PSYCHOMETRIC TEST VS APTITUDE TEST

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PSYCHOMETRIC TEST VS APTITUDE TEST
Ever since recruiters have started involving
pre-screening tests in their hiring process,
there has been a debate going on which is better
Psychometric Test or Aptitude Test? Although
usage of both type of tests fits in different
scenarios, but it is always discussed which one
should be given preference. Here is a detailed
analysis from Applicant Tracking System about
Psychometric Test and Aptitude Test. Psychometric
Test By definition, Psychometric test is
used to measure the human intelligence
levels and gauge the cultural fit of a
candidate who has applied for a job opening in
an organisation. Today, almost 70 of the
companies worldwide includes psychometric test in
their recruitment process. What makes
Psychometric test a preferred step before
interview is its ability to bring out details
about behavioral traits and personality traits of
a candidate through a set of questionnaire, which
usually cannot be tracked during an interview.
The assertion given by many recruiters to follow
this process is that it gives the idea of
strengths and weakness of a professional (not in
terms of skills), and serves as a roadmap for
them to understand what they are supposed to
handle at the job. But this whole process is
based on the assumption that Psychometric test
can reduce the risk of a bad hire or onboarding
an unfit candidate. Psychometric test does not
measure the skills of the candidate required to
handle the job they are getting hired for. Also,
there is no pre-defined pattern of such tests,
every company comes up with their own design,
making the results outcome more debatable.
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Aptitude Test By definition, Aptitude Test is
used to access the problem solving and reasoning
ability of the candidates. This tests helps
recruiters to obtain the informed decision about
the candidates ability and skills to handle the
current job at hand. Almost 80 of the companies
worldwide are trusting this tool. An Aptitude
test is taken as the most supportive tool before
an applicant is asked to appear for the
interview. When number of candidates are more for
a job interview, aptitude test helps to generate
comparison scale among them to filter out the
best. This is a direct tool to measure problem
solving and reasoning ability of a
candidate. What makes this tool ineffective is
that most of the times recruiters use only one
pattern across all the openings, without keeping
in mind the type of vacancy at hand.
This might not accurately measure the
potential of the candidate matching to this job
opening. Having said in detail about the two
types of testing tools, what we recommend to the
recruiters is to use these tools in order to
build the positives of the candidates,
rather than using it to filter out the
crowd. Responses to psychometric test can be
faked on the day and aptitude test can miss out
the questions on understanding the exact skill of
the candidate. Human interaction should be the
best judge to consider a candidate as a best fit
for the job. Applicant Tracking System helps
you to conduct aptitude tests, psychometric
tests as well as pre-screening tests through
its Online Test module. Recruiters are allowed to
create customized tests of their preference and
at one-click the tests can be distributed to
applicants sitting at any location. The best part
here is the test score is calculated on the spot,
saving time and money of companies in manual
hiring process.