Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    From $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    More How to Win at Aptitude Tests
    More How to Win at Aptitude Tests
    More How to Win at Aptitude Tests
    Ebook277 pages2 hours

    More How to Win at Aptitude Tests

    By Liam Healy

    4/5

    ()

    Read preview

    • Aptitude Tests

    • Personality Tests

    • Problem Solving

    • Numerical Ability

    • Publishing Industry

    • Self-Improvement

    • Self-Discovery

    • Mentor Figure

    • Overcoming Adversity

    • Underdog Story

    • Knowledge Is Power

    • Perseverance

    • Test

    • Hard Work Pays off

    • Clock Is Ticking

    • Book Distribution

    • Verbal Ability Tests

    • Mechanical Reasoning

    • Technical Ability

    • Test Preparation

    About this ebook

    A key guide to the latest developments in assessment and aptitude testing.

    Aptitude tests – also known as psychometric or IQ tests – are being relied on more and more by employers, schools and colleges. This book clearly explains how to be prepared for every aspect of the aptitude tests as well as tips on handling follow-up interviews. It incorporates new graduate and managerial level tests, as well as up-to-date information on internet-based methods of selection. More How To Win At Aptitude Tests is an essential aid for anyone faced with an aptitude or psychometric test. Includes:

    How to Boost your Numerical ability
    • Improve your Verbal, Abstract and Spatial reasoning
    • Increase your Speed and Accuracy.
    • Answers are supplied for every test.

    Healy explains how to best prepare for the test and what to expect from the session itself, as well as the follow-up/validation interview.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins UK
    Release dateApr 24, 2014
    ISBN9780007484881
    More How to Win at Aptitude Tests

    Related to More How to Win at Aptitude Tests

    Related ebooks

    Psychology For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • UNLIMITED

      Can You Teach Leadership?

      Dec 2, 2022

      Can You Teach Leadership?
      9 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      How to Get What You Want from Work

      May 8, 2022

      How to Get What You Want from Work
      5 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Tell Me My Type!

      May 19, 2022

      Tell Me My Type!
      4 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      How to Become a More Strategic Leader

      Sep 1, 2019

      MY CAREER AT FACEBOOK started in 2006 as its first intern. Three years later, I became a rookie manager at the age of 25. Today, I manage an organization of hundreds of people. This journey has brought countless new challenges, mistakes and lessons.

      5 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      The Art Of Data Interrogation

      May 1, 2023

      The Art Of Data Interrogation
      12 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Making Inclusion Part of the Next Normal

      Sep 1, 2020

      While well-intentioned, research shows that anti-bias programs rarely deliver. What are organizations getting wrong when it comes to this kind of training? So much! The kind of bias training that has been the industry standard for the past decade is

      7 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Questions for Iris Bohnet, Professor, Harvard Kennedy School

      Sep 1, 2017

      There is some disagreement about the ‘business case’ for gender equality. What is your take on it? The disagreement is justified. The focus to date has largely been on the diversity of corporate boards and senior management teams, and the problem is,

      6 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Q & A

      Sep 1, 2021

      The pandemic has made stress and anxiety familiar terms for just about everyone. But what does a true case of burnout look like? Part of the problem with the burnout conversation is that we often misapply the word, or use it too loosely. The World He

      9 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Nail Your Dream Job

      Jul 28, 2021

      Nail Your Dream Job
      7 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Ace your INTERVIEW

      Jan 22, 2023

      It’s a real achievement to secure an interview, so it is important to take a moment to acknowledge this and celebrate. Your CV has obviously demonstrated the appropriate skills and experience needed in the role you have applied for. Now, to nail the

      2 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      How Top Performers Achieve More

      Sep 1, 2018

      We studied 5,000 managers and employees—across corporate America, seeking to answer a fundamental question: Why do top performers perform better in their job than others? What we found surprised us: The top performers across organizations actually wo

      6 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Coaching: What Is It And Does It Work?

      Sep 30, 2020

      Business coaching is big business. Two years ago, the International Coaching Federation had 53,000 members and estimated that there were 100,000 life coaches in the world. Another estimate of note is that it is currently a Billion Dollar business, es

      8 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      A Sense Of Self

      May 19, 2022

      WHEN people end up not enjoying their job, one of the reasons is that it doesn’t align with who they are, says organisational psychologist Phiona Martin. “Self-awareness helps to guide us, which is why it’s especially important when it comes to makin

      3 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Surveys

      Nov 5, 2020

      Surveys
      3 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Making The Team Work

      Aug 11, 2023

      Dealing with underperformance in the workplace depends on the level of education, training, experience and skills of the person involved. Workers at the lower end of the ladder might not even realise they are underperforming, which complicates commun

      2 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Q&A

      Jan 1, 2017

      QUESTIONS FOR Jesse Sostrin, PhD, Leadership Expert, PricewaterhouseCoopers You believe that one of the most overlooked factors in effective leadership is capacity. How do you define ‘leadership capacity’? A leader’s capacity is the time, energy, res

      7 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Controlling Workplace Emotions

      Oct 28, 2020

      In what has been a difficult year, employers are seeing worker emotions bubble over – manifesting in aggressive behaviour and allegations of bullying, unnecessary anger and outbursts. If you look at most company policies under serious misconduct, agg

      3 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Tactical Appreciation

      Aug 15, 2018

      Tactical Appreciation
      5 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Picking The Pro

      Jan 25, 2019

      Picking The Pro
      6 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      How to Master the Interview

      May 1, 2017

      How to Master the Interview
      1 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      ACS Distance Education

      Oct 3, 2024

      ACS Distance Education
      2 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Beyond Busyness

      Aug 8, 2017

      JAN MCLEODis a highly respected coach, mentor, speaker and consultant, a specialist in the areas of high performance, wellbeing, nutrition and change strategy in the workplace. W: thecapacity equation.com.au, madforhealth.com.au We are fast approachi

      3 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Why You Should Trust Your Gut

      Jul 18, 2024

      Why You Should Trust Your Gut
      5 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for More How to Win at Aptitude Tests

    4/5

    7 ratings1 review

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 1/5
      explanations are great. a good portion of the answer sheet is simply incorrect. I've had others and AI check it. don't waste your time if you are reading just for the examples

    Book preview

    More How to Win at Aptitude Tests - Liam Healy

    Introduction

    Welcome and well done. You have probably picked up this book for one of three reasons:

    1 You, or someone you know, are about to take some aptitude tests and you think you may need a hand;

    2 You are facing some choices regarding your own career and you want to find out what you are good at and what you are not so good at;

    3 You have heard about aptitude tests and know that a lot of companies use them for recruitment or development purposes, so you want to brush up your skills – just in case.

    The numerous test examples and detailed information in this book will help you prepare for test sessions, and give you an idea of what to expect during an actual test session, so reducing your anxiety about having to face what can be the most daunting part of a recruitment process. The reasons why companies use tests to make decisions and how they use them, are explained. Tests are very often followed by post-test feedback and interviews, and the best approaches to these are described.

    Practice Tests

    In this book you will find examples of the most common types of test in use today, as well as examples of some of the less common. For every type of test, preparation and practice strategies are included, as well as detailed answers to the questions. For the most basic ability tests, through to graduate and managerial level reasoning and problem-solving tests, this book is likely to be your best single source for preparing for that all-important test.

    With the increasing emphasis companies place on the ‘softer’ behavioural skills, a specially written personality test has also been included – you are more likely to face this type of test than any other. This will help give you a complete picture of what you are like as a person. Whatever type of test you are going to face, this book will show you what to expect.

    Reduce Your Anxiety About Being Tested

    It is only natural that when faced with an unknown task you will be nervous. This is true whether you are a school leaver applying for your first job, or a senior executive applying for your final post before retirement. Aptitude testing is used for more than just recruitment; for many companies it plays a pivotal role in development as well – in either case, knowing what to expect will enable you to produce a performance which is less hindered by nerves and which reflects more closely your actual skills and abilities.

    Handling the Selection Process

    Being invited to sit a test (or tests) is only one part of the selection process. This book explains what tools an employer may use to assess the skills and abilities that they are interested in. The other types of selection tool you may also come across, such as assessment centres, interviews, work samples and job simulations, are also described.

    Because most employers use structured interviews to validate the results of tests, the post-test interview is covered in detail. This includes advice on how to recover if you think your performance has been less than perfect!

    Whatever you choose to do in your life – and it is your life and happiness which are important, not simply your career – this book gives you the chance to prepare yourself for some of the challenges you may face.

    Good luck!

    1

    About Aptitude Tests

    An aptitude test is one of a larger group of measures of psychological characteristics collectively known as ‘psychometric tests’. Overall, psychometric tests fall into one of two categories:

    1 Tests of Typical Performance – which include things such as personality tests and interest questionnaires.

    2 Tests of Maximum Performance – which include things such as aptitude and ability tests.

    TYPICAL AND MAXIMUM PERFORMANCE

    Typical Performance Test

    A typical performance test looks at what you can typically do. This means measuring what you can do without any real effort or preparation.

    Personality questionnaires

    The most common type of typical performance test is the personality questionnaire, but they can also be used to measure things such as work preferences and interests. Personality questionnaires usually contain items (or questions) in the form of:

    Q I would rather go out and socialize with my friends than stay in and read a book.

    A (choose one)

    Agree □

    Disagree □

    Clearly, there is no ‘correct’ answer to this question. Assuming that a question measures a personal trait such as ‘enjoyment of social contact’, there is no particular meaning or value attached to either answer. In other words, neither answer is intrinsically good or bad. So, for instance, saying that a person scored 23 out of 56 on an assertiveness scale is probably meaningless, while saying that they were more assertive than average might have some relevance to their suitability for employment. Most typical performance tests, such as personality questionnaires, have no time limit, although, for organizational efficiency, some test supervisors may encourage you to complete them within a set time.

    Tests of interest and tests of motivation

    There are two other types of typical performance test you may come across – tests of interest and tests of motivation. Tests of interest are rarely used in selection processes, being more commonly used in career development. Tests of motivation are just that – measures of what motivates a person. However, they are quite rare and very seldom used in selection, not least because no one can agree what exactly tests of motivation should be looking for.

    Maximum Performance Tests

    A maximum performance test looks at what you can actually do when you are trying your best and this is exactly what an aptitude or ability test is. Look at the following from a numerical aptitude test:

    123 × 456 = ?

    Clearly, if you do not put effort into answering this question, you will not get the answer right. Your gut feeling might produce an answer of about 500,000. This is not the correct answer, and if you put this down as the answer you would be wrong. If you tried harder you might eventually come up with the correct answer (56,088).

    So, with tests of maximum performance, the questions do have right and wrong answers and so the results can be interpreted numerically with greater ease than typical performance tests.

    One of the things we know about intellectual ability is that people who are rated as being more intelligent than others may be so because they can solve problems more quickly. It follows that tests of maximum performance, such as aptitude tests, usually have strict time limits.

    ABILITY AND APTITUDE

    If you sat a test that assessed your numerical skills, you may find that it would be called something like a ‘Numerical Aptitude’ test. Subsequently, you may sit a test that looks exactly the same but instead is called a ‘Numerical Ability’ test. They certainly look the same – but there is a difference.

    In reality, they both measure numerical skills. Psychologists have known for a long time that intelligence, or intellectual ability, is composed of a number of separate facets. Generally, these areas are accepted as being linked to verbal, numerical, abstract, spatial and mechanical reasoning.

    If we were only interested in, say, mechanical reasoning, we would refer to this very specific area as ‘aptitude’ or ‘specific ability’. Very often, a person’s scores on three tests – for example, verbal, numerical and abstract ability – are combined to produce an overall score. More rarely, because of the time involved, a test may have questions from all three.

    When used in this combined way, a measure of a person’s overall general ability or general aptitude is obtained. Remember:

    Ability = general aptitude or overall ability at verbal, numerical and abstract thinking.

    Aptitude = specific ability, such as in verbal or numerical or abstract thinking.

    This distinction is not so important for the average test taker, since you may simply be told to expect a test of numerical reasoning skill, so don’t worry too much about it.

    It is important, though, not to confuse tests of ability and aptitude with tests of attainment. These assess what you have learnt, and are tests of knowledge not ability. Things like school or driving exams are tests of attainment rather than direct measures of ability.

    SPEED AND POWER TESTS

    Speed and Power tests represent different styles of test, rather than measuring different aptitudes or abilities; specifically, they describe the nature of the test questions themselves.

    In a speed test, the items tend to be quite small in scope, very specific and often not too difficult. With speed tests it is how many questions the test taker can answer correctly that is important. A numerical aptitude test with speed items could look something like this; you can see how each question is very narrowly confined in terms of content:

    123 + 456 = ?

    987 – 654 = ?

    567 × 123 = ?

    In the case of a power test, the approach is quite different and much more emphasis is placed on presenting the test taker with a smaller number of more difficult or complex questions.

    A numerical aptitude test with power items may look something like:

    Brian is 6 cm taller than Kate and Kate is 2 cm taller than William. William is 1,680 cm tall. Andrew is taller than all three but not as tall as Marjorie.

    Brian is taller than Andrew

    a) true

    b) false

    c) can’t tell

    Brian is 1,692 cm tall

    a) true

    b) false

    c) can’t tell

    Typically, speed tests contain a lot more items than power tests although they often have the same approximate time limit. Power tests tend to be used more at the graduate, professional or managerial level since their expanded format allows for more work-related content to

    Enjoying the preview?
    Page 1 of 1
    pFad - Phonifier reborn

    Pfad - The Proxy pFad of © 2024 Garber Painting. All rights reserved.

    Note: This service is not intended for secure transactions such as banking, social media, email, or purchasing. Use at your own risk. We assume no liability whatsoever for broken pages.


    Alternative Proxies:

    Alternative Proxy

    pFad Proxy

    pFad v3 Proxy

    pFad v4 Proxy