Got an interview on Friday with a very large company. The interview is all day long and has a 2.5 hour slot at the start for 'Psychometric Testing'. Any ideas what to expect? Had a quick look on the web but not really much wiser. Tips on how to trick HR would be useful (I am an axe-murderer and hate people, but I need to conceal this) 😆

Dont try to trick it, it has test questions built in to assess the candidates continuity of answers. Don't ponder on the questions too long just answer them truthfully and as best you can. A lot of the questions will seem very weird but it is not a personality test more a working relationships and working style assessment.

They are useful tools and can be amazingly accurate.

Employer HR dept will use it as part of the assessment for guidance and will not usually be pivotal unless you and another candidate are difficult to separate.

Very often it's basic maths and english. Most of the graduate employers use them, so grad job sites often have practice tests. Wikijob has a couple, and SHL are one of the major providers, who also provide practice questions. Do practice, it makes a big difference.

There are also personality tests, which you can't really practice for, but are far less commonly used. They have check questions so it's difficult to mislead them.

Pretty much the devils own work. I did one recently, and as far i can see there is no way to fool it, as the questions are no like right or wrong, they are just questions and puzzles with no obvious bias, and no clear path where you think "if I say this, then they'll think i'm such-and-such a personality". At a follow-up they came in and told me the results which i remember thinking were eerily accurate if im honest, but again it just came down to a sort of generic description of you, mainly strengths as i recall it (they never said, oooh check out the physcopath!). I scored slightly above average, but they didnt give me a copy, so i cant recall any of the questions specifically (i dont think i rated highly for memory!)

But it wasn't anything to worry about – though one tip i had was that there were far more questions than you can get through, so whizz through only answering questions you are happy with, dont waste time on any. They can tell something about you from the questions you do answer in any event. Nothing to do but 'enjoy'.

Good luck, and let us know how it goes and what you thought of it

it will probably be something like verbal or numerical reasoning tests. i did a couple a few months back and hated them.
the verbal reasoning is all about reading a given short paragraph and then answering questions about the paragraph. they are often on subjects people may feel strongly about (e.g. health issues, immigration, science). if you start thinking about what you know outside of the paragraph you are likely to get the answer wrong. there are a few examples on the internet:

Verbal reasoning test
Verbal Reasoning Test2

The second one above was more like the one i was given.

I also had to do a Maths reasoning test. All the practical tests i did were very basic (simple addition, multiplication), bu the actual test i took was harder. The questions were often deceptive in how graphs and information was portrayed. it was often a case of choosing an answer based on deduction and elimination of answers, rather than actually finding the correct answer using calculations. i guess that is why it was called a mathematical reasoning test instead of a plain maths test. both tests are carried out in a given timescale that will probably only give you 30 seconds- 1 minute to find an answer, testing your ability to make quick, but correct decisions.

hope this helps. imo the tests are rubbish as they are testing your ability to a) not draw upon your full knowledge and b) make quick decisions sometimes by guessing instead of working it out.

I have done a few psychometric tests and I'm not 100% sure you can't fool them – not in a deliberate way, but more sort of "getting in a certain frame of mind" before you start. It's worth trying to find a test like the one you will do. Meyers Briggs is a popular one.

For maths reasoning, something that you already knew from school, but really really works is to read through the question, answer it if you can, if not move on. Then when you get back to the missed questions, your subconscious has been working on the problems you skipped.

Verbal / numeric reading test = puzzles. they make sense for jobs where those skills might come in useful and there's no more specific test to do.

Psychometric personality tests (Meyer Briggs etc.) are like horoscopes that some dodgy companies use to pretend that they are following some kind of science to employ the right people – they are pretty discredited really, for two reasons:
1) For most people, if you run the tests twice a couple of weeks apart, they'll get very different results as to what their personality type is.
2) If you ask people whether they think a personality description from the test fits their personality, almost everyone will say yes. If you give them the opposite personality type, again, almost everyone will say yes. It is like horoscopes where if you read any one, it always says something sensible and meaningful to you, no matter whether it is your own horoscope or not.

Joe

Psychometric tests are personality tests. The most common IME are DISC and Meyers Briggs. (google them, I found an online version of DISC recently unfortunately the site is currently down).

Usually used to understand how a person's personality will fit into a team. Don't try to fool it but remember the questions are about how you will behave at work so answer honesty with than focus in mind (they should tell you that anyway) not how you behave socially. The problem with trying to fool them is that you don't necessarily know what they're looking for and all personality types have pros and cons.

Fow what its worth, unlike Joe, I've found them to be pretty accurate although the result can vary depending on the focus.

I spent 20 years involved in this stuff (with SHL, and I COULD tell you all about them, but that's a different story). The OPQ is accurate because it interprets what you have said about yourself, so there is a direct correlation between results and interpretation unlike, say, graphology which is based on unproven (non) correlations following 'rules' that differ between interpreters…

Don't panic, just do the questionnaire without trying to second-guess it. Pay attention during the feedback which is where the real information about your character are derived. The OPQ results are all about opening out further discussion. If you don't get this, complain. The assessors should not be making decisions based on the paper results, but should be using them to make further one-to-one investigations.

Thanks so far…

I have technical interviews and a technical presentation to give etc, and the job is at an industry scientific research centre.

From what I have heard it will just be psychometric tests (not verbal/numeric reasoning) – but for 2.5 hours? It has to be more than multiple choice questions?

PS: "OPQ" – Occupational Personality Questionnaire". This is the SHL-specific instrument. Others exist and yours may be one of them, but all the comments in my previous post apply. They should all follow British Psychological Society guidelines…

but for 2.5 hours? It has to be more than multiple choice questions?

It sounds likely that there may be more than one candidate (you) and time has been allowed for a feedback session.

We use these all the time, they are structured to catch you trying to give the right answer. Best bet is just answer truthfully and not think about it too much.

J

Get yourself plenty of practice between now and then, I got tested at the company I am with now and managed to increase my average score significantly.you should get books out the library or probably online now. good luck

+1 for what Woppit said