Psychometric Testing

[DanDare]

Does anyone have any experience of these.
I am told they are a way of profiling your personality, but how can you gauge it from a few random questions?

I have one coming up next week for a job vacancy and I'm told there's no way of practising for it.[-o<

[Biker Biggles]

Call me old fashioned and cynical,but I think these tests are a con.Jobs for the boys and girls and a nice little earner to boot,but absolutely no use to anyone else.They might as well employ someone to read the tea leaves,but us tea leaf readers all got made redundant when they invented the tea bag.
I'm not jealous.:p

[Alpinestarhero]

I dontknow alot, so I'll get Maria to offer a decent reply. I think though they asses how the question is answered - do you appear to be nervous, hesitant, quick and alert etc etc. I assume points are given for questions, and the total is compared to a table of norms - most people are some number plus/minus a few, and the wierdos deviate from this normal or average score by a long way

Matt

[Flamin_Squirrel]

It's a way of getting around discrimination law. Someone makes a spurious accusation of descrimination after not getting accepted for a job, they can just claim that the person didn't fit the required profile.

[YoungMan]

The most common test is the 16PF (personality Factor) test. The objective is measure degrees of extroversion, anxiety, attention to detail etc.. If you Google 16PF you should get some good hits. Its not an IQ test and you can't practice for it unfortunately. Also - if your answers are inconsistent, then you get a 'faking' score thrown in.
They don't hurt though!

[gettin2dizzy]

They're easy. It's just a basic IQ test- weeding out the idiots :)

[G]

Lots of question asked differently. Also silly question, put these in order of importance to you....when they are all blatently rather important and you dont really want to put any of them last.

I always seem to have faired ok......never not got a job I have applied for lol

Except for a morrisons shelf stacking job when i was 16. First ever interview and all that.

[Viney]

Does anyone have any experience of these.
I am told they are a way of profiling your personality, but how can you gauge it from a few random questions?

I have one coming up next week for a job vacancy and I'm told there's no way of practising for it.[-o<Nope you cant practice it. Its a list of questions. If its smokething like the LBAII etc, then they will ask you 'How would you deal with X situation' then further on, it will ask the same question in a slightly differnt way.

I think they are a dangerous way of employing and i know many a law firm that usues them.

All you can do is answer it truthfully, but if you dont get the job, then dont be disheartned. You just dont fit the profile they are after.

Its all bolloc*s

[Wideboy]

complete crap, i came out as sane and stable but they said i wasn't suitable for the job:smt093

[johnnyrod]

I don't have the figures to hand but testing scores a better rate of success than interviewing - but both are below about 20% and not really different from each other. People are trying to standardise everything these days, nothing you can do to prepare for them though.

[DanDare]

Well i took these tests and to my surprise it ended up being a Maths test, followed by a General Knowledge test and then a Dictation test.

When I enquired into Psychometric testing, thats not what I was expecting.
Had I known what was required I could of practised or brushed up on some skills.

Do you think I have a leg to stand on to complain?

[Ceri JC]

They're b******s and in certain states in America, people have successfully sued prospective employers for using them and then rejecting the applicants on the grounds that the tests showed they were not honest (when in reality, the test cannot conclusively prove this, only give an indication).

[Warthog]

Surely an unannounced Genereal Knowledge test is the best way to test your general knowledge?

[rigor]

Why would a general knowledge test be of any use to an employer anyway? unless you were going for a job being a quiz show host :p

[chazzyb]

I haven't got a personality to test!

[tigersaw]

I interview graduates for work experience. I bin the ones that can't speak and spell. That generally rejects most of them.

[Dan]

complete crap, i came out as sane and stable but they said i wasn't suitable for the job:smt093

Perhaps they wanted an unstable sociopath?

[DanDare]

The job I applied for was within the MOD.

I don't mind taking tests, just annoyed they didn't explain what tests we were to take. At least then you can prepare yourself.

The Math's involved lots of long division and multiplication without a calculator, oh and square roots. I haven't done stuff like that without a calculator since school. :smt103

[Demonz]

I think there is something online that does similar profiling but I am sure they are all different in some way. I tried something years back and it gave some areas of your strengths/weaknesses and personality traits. Was interesting to see what sort of box you fit in. I just stick to the brain game thing on the kids DS now - much more fun :)

[redlinerevs]

Psycho tests..mmm

strange thoughts pass through my head, i sometimes think of murder and how to kill, you know dismemberment, hacksaw, burning and the like, must be all that sea air i get. my captian once said to me

" no, dont do it, arrrrhhhhhhh..... "

i think some people are not right in the head, they dont think like me..:cyclopsani:

nite my little chickens...