FAQs for participant

Is there any point in practising for tests?

Personality tests have no right or wrong answers. The best advice is to answer as honestly as possible so that the results will be as close as possible to a true reflection of your personality. Most profiles have internal checks that highlight inconsistent answers. More importantly, as a participant in a recruitment or development exercise you want to be valued for the person you are. In a developmental context, the profile will be used to determine the kinds of activities you are given to help you move to the next level in your job.

Ability and aptitude tests are usually timed. Practise questions are provided with answers before the timed test begins.

Will the test results be the only information used to make a recruitment decision about me?

Test authors always stress to users of their tools that information from ability, aptitude, competency and personality tools is to be used in conjunction with other information gathered about participants. The information is used to give a fuller, rounder and fairer picture of you.

If I have tertiary qualifications does that normally mean that I will perform well on ability tests?

Research suggests that performance on ability tests or aptitude tests is a more reliable indicator of performance in important skills like verbal or numerical reasoning than tertiary qualifications.

How can personality be measured?

Personality inventories report on stable features of personality across individuals and cultures. Your results will be reported against the population of test participants who set the yardstick for the test. These tests are only published by reputable test authors where the results are reliable and can be repeated independent of the participants' intentions.

What happens if I am testing online and the telephone line drops out or I need help?

There is a HELP function that offers solutions to common technical problems. Or you can follow the instructions in the email that is sent to you when you are notified of the testing. Those instructions recommend that you print out the email and keep it for reference during the testing.

FAQs for employers

I have never used testing. Why shouldn't I rely on my own judgement?

Research suggests that interviews are only reliable when the interviewer asks well-prepared questions that are designed to explore and test facts or impressions about a candidate. Many interviewers do not structure the interview to obtain this information.

Moreover, where ability, aptitude and personality tests are administered under the same conditions to job applicants they enable you to fairly compare candidates on an even playing field. Otherwise it is very hard for an employer to compare candidates with different qualifications, or even the same formal qualifications (such as a Business Degree) but from different universities.

How can I judge if a tool is reputable?

Reputable tools are created by research bodies or organisational psychologists who offer support, explanation, training and updates. A reputable tool will be accompanied by a manual that explains what it is designed to test and its limitations, with accompanying statistical information that an organisational psychologist can interpret and apply.

Reputable tools will also offer an objective yardstick against which performance is compared.

What sort of tests are normally used?

Tools fall into a number of categories:

• ability tests which report on general intelligence or specific learned intellectual skills such as verbal or numerical reasoning or visual spatial awareness;
• aptitude tests which report on specific, often job related skills, such as mechanical reasoning or numerical estimation;
• personality inventories which report on defined, measurable and enduring personality traits
• competency or motivational fit tools which report on how well a person matches a desired job profile.

On what basis are personality profiles selected?

Many personality profiles are administered through a registered psychologist, who might also be especially accredited for a particular instrument. A TestGrid experienced organisational consultant can advise you about the particular personality profiles available in the Centre. It is also helpful to ask for sample reports, because often a single test can spawn several kinds of reports-one for development, perhaps, while another might be more suitable for use in recruitment. You can experience the language used and the constructs reported on and form a judgement about which meets your needs by referring to a sample.

How can I use the information from testing?

Testing is only designed to supplement information about a participant from other sources: resume, reference checks, questions asked at interview, experience in previous jobs. You should use testing to broaden your understanding of a person's likely strengths and potential areas of shortcoming which you can then explore in interview and with referees.