Psychometric test is used to identify the mental characteristic of people and put a measurement against such characteristic (Roberts, 2005). Most of the psychometric tests are professionally designed by occupational psychologists with detailed manuals providing the data to establish the reliability of the test and how test scores might be judged. They are scored in a standardized manner so that employers can compare their test candidates against the scores of relevant populations (CIPD, 2015). The inbuilt measure and checks can identify whether the candidates are dishonest. Therefore it is a more objective and free from bias way of assessing candidates. There are three types of psychometric tests: intelligence tests, ability tests, and personality tests. Intelligence tests (also called general mental ability (GMA) tests) measure a range of mental abilities which enable a person to succeed at a variety of intellectual tasks using the faculties of abstract thinking and reasoning (Armstrong, 2009). Ability tests establish what people are capable of knowing or doing and measures verbal reasoning, numerical reasoning, spatial reasoning and mechanical reasoning (Armstrong, 2009). Intelligence is a good predictor of job …show more content…
It is aimed to “gauge the innate traits and characteristic of people, codify them, and compare them with others” (Roberts, 2005). Personality refers to a person’s distinct set of characteristics, such as way of thinking, feelings and behaviours that determine how they generally act. People’s job performance will be influenced by their personality as it determines how a person will interact within the work environment (Demasi, 2013). Thus, personality tests help to improve selection decision because it can reveal whether one’s personality type is a good fit for the job and to the company