For parents and caregivers: how to help your child prepare for a psychometric test

Around three quarters of Fortune 500 companies use psychometric tests as part of their recruitment process. Read on to find out what psychometric testing is, what it’s used for, and how you can help your child to prepare for it.

What is psychometric testing?

Psychometric tests examine your skills, personality, and abilities in order to determine your suitability for a job. They’re often taken digitally and can require multiple choice answers, written responses, or a combination of the two. They often follow similar formats and cover specific areas, making it possible to prepare for them in advance.

What is psychometric testing used for? 

Employers use these tests during the application period to quickly get a sense of someone’s suitability for a role. Your child’s most likely to come across them at big companies that attract thousands of applicants, because it’s a way for them to sort through applications quickly and relatively objectively. 

There are three main types of psychometric test: abilities, aptitude, and personality tests – each of which is used to assess different things. 

Abilities tests

Abilities tests are designed to test specific skills that are requirements of the job. Some examples include: 

• Verbal reasoning, which will test your child’s ability to understand and interpret written information. They’ll be given a short passage to read and then presented with questions about their understanding of the text.
   
• Numerical reasoning, which will test their ability to calculate numbers quickly and accurately. They may face a set of data with questions related to it, or have to work with fractions, percentages, or other key mathematical principles.
   
• Error checking. Here, they’ll be given a range of content, like written passages, data, tables, or graphs, and will have to quickly and accurately check it for mistakes. This type of test is common in technical roles.

Unifrog has two abilities tests for your child to try:

• Our Numbers test will score their numerical reasoning, including mental arithmetic, chart interpretation, and number problems.
• Our Words test will score their vocabulary, grammar, and verbal reasoning.

They can find both tests at the bottom of the Skills profile start page: 

Aptitude tests

Sometimes, jobs require skills that the employer doesn't expect applicants to have yet, or that aren’t easily measured. Aptitude tests can help them to work out if your child is likely to have or be successful at learning these skills. Aptitude tests include:

• Situational judgement tests, where your child will be given a selection of situations, usually related to the job role they’re applying for, and asked to choose an answer that best reflects how they would act if they were in that situation. 
   
• Diagrammatic reasoning tests, which will test your child’s ability to spot patterns and follow diagrammatic information. Usually, they’ll be shown a sequence of diagrams and then have to choose the one that completes the pattern.
   
• Typical scenario tests. These are more freeform, and might involve having to complete an assignment for a fake client, or do an exercise simulating another aspect of the job.

Unifrog has three aptitude tests for your child to try:

• Our Skills quiz, which will help them to evaluate how well you would do in a range of different scenarios.
• Our Work environments quiz, which will get them to consider how happy they would be with different situations, scenarios, and settings at work.
• Our Reasoning test (which they can find at the bottom of the Skills profile start page), where they can see how they score on diagrammatic reasoning and logical reasoning.

Personality tests

The use of personality tests in workplace scenarios has recently been the subject of controversy. In theory, they help employers decide whether someone’s personality is suited to the role. In practice, psychologists and labour rights activists have raised concerns about whether they’re accurate enough to influence whether or not someone gets a job, and if they can be used as a way of discriminating against certain types of candidates. 

At Unifrog, we have two personality tests for your child to try (and you may want to try them out yourself!) They shouldn’t be seen as a way of boxing your child in – they will no doubt grow and change as a person, and that means their personality type will likely shift, too. But they can be a helpful way for your child to think deliberately about different aspects of their personality, and then browse the careers and subjects that are most commonly associated with their personality type. 

• Our Interests quiz is based on John Holland's theory of personality and job choices
• Our Personality quiz is based on the theory behind the Myers-Briggs personality framework
   

Tips for helping your child to prepare 

Psychometric tests are designed to test skills or aptitudes that people already have, so your child doesn’t need to study or revise for them in the way that they would for an academic exam. However, there are a few things you can do to help them prepare:

1. Help them to understand the test format. Help your child to become familiar with the type of psychometric test they will take. This means understanding the different sections, the type of questions that are likely to come up, and any time limits. 
    
2. Make time for practice. Encourage them to take the Unifrog quizzes to get a feel for what they’re like, and maybe take one yourself on your parent account! You can also search for free practice psychometric tests online.
    
3. Encourage healthy habits. Prioritise healthy habits leading up to the test day. That means plenty of sleep, nutritious meals, and physical activity. A well-rested and healthy body can enhance cognitive function, memory, and concentration, which are essential for performing well in psychometric tests.
    
4. Promote a positive and calm mindset. Practise relaxation techniques with your child that they can use to stay calm during the test, like deep breathing exercises, mindfulness, and visualisations. Praise their efforts in preparing for the test, rather than focusing too heavily on the results.