Get prepared for psychometric tests

Psychometric tests might sound scary, but knowing what to expect can be half the battle and will help you to prepare in advance. It helps to see them as an opportunity to stand out from your fellow candidates.

What are psychometric tests?

Psychometric tests are another way for employers to assess candidates alongside the more traditional methods such as CVs, applications forms, and interviews.

In general, they can be split into four areas:

Motivation and values

These are used to test your personal values and what motivates you. These questions have no right or wrong answers, but should be answered honestly.

Situational judgement

Used to assess your response to given workplace scenarios, these tests will look at your behaviour and competency in that situation.

Aptitude and ability

You will usually be presented with a numerical, verbal or diagrammatical reasoning scenario. These are the most widely used types of psychometric tests and have definite right or wrong answers.

Personality and interests

These test are used to judge your personality traits and values. The questions have no right or wrong answers, but it's important to answer honestly rather than what you think the employer wants to hear.

Mayokun Obe

BSc Mathematics (2018)

The feedback was most helpful

“Psychometric tests are a common part of the graduate job experience. Applying for roles, especially with a large corporate company, means that you will be subject to some form of testing. I stumbled across Graduates First while looking at what the Careers and Employability Service had to offer. Graduates First is a library of free psychometric tests that simulate the online testing experience. Having access to these tests had a huge impact on my preparation for upcoming assessments. When you sign up to Graduates First, you are given a personal login, and your performance is tracked with each practice attempt. This was great for me to be able to monitor my progress and let me know that I was getting better at testing. What I found most helpful was the feedback I received from my practice tests. My advice would be to remain calm when sitting any test, ensure you are working in a quiet environment and keep persevering. Good luck!”

Read Mayokun's blog post

Have a go at some practice tests

Through Graduates First you can access: • numerical, verbal and logical tests • expert feedback reports • work personality questionnaires There are short videos to help you navigate the process of preparing for a psychometric test including tips, step-by-step guides and a jargon buster. The Top Employer Profiles and Job Assessment Stages section link to information about how each organisation approaches its recruitment process and the kinds of assessments you may face. Over 100 organisations are profiled on the site.