
Since 2007 we have developed many professional and comprehensive Psychometric test preparation solutions and guides with practical facts, example aptitude and personality test questions and valuable tips how to perform best in the aptitude tests, cognitive tests, reasoning tests, personality tests, work safety tests, emotional intelligence tests & more.
The institute's preparation material and guides are job-specific and include the following preparations:
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Job specific cognitive, aptitude & reasoning tests preparation
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Job specific personality tests preparation
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Job specific emotional Intelligence tests preparation
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Job specific work Safety tests preparation
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Job specific situational Judgment tests preparation
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Assessment Centre preparation
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Job specific pre-employment tests preparation
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Preparation based on Psychometric developers
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Popular jobs test preparation
How to best prepare for Psychometric tests:
Only use a credible test preparation
There are a lot of free test preparation packages on the internet that were developed to attract people to go on to the site but have little similarity or actual preparation value. Therefore, first read the about page to learn about the qualifications of the people whom you are reading their advice.
Only use cognitive and aptitude practice tests that fit your job
Employers use a combination of psychometric tests to measure canddates' suitability for a job. The combination of these tests typically include some aptitude or reasonng tests combined with some personality tests. All these tests are job specific, as they need to measure specific job requirments.
Most people are not aware of the fact that two psychometric tests might have the same name but they might be measuring different aspects and in a very different question style.
Therefore, it is very important to ensure that you are preparing for the correct type of cognitive, aptitude or reasonng tests and that you are preparing for the correct style of test questions.
Job specific cognitive and aptitude practice tests example questions
Here are some guides on how prepare for cognitive, reasoning or aptitude tests:
Aptitude & reasoning tests guide & examples
Abstract & Inductive reasoning tests guide & examples (Abstract tests are also known as Logical or Inductive reasoning tests)
Logical reasoning tests guide & examples
Verbal & Deductive reasoning tests guide & examples
Numerical reasoning tests guide & examples
Mechanical reasoning tests guide & examples
Aptitude & reasoning tests' tips
Top 10 tips to prepare for an Aptitude, Reasoning & Cognitive tests
Only use practice personality tests that fit your job
The second very common measurement of your suitability for the job you applied is the use a combination of personality tests. These tests also measure job-specific personality scales.
One of the common mistakes we hear from candidates we help to prepare is that you can’t prepare for the personality tests or that these tests are less important to employers. The truth is that you can and should prepare for your personality tests and that they are very critical to you landing the job you applied for.
The second mistake we hear from candidates we help to prepare is that all personality tests are the same.
These tests might have a similar name but they do not measure the same characteristic and they also do not measure the characteristics in the same way. Personality tests vary in what they measure and in their test question style.
Therefore, you must prepare for the personality test that is relevant to the job you applied for or th specific test developer that you are asked to complete. Don;t waste your time on other tests.
How to prepare for a job specific personality test:
Full Personality tests preparation guide & examples
Only use practice emotional intelligence tests that fit your job
Another very common measurement of your suitability for the job you applied is the use of an emotional intelligence test. These tests measure your ability to identify emotions, manage relationships and predict people’s emotional response.
Same as with the personality tests, the most common mistakes about the emotional intelligence tests are:
They are so simple that I do not need to prepare for them.
These test are less important to employers.
Once i prepared for one emotional inteligence test, i am prepared for all types of emotional intelligence tests.
However, as in the case of other psychometric tests, emotional inelligence tests are not only very critical in your selection process but are also job specific.
How to prepare for job specific emotional intelligence tests:
Emotional Intelligence tests preparation guide & examples
MSCEIT emotional intelligence test preparation guide and example test questions
Emotify emotional intelligence test preparation guide & example test questions
Use practice work-safety tests that fit your job
Another common measurement of your suitability for a job that has a component of safety, is the work safety tests. For jobs, such as train drivers, engineers, manufacturing and mining, employers are very likely to use a work safety test.. Work safety tests measure job-specific work safety personality scales such as safety awareness. Each work safety test measures the same concept of work safety but in a slightly different way. While one work safety measures your work safety awarness, another test might measure your risk taking tendency. Therfore, it is important to ensure that you are preparing for the correct job specific work safety test.
