0.2: The advantages of Psychometric Testing

1. They are an opportunity for you to demonstrate your skills

It is nearly impossible to provide a full account of your skills and personality in a standard job interview. A person’s CV and qualifications are a mere snapshot of the whole person, and are very likely comprised of cherry-picked details about a person. Certain skills are, therefore, better ascertained using carefully constructed psychometric tests.

2. They are a fair assessment of your skills

Above all else, psychometric testing is an objective way of assessing your strengths and weaknesses. Having been designed by formally trained psychologists, great care has been taken to ensure that tests are unbiased and do not contain material which could favour some candidates over others. In this way, the tests have been ‘standardised’, meaning they have been tested on people of a similar age and background and performance is interpreted relative to that standard.
The scoring of psychometric tests is also a rigorously objective procedure: most use multiple-choice questions with set right and wrong answers, so there is no opportunity for bias in marking.

3. Psychometric tests can teach you more about yourself

Having identified which skills or ‘competencies’ are necessary to perform well in a given job, employers can defer to psychologists, who can then provide tests which are tailor-made to assess those skills.

Finding a ‘best-match’ between person and job works both ways and can swing in your favour; a psychometric test may show that you are unsuitable for a certain position, but if a job does not utilise your skills and interests, you are unlikely to enjoy it or find it satisfying. Therefore, in the personality strand of psychometrics, it is very important to be as honest in your answers as possible. If you get the chance, always ask for feedback from any psychometric test.