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Psychometric Test for Jobs
December 10, 2007

Do Psychometric tests sound to you as a new type of test, which you have never heard before? But actually it is not that new and incase you have appeared in the "Aptitude Tests" commonly called as "Written Tests", than you have already taken part in one form of the Psychometric Tests called as “Aptitude & Ability Tests”, as the figure at right would show.

What you may not have come across is the other form of the Psychometric tests, called “Personality & Interest Tests” or commonly called by recruiters as “Personality Profiling”. It is increasingly being used by recruiters in their selection processes and this is what we are discussing in this post.

These tests provide a potential employer with insights into how well you work with other people, how well you handle stress, and whether you will be able to cope with the intellectual demands of the job.

Do not be so much worried about the sucess in these tests! One of my recruiter friend told me that no one would fail, untill and unless he/she wants to fail himself/herself! It is infact not a part of those elimination rounds, but is a measure to size you up before issuing the offer letter.

What is the format of Psychometric tests? Psychometric tests are conducted by recruiters almost always towards the end of the selection tests i.e. after the “Written Aptitude Tests” and mostly after your GD is over. It is also held mostly held over internet, where you are asked to visit the website specified by the particular recruiter and answer the questions online.

You are asked about 150 Questions, which needs to be answered in 30 minutes. The questions are very simple, asking very basic questions about your liking & disliking and hence time availability is sufficient.

What the questions tests is your personality, by repeating similar question more than once, with different words and ways. In all such similar questions your answer is expected to be same.
To give you some example, note following two questions :

Q1:When you meet a stranger, you wait for the stranger to introduce himself/herself.
(a) Yes (b) No (c) ?

Q2:It is difficult for you to chat about things in general with people.
(a) Yes (b) No (c) ?

These two questions have similar meanings. If you answer Q1 as "YES" and Q2 as ''NO", i.e. if you differ in your answers to similar questions, you express contradictory statement about yourself.