How to prepare for job specific Work Safety tests:
Work Safety tests preparation guide & examples
Practice job specific situational judgment tests
Another component of psychometric tests is the Situational Judgment tests. While these are not classical psychometric tests, they are sometimes added to the classical psychometric tests. This type of test typically includes questions which have job specific scenarios that describe a job specific problem. Each scenario lists several responses. Therefore, it is very clear why a job specific preparation for such a test is critical.
How to prepare for job specfic Situational Judgent tests:
Situational Judgement tests preparation guide
Prepare for job specific Assessment Centres
Many employers use an assessment centre after all candidates' completed their psychometric tests and before they proceed to a job interview.
Assessment centres are conducted in house and are designed for each job. An assessment centre typically includes a second round of psychometric tests and some group or individual activities. It is very important that the preparation for an assessment centre is done around the specific job. If not, then most of the preparation will be a waste of time.
How to prepare for assessment centres:
Assessment Centre preparation guide & examples
Preparation for group and individual test activities in Assessment Centres
E-trays exercises in Assessment Centres
Preparation for group discussions in Assessment Centres
Prepare for your job specific pre-employment test
In some cases, employers might use job specific pre-employment tests to assess your suitability for the job you applied. You can read more about pre-employment tests in our guide:
Pre-employment tests preparation guide & example test questions
Prepare for a specific psychometric test developer
Another option to prepare for your psychometric test is by preparing for the type and style of test questions used by the psychometric test developer that your employer uses. The challenge here is that most psychometric test developers offer several styles of test question. The right style of test questions will be mainly based on the type of the job you are applying for.
How to prepare for a specific test developer:
ACER tests preparation guide & example test questions
Chandler Mcleod tests preparation guide
Hogan Assessments tests preparation guide & example test questions
Criteria tests preparation guide & example test questions
Saville tests preparation guide & example test questions
Sova Assessment tests preparation guide & example test questions
SHL tests preparation guide & example test questions
TalentQ tests preparation guide & example test questions
Some of our popular job specific preparations:
YOU Session and ADF tests (JAO) preparation:
Aptitude tests (JAO) preparation for ADF's YOU session practice tests & example questions
Your ADF Assessment Day preparation guide.
Federal & State Police tests preparation:
Police Reasoning, Personality & Emotional Intelligence practice tests guide
Federal Police tests preparation guide & practice test questions
Victoria Police tests preparation guide & practice test questions
NSW Police tests preparation guide & practice test questions
QLD Police tests preparation guide & practice test questions
SA Police tests guide & practice test questions
Firefighter tests preparation (by state):
FRV firefighter tests preparation guide & practice test questions
NSW Fire & Rescue firefighter tests preparation guide & practice test questions
QFD tests preparation guide & practice test questions
Ambulance and Graduate Paramedic tests preparation:
Ambulance Victoria tests - Emotional Intelligence and Clinical personality test
NSW Ambulance tests - Emotional Intelligence test
Train Drivers tests preparation:
Train driver psychometric tests preparation guide
Banking tests preparation:
NAB psychometric tests preparation guide
Macquarie psychometric tests preparation guide
Bond medical school psychometric tests & interview preparation:
Preparation for psychometric tests & interviews for medicine at Bond University
Read our Psychometric test preparation articles:
Aptitude, Reasoning & Personality test preparation articles
Our professional guarantee:
- We are experienced psychometricians with extensive skills in education and training.
- 1000's of job specific practice tests with detailed answer explanations
- Timers used to mimic the time pressure.
- Online courses for each test and job
- Face-to-face tutoring delivered by expert Australian psychometricians.
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