PSYCHOMETRICTESTING
Thewhat’sandhow’sofpreparingforpsychometrictesting
ByEllieKinahan
Psychometric testing sounds scary, but it’s really not. Unlike a lot of other aspects of the
clerkshipapplicationprocess,psychometrictestingisonethatyoucanprepareforandcontrol.
Withsomanyfacetstotheapplicationprocess,itwouldbeashametohaveanoutstanding
applicationandflopinthepsychometrictestingstage.Notallfirmsusepsychometrictesting,
and others use it in varying ways, but there’s a general theme to the testing. Essentially,
psychometric testing gives firms a way in which to ‘objectively’ compare applicants.
Therearemanycomponentstothetestingprocess,includingnumerical,verbal,logicaland
behaviouraltesting.Differentcompanieswillhavedifferentnamesforthesecategoriesoreven
sub-categories, but it all boils down to behaviour and logic. Perhaps the hardest aspect of
psychometrictestingthoughisthefactthatitis(almostalways)timed.Akeyskillthattheyare
testingisyourabilitytosucceedundertimeconditions–storyofourlife.Thisistheareain
whichpreparationiskey,andthesooneryoustartpractising,theeasieritwillbeduringyour
clerkshipapplicationstage.
Alloftheexamplesprovidedhavebeentakenfrompractiseaptitudetests.com.Theyareagood
exampleofthelevelofdifficultywhichyoumayneedtobepreparedfor.Differentfirmswill
usedifferentpsychometrictestingprovidersanddonotopenlysharepractisequestions,soit
isessentiallyimpossibletoknowwhatyouareupagainst.Thepurposeofthisarticleisforyou
tobecomeawareofthedifferentthemesofquestionsthatmaybeaskedandtohelpyouto
understand how to best prepare yourself for whatever test they give you.
NUMERIC
ThroughthevariouspractisetestsIhavefound,thereappearstobetwodifferentcategories
ofnumerictesting.Whilstarangeofbasicmathematicsskillsisessential,thegeneraltheme
ofthesetestsisnumericreasoningandinterpretingsituationsthatdealwithnumbers.The
firstcategoryappearstobetestinggeneralnumericreasoningi.e.‘ifDavehas10applesand
gives4toJanehowmanyapplesdoesDavehave?’(butnotasbasicobviously).Thesecond
categoryismuchmorecommonandinvolvesastrongcommercial/economictheme.Typically,
thesetypesoftestwillgiveyouatableorchartshowing,forexample,acompany’sprofit,loss
andpercentagegrowthoverseveralyearsandtheywillaskquestionssuchas‘Ifthegrowth
rateandlossremainsconstantinthenextyear,whatwillthecompany’sprofitbe?’.Again,
thesearesimplifiedexamples.Thequestionscangetrathercomplicated,butthemoreyoudo,
theeasieritistoknowwhattolookfor.
Example1:
Example2:
VERBAL
Averbalreasoningtestisbasicallyamorecomplexversionofthereadingcomprehensiontests
wegotinHighSchool,buttheyaren’ttoofarfromwhatweareusedto.Aswithcomprehension
tests,oneofthehardestpartsofthistestisusingyourtimeefficiently.Thetestwillgiveyoua
passageoftextandthenaskaquestionrelatedtowhatyouhavejustread.Theymaygiveyou
adifferentpassageforeachquestion,ortheremaybeseveralquestionsbasedontheonetext.
Thebesttechniqueforcompletingsuchatestistoreadthequestionfirst,asitgivesyoua
purpose when you’re reading the text and allows you to automatically disregard any nonessentiallines.Youcanthenre-readthetextifneedsbe,butatleastifyoufindtheanswer
straightawaythereisnoneedtocontinue.Thekeywiththesequestionsistobeobjectivein
answeringthequestionas,unlikeourmultiplechoicetestsatUniversity,thecorrectansweris
justaslikelytobetheelusive‘cannottell’or‘alloftheabove’responses.Youarenotallowed
tomakeassumptionsfromthetext.Ifthetextdoesnotexplicitlysupportthestatement,you
cannotinferthatitdoes.
