Psychometric/aptitude tests attempt to assess a candidate’s ability to perform certain functions and tasks. Really, psychometric tests are a form of IQ test. The most common psychometric tests in use today are: verbal reasoning, numerical reasoning and diagrammatic (also called inductive or logical) reasoning.
How do you get to Carnegie Hall? Practice, practice, practice. It’s pretty simple, you can dramatically improve your score by practice. While your true/raw ability is largely fixed over time, your score on psychometric tests is just a vague estimate of this. As you practice, you will become comfortable with the test, so your nerves will decrease, and your performance will improve as a result. Also, and more importantly, you actually just learn all the common patterns and tricks that the actual tests use. For example, in inductive reasoning tests, it’s very common for a particular shape to be rotating in each panel of the sequence. It may be a black triangle, which is rotating 90 degrees clockwise each time. Or perhaps it’s the entire panel which is rotating 270 degrees each step. There are a number of common patterns like this, which once you have been consistently exposed to, you will then immediately hunt for once you are faced with a real test. You can get this exposure with a GradTests subscription.
As you may have already realised, the jobs market is highly, highly competitive these days. This is especially true in the current economy. If the vast bulk of your job competitors realise that practice helps improve their score, then clearly this is what they’re doing. Mark our words: you will be left behind and not get the job you want if you do not practice the psychometric tests. The easiest, most efficient and time effective method to improve your scores on these tests is to do actual practice tests, just like you see on GradTests. Reading the newspaper, doing Sudoku, doing crossword puzzles etc. are very indirect, time consuming and ineffective methods. Think about it. You’re probably busy enrolled in four subjects, preparing and checking countless applications, practicing for interviews and still trying to live a normal life. The last thing you want to do is waste time on poor and ill-informed practice methods. So do yourself a favour, just practice our tests.
We have dedicated a lot of time, money and effort in creating tests which very closely replicate those offered by the major test providers, particularly SHL. These are the ones that most graduates, interns and other employees are faced with in Australia, New Zealand, Europe and the UK. Apart from getting access to the actual SHL tests, this is your next best option. And it is a very small investment we’re talking about. It’s only $59.95 for a 1-year subscription to all our tests. For that you get access to 6 verbal reasoning, 6 numerical reasoning and 6 diagrammatic reasoning tests. These are all full length tests, with 25 questions each. That’s 450 questions for you to practice on. You can take them as many times as you like in a simulated environment, very similar to what you face in an SHL test.
If you subscribe to GradTests, in the Testing Centre, you can:
1. Practice until you're perfect
2. View all your test history
3. Track your performance over time
4. Get feedback on where you need improvement
5. Compare your performance to your job rivals
This is a very small investment in your future. And it’s pretty simple, you may think you have the best marks in the world, great extra-curricular activities and a magnetic personality which would nail any interview. That all sounds great, but if you can’t get passed these tests, we've got news for you – no interview and no job! As of 2015, there are over 1.2M university students in Australia and in excess of 3M in the UK. It is highly competitive. There are many that know the rules of the game. You need to be one of them or you will be left behind.
Companies use them to assess job candidates. While some companies use them at the application stage as an initial cut, others use them after an initial CV cut, or sometimes later in the process, often after the final interview. In any case, almost all commercial banks, investment banks, accounting companies, management consultants, mining companies, engineering companies, large corporates and some government departments (ASIC, RBA etc.) use these as part of their graduate and internship recruitment.
These companies include major investment banks such as UBS, Morgan Stanley, Credit Suisse, Goldman Sachs etc. Major management consulting companies such as Bain, BCG and McKinsey. Major accounting firms like PwC, KPMG and Deloitte. Major resources companies like Rio Tinto and BHP. Really, almost all large organisations use these tests at some point during the recruitment process.
You sure can. You can get a 1 year subscription to all 6 tests of any one test type for $29.95 - this is our Bronze package and is very popular.
Yes you can, please contact us here.
It's purely online. You log-in to our Testing Centre and complete the test, just as you would when you're sitting the actual test with SHL. Our testing environment mirrors SHL’s. Once you have completed a test you can view your results, and get a detailed explanation of the correct answer. This feedback allows you to improve your score over time. You also get to compare your score to others who have taken the test, to see how you compare to your peers.
You can take them as many times as you like. In fact, this is one of the best ways to improve your score. With time, you will have memorised all the most common tricks and patterns. You can track your improvement over time. You can then apply the patterns that you’ve learnt to your next SHL test.
Yes we do have 3 free practice SHL verbal reasoning, SHL inductive reasoning and SHL numerical reasoning tests. They are very much in the style of SHL tests. Once you've sat these, if you think the product is worthwhile, then choose to subscribe and you can access 6 SHL style verbal reasoning tests, 6 numerical reasoning tests and 6 diagrammatic reasoning tests.
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One GradTests licence is for one person. If you wish to purchase bulk licences, please contact us here.
Yes, although it would be easier to name ones that don't. Just to mention a few names: Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, JP Morgan, RBS, RBC, HSBC, Barclays, Lloyds, Macquarie Bank, BOAML, CBA, NAB, McKinsey, BCG, Bain, Aviva, BP, BT, BSkyB, Coca Cola, Shell, Vodafone, GlaxoSmithKline, SAB Miller, BHP, Rio Tinto, Glencore, BAE...the list goes on and on! This is just a small sample and it covers pretty much every industry. All these companies in their graduate, internship and other programs use verbal reasoning, logical reasoning and numerical reasoning tests.
Yes. Please contact us with specifics and we can discuss a discount.
Your university may already have a subscription, please contact your careers centre, or write a post on your university’s Facebook page. Please contact us too.
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As a practical matter, when sitting the actual tests, it is most efficient to complete the tests on a desktop computer, with a mouse and keyboard. We therefore recommend that this is how you also sit our tests, given they are simulating the real test environment, and getting you completely mentally prepared for the nailing the tests.
Yes, they are extremely similar in style. We have worked hard to expose you to the same set of patterns and tricks, in order for you to be ready to face them for real. These tests are also similar in style to OneTest and Kenexa which you may have also heard of.
The GradTests difficulty level is set to be very similar to SHL, for all the tests; verbal reasoning, numerical reasoning and diagrammatic reasoning tests.
There are a lot of things you can allegedly do to improve your score on psychometric tests. A lot of well-intentioned suggestions include things like, read decent quality newspapers (verbal reasoning), analyse any datasets available, such as in journal articles (numerical reasoning) and do Sudoku (logical reasoning). The fact is, these are all very ‘indirect’ ways of improving your mark, and frankly, don’t work very well. You are much better off simply practicing actual tests. This is the quickest and most effective method and improving your marks. Unsurprisingly. If you wanted to master playing tennis, you wouldn’