If at first you don’t succeed? And all that…
There is not much point in honing your interview skills if the first part of the selection process is a psychometric or aptitude test and you have never practised doing them. Sure you can do a knockout interview but chances are you won’t get to prove it if you can’t get past the screening aptitude tests stage.
Previous posts on this blog explain in more detail what psychometric tests are and why they are used. In a nutshell there is a proven strong predictive link between general cognitive ability and job performance. Employers like them because using them to screen candidates generally leads to increased job performance and reduces staff turnover by up to 30% according to Watson-Glaser – a leading provider of psychometric tests to employers. While there is an element of “they would say that – they are selling the product” the fact is that making bad hiring decisions is expensive. The cost to the firm of a hiring “mistake” can be up to 150% of an employees salary. It stands to reason that employers will be in favour of tools that can minimise the probability of making bad hiring decisions. And that means psychometric tests aren’t going away any time soon.
Here’s some GOOD NEWS. Your performance can be improved with practice. To get you used to the process some employers will give you a few sample tests in advance of you doing the real one – but you may still feel that you would like some more practice. 
UK Business Psychologist – Dr Mark Parkinson is an expert in executive assessment, selection and development. He has collated the most comprehensive list of sample psychometric tests I have ever seen. A really excellent resource. You have no excuse for not practising now.
In this case practice won’t make it perfect …but it should go a long way to making your test results slightly better.