Example1:
Example2:
LOGIC
Inmyopinion,thisisoneofthehardesttypesoftesting.IfanyonedidtheUMATinYear12,
theywillknowthis.Unliketheothercategories,whenyoustartpractisingthistypeoftesting,
itdoesnotcometoyounaturally.Italmostseemsimpossible.Butthere’sgoodnews–it’sone
oftheeasiestteststopractiseandthereisanabundanceofpractisequestionsofalldifficulties.
Logictestsevaluateyourinductivereasoningthroughyourabilitytointerpretpatternsfrom
shapes.Themoreyoudo,theeasiertheybecome.Youcantrainyourbraintorecognisecertain
patternsquitequickly,andifitdoesn’tcometoyoustraightaway,thereareafewcheckboxes
youcangothrough.
The best way to start to understand these patterns is to go through worked examples, or
throughtrialanderror.Here’sonetogetyoustarted(blocktheparagraphunderneathoutif
youdon’twanttoseetheanswer):
Workedexample:
ThecorrectanswerforthisquestionisA.ThefirstpatternthatIlookedforwhenanswering
thisquestionwasthewayinwhichtheblackdiamondmoved.It’sagoodstartingpointtolook
for an obvious marker – a darker shaded shape. The black diamond moves 2 points of the
heptagonalongeverytimeinacounter-clockwisedirection.Thisnarrowsdownouroptionsto
A, B and D where the black diamond is in the left middle point of the heptagon.
Thesecondshapetolookatisthetriangle.Coincidentallyitfollowstheexactsamepatternas
the black diamond, just from a different starting position. This narrows down our options
further to A and B where the triangle is in the top right hand corner of the heptagon. The
featurethatdistinguishesAfromBisthecircle,sowemustnowlookatthewayinwhichthe
circle moves. The circle appears to be jumping 3 points of the heptagon every time in a
clockwisedirection,leavinguswiththecorrectanswerofA.Thisisagoodfirstexampleto
work through as the patterns are quite simple. Some other patterns to look for in future
examplesinclude:
•
Numberofpointsintheshapes/objections
•
Shadingofshapes/objects
•
Chronologicallyincreasingnumberofjumps(i.e.2points,then3points,then4points)
•
Directionthatshapes/objectsarepointing
Thekeytologictestingisthat,asthenameinfers,therewillalwaysbelogicalreasoningbehind
theanswer.Thismeansthattherewillalwaysbeadecipherablepattern,youjustneedtoknow
whattolookfor.Therearesomemoreexamplesbelow.
Example1:
Example2:
BEHAVIOURAL
Thisisnotascommoninalotoftheonlinepsychometricpractisetests,butitislikelytofeature
inalawfirmstestingscheme.Thebestwaytogetagrasponsomeone’spersonalitybefore
meetingthemface-to-facemightbethroughabehaviouraltest.Oftenintheseteststhereisn’t
aright/wrongansweroragood/badscore.Thescorethatyougetmightbeputagainstascale
andmightindicateyourtypeofpersonality.Itisunknownhowpersuasivethesetestsarein
the application process, but they are often situational and are probably purpose
picked/designedbythefirmthemselves.Oftenwiththesequestionsitiseasytoseewhatthe
objectiveofthequestionis–forexample,ifit’saskingaboutastressfulsituationtheywillbe
lookingatyourresponsetoseehowyoumightreactinreallife.Sothinkcarefullyaboutyour
response,andwhatanidealcandidatewouldsay!
Example1:
Example2:
RESOURCES
Thereareanumberofgreatfreeresourcesonline.Theseareagreatstart,buttheyoftenonly
offer one level of difficulty, do not provide answer guides (just an overall score) and have
limitedpractisequestions.Therearealsoanumberofcompanieswhichyoucanbuycoaching
andpractisepackagesoff.Thereareevencoursesthatyoucanattend.Itisuptoyouhow
mucheffort,timeorexpenseyouwanttocontributetopreparingyourselfforpsychometric
testing.
Herearesomegreatfreeresources:
•
http://www.practiceaptitudetests.com/
•
https://www.assessmentday.co.uk/aptitudetests_verbal.htm
•
http://www.psychometricinstitute.co.uk/
•
http://elearn.pwc.co.uk/psychometric/try.html(Highlyrecommended)
•
http://www.psychometric-success.com/downloads/download-practice-tests.htm
•
http://www.similarminds.com/personality_tests.html#.V5q7g5N97fY
•
https://www.cebglobal.com/shldirect/en/practice-tests/