Psychometric Test Candidate Preparation Guide and FAQs

A psychological test is a well-founded method of assessing your ability or personality. Many years of research have demonstrated the utility of these tests in workplace prediction of job performance. Ability tests have right and wrong answers and generally are designed so that candidates are not able to answer all questions; so, do your best, but do not be too concerned if you are unable to complete the whole test. Personality assessments are simply measures of your personality, so do not have right and wrong answers, you just need to be honest when completing these assessments. Personality assessments generally have inbuilt measures of response style, meaning that it is possible to tell if you have not paid attention to the questions or if you have been dishonest in your responses.

Psychological tests, along with other relevant information (resume or employer references etc.), allow us to make accurate predictions about how well you are likely to fit into a given job or career area, your likely performance in that position and your potential training and development needs. They assist the decision-maker and you by helping to ensure that the right person is selected for a position, that you will enjoy the work and that any significant development needs are addressed appropriately.

The British Psychological Society offer a review of UK-published psychometric tests. The review is fairly technical and requires some expert knowledge in order to fully understand it. Many tests provide information online at dedicated websites. Additionally, you may always ask the person that has asked you to complete the test for further information.

There are various forms of test administration available. Research suggests that the form of administration does not have a detrimental effect on test outcome. You may be asked to complete a test in paper format, simply reading questions from a question booklet and marking your response on the answer sheet provided. Alternatively, you may be asked to log-in to a secure website and complete an assessment. Irrespective of the style of administration, all candidates are provided with clear, standardised instructions and ample opportunity to ask questions and clarify ambiguities. During the actual testing session, talking/asking questions is not permitted, this is in order to maintain a quality working environment for all involved. If you are taking the test on your own, possibly at home or in your office, please keep to this code by ensuring that you commence your test when you do not expect interruptions, remembering to silence the telephone and other similar distractions.

In the United Kingdom, the British Psychological Society maintain a database of individuals qualified to administer tests (BPS Test Administration Certificate). PsyAsia is very particular about ensuring that individuals using our tests are appropriately qualified, thus, usually, this would have been ascertained prior to providing the individual with test materials and online access. The British Psychological Society also maintain a register of individuals qualified to administer, score, interpret and provide feedback on ability (BPS Level A Certificate of Competence) and personality (BPS Level B Certificate of Competence) tests.

Depending on which test you are completing, you may be provided with a few questions that represent those found in the actual test. However, you will not be provided with a copy of the test prior to your testing session under any circumstance. This is because it is important to keep test materials securely locked away in order to prevent reducing the utility (reliability and validity) of our tests. Also, we wish to know your current level of performance or your preferred way of approaching the world. Providing you with a copy of the test would provide you with a learning advantage and therefore your results would not be reflective of the real you. This may lead to you being selected for an inappropriate job, unnecessarily rejected for a job, short-listed for inappropriate training and development or not put forward for required training and development.

If you are sent practice materials, you should complete these as detailed in the instructions. If you get questions wrong, you should try to work out why. Your test administrator should send you some details about the test(s) that you are going to complete. Ensure that you read and understand all of the information you are given. Make sure you know where the testing session will be held (how to log-in if you are using on-line testing), the time the session commences and the time required to complete the tests. Make sure to bring any necessary aids with you such as reading glasses etc. If you are uncertain about any aspect of your testing session, please contact your test administrator as far in advance of testing as possible.

Yes, wherever possible. It is important that you inform your test administrator in good time of your requirements in order that s/he may try to satisfy them.

Some of our tests may be taken at home (on your PC) and others must be administered in more controlled environments. Your administrator will be aware of the conditions and have made an informed decision as to where your test should be completed. If you were not provided with the option of testing at home, then you should assume this option is not available for your particular test. If you have been provided with the option of home-based testing, please ensure that you know exactly what is required of you prior to the testing session and that you will have an ample amount of time free from distraction of any kind. Turn off your telephone! Do not start the test if you have children around, dogs barking, construction noise and so forth!

After the session, your responses are analysed and a report produced. You should receive feedback on your results soon after the session and should have received an explanation about this prior to your test session. Your feedback will be in a non-technical form that you can understand. If there is anything that you do not understand, then ask the person providing feedback to clarify. Please note that sometimes it is not possible to provide feedback if the volume of people being assessed is large. Usually, an interpretation of your results will be given to the person or group of people that have/has asked for testing to be carried out. You will be aware of who these individuals are because you gave permission for them to see your results prior to test administration. Your results will not be seen by anybody that you have not given permission to view. Finally, your test results will be considered alongside all other sources of information that we have about you before making any final decision on selection or development. Test results alone are never used for decision-making.

Your results always remain strictly confidential in accordance with your country's data protection act. As an example, please see the Hong Kong Privacy Law. If you are completing an internet-based assessment, your data will initially be stored in a secure database maintained by perhaps a UK or Australian Internet Service Provider and thereafter the responses will be forwarded directly to the trained person who has commissioned your assessment. Unless specific arrangements have been made, the data will thereafter be stored securely by the test publisher for six to twelve months, after which, it will be anonymised, i.e. all reference to the original source will be removed. This allows the developers to continually monitor the quality of the assessments. If you are completing a non-internet based assessment, the Internet Service Provider and publisher are still involved in the process as your responses will be added manually to the system. We do arrange data-sharing with some organisations, again to allow us to monitor the quality of our assessments. Where this happens, you will be duly informed and have the right to request that we do not hold your data. Again, any data held will be anonymised after six to twelve months. The person who commissioned your assessment will be able to provide you with further details on that particular organization’s data-protection policy. All policies should conform to the legislation mentioned above.

We have attempted to answer the majority of questions that you may have in this document. However, you can find more information in our candidate knowledgebase.