Once a week, Arras People will give one of our own expert project management careers consultants a chance to answer some of the nagging questions you have about the job process. This week, our own Nicola Thorp handles a query about assessments and exams in the midst of the job hunting process…
Question: “Assessment tests and exams seem to be popular for today’s job hiring practices. How can I best prepare for this emerging practice within the job hiring process?”
- Tough as it may be, any exams you take for a job interview demand that you remove all possible distractions.
Nicola Thorp: “Personally I think it tends to be very industry-led – some financial services organisations tend to be very keen on testing, as do defence-related industries. Other industries tend to lean towards competency-based interviews and straight-forward biography / CV-based interviews.
The most effective way to revise for the verbal and numerical reasoning is through the use of practice testing. There are plenty of free online tests available a good place to start would be university websites – once you have taken a few practice tests you will be able to highlight areas for improvement and focus on specifics for study. The numerical reasoning tests are math-based and will tend to focus on extracting information from tables, etc. Verbal reasoning focuses on your problem solving skills and will usually pose a scenario and ask questions around this giving you the option to agree, disagree or stating that you could not answer due to insufficient evidence. In the case of this type of test, I highly recommend running through a few practice runs as it will help familiarise you to the wording and how to interpret the data. There is also a psychometric test, which is a series of questions which tends to require you to choose a response. For example:
‘Someone cuts in front of you in a queue. Are you:
-Not Bothered;
-Slightly Bothered;
-Annoyed;
-Very Annoyed’, etc.
The key to a successful test result is to ensure you take time away from distractions (often psychometric tests are set to be taken from home – a link is emailed). So ensure that you switch off your phone and do not answer the door – this is a test situation! Remember there are no right or wrong answers, this test is set to help define your strengths, weakness and reactions to situations – a strength to one person may be a weakness to another (i.e. the employer) and vice versa. Above all, be honest: The results may become unclear if you start picking what you think you should answer as opposed to the reality.”
Twitter: projectmgmt
SHL is the most commonly used testing organisation, especially for online testing, here’s a link to take some trial tests: http://www.shl.com/TryATest/TakeaTest/default.aspx
One of the most common things I hear in terms of feedback after using these is….it’s difficult! The tests are actually quite difficult and most people feel nervous about their abilities when faced with one of these in an interview/assessment process. As Nicola says, practice is the key. Doing a lot of these tests in quick succession will help you a lot. You’ll get used to the way questions are phrased for example.
You can also practice using good books, my personal recommendation is Management Level Psychometic & Assessment Tests which again is based on SHL testing.