Management Level Psychometric and Assessment Tests

Getting prepared to take a test or pulling together a presentation for an interview can feel like a daunting task. Some people say that you can't prepare for the testing stage of an interview and indeed why would you need advice on creating presentations when you do it all the time during your day to day work. I like to think that anything you can do to help prepare yourself for an interview - especially when it is a job you really want - is not a waste of time and indeed can help offset some of the nerves you might be feeling beforehand.

Management Level Psychometric and Assessment Tests is a book designed for managers and people working in senior positions - roles very much like those found in project management. It is a book which includes assessment test examples for you to work through, coupled with advice pages in the areas such as assessment centres and presentations.

The Assessment Tests

More and more organisations are using online testing as a way of helping them to shortlist candidates for the roles they are recruiting for. The book gives a brief overview of what to expect with these kind of online tests and how to use them. The book then gives examples to work through covering; verbal and critical reasoning; numerical reasoning; abstract and non-verbal reasoning. Numercial reasoning is very popular in project management interviews for obvious reasons and will probably feature in your tests. Numerical reasoning includes questions like;

If 625kg of fruit are required to produce 200 jars of jam, approximately how much fruit is required to produce 450 jars of jam?*

All in all there are 25 different tests to work through and the great thing about it is that it gets you into the mindset of how questions are worded so it's not too much of a learning curve when you're doing the tests for real.

Management Tests and Exercises

Part two of the book is dedicated to two areas - the assessment centre and presentations. Gaining an insight into the assessment centre process - how organisations use these centres and what they are expecting to see in the candidates - can be a real bonus before turning up on the day. The section also includes some "management tests" which are brainstorming tasks. These tests try to give an insight into how some of the assessment centre day might be taken up. A prime example for the project management audience is the Scenario. Given a scenario, you are then asked a number of questions which may need a response about what you would do to solve the issue or provide a solution. There are a number of different management tests listed in the book which are useful and equally can be easily changed to suit the project environment.

All in all I've never come across a better book to help you get prepared for the assessments you might face when attending a project management interview. It's pitched perfectly for a project management audience and has also stood the test of time (published in 2005) - the tests are still the same tests you will find today. It's also a book which I think presents value for money (currently £5 in Amazon) and is likely to be used throughout your career.

*1406kg

>> Available through Amazon

- Reviewed by Lindsay Scott, Arras People