In a campus interview of MNC in an engineering college, a student scored the best among all appearing for that interview. Then came the time for the psychometric test. With a small margin, the low scorers (way low) beat him in that test. The weight of that test being higher, marginalization beat that candidate down to the position of rejection.
After reading this instance 2 questions arose in my mind.
- Why was a psychometric test given such a high weightage instead of a nominal number?
- What quality did the test highlighted about the candidate that lead to rejection?
Importance Of Psychometric Tests
The quest to answer these questions lead me to many articles by experts explaining what do psychometric tests actually convey.
Psychometric basically means the measurement of the mind. It includes attributes like intelligence, critical reasoning, morality, and personal profile. Initially, these tests were taken in a traditional pen and pare format but with the advent of the digital age, they are now optimized by psychometric test tool. The digital platforms have opportunities to practise these tests too, to familiarize with the conditions and format.
For a recruiting company, these values are important than any other skills of a candidate. They impact loyalty, retention rate, revenue generation and many other factors in a company. Thus the instance mentioned above is a rational thing to do when it comes to psychometric tests and recruitment.
How Can You Beat A Psychometric Test?
There’s no syllabus defined for clearing this test. As mentioned above it is merely a test of the character and the mental capabilities in terms of various quotients like EQ, SQ and CQ. What one really needs to do is to be themselves and give the best attention of your mind and cognitive skills during the test.
- Though there are no rules in this test, experts tend to conclude and agree to the following steps to keep in mind while giving a psychometric test.
- Stay calm and trust your instincts. Most of the times the first answer is the right answer, don’t mark it wrong by overthinking.
- There is nothing right and nothing wrong, it’s all subjective.
- There would be repetitive questions in the test. They will try to change your opinion and answer unknowingly. Stay firm in what you answered and remember that throughout.
Some Add-On Advice
Some cheat chits in these kinds of tests would be:
Be as morally correct as you can (even if you don’t feel like). Be quick as the software used in psychometric tests consider speed in mind when you answer any question. If you are a bit late in giving any answer the software might consider you are not decisive enough.