We asked four successful grads how to out-psych psychometric testing? Here’s what they said.
- Brendan - Paralegal at Freehills, Former congressional intern at the US Senate
- Maddy - Former Trainee at PwC, Westpac Graduate
- Lulu - Analyst at Quantium
- Simon - Analyst at Deloitte
BRENDAN: Yeah, so psychometric tests… usually they’re online; some of the companies are now employing tests where they basically ask you some really complex problem-solving abilities, and you’ll work online to try and provide solutions to them.
LULU: So the psychometric tests are pretty much trying to understand your personality.
LULU: So the employers can then look at how well you’re going to fit into different parts of their company, whether you’ve got certain traits that are going to be more useful in different sectors.
SIMON: That way they can evaluate, you know, behavioural questions, and get to know you a little bit better.
LULU: So they’ll often have a sort of behavioural-based interview, where they’ll ask you all sorts of different questions about, say, how you acted in a certain situation in the past, or maybe give you a hypothetical situation that might arise if you were working in the role you’re applying for.
BRENDAN: There might be a values test as well, where they’ll ask you a range of different questions that are meant to characterise your personality.
LULU: They’re looking at the way in which you respond and the different kinds of traits that you’re showing in that as well - whether you’re more communicative, wanting to work with other people, or whether you’re quite individual and kind of driven, just getting the work done by yourself.
SIMON: Usually they assess you on numerical, verbal and logical reasoning.
BRENDAN: For some of the problem-solving questions, make sure you are aware about the time - there’s always a time limit for all of them.
BRENDAN: Make sure you practise beforehand and try and do your best in a time-pressure situation to just get some results out of it.
SIMON: You can do a lot of practise things online to actually help with those. And it actually takes you through the answer.
BRENDAN: It’s always good to get a feel of what a psychometric test is like, especially if you’ve never done one before.
BRENDAN: But always remember: each firm, each interview has different psychometric tests that they employ. So don’t look at one as being indicative of how you’ll actually sit the test.
LULU: The best way to do well in them is just to be yourself, and often go with the first answer that comes to you.
LULU: So when you spend too long on the questions, you kind of play them back in your mind, and you can keep tossing up between different options, but usually whichever you choose first is the most true response to you.
Update 1 June 2024: The disclaimer in the video is out of date. Professional Super changed trustee from Tidswell to Diversa on 18 December 2020 and moved from Professional Super, a sub-fund of the Tidswell Master Superannuation Plan to Professional Super, a sub-fund of OneSuper on 1 June 2024. See the Significant Event Notice for more information.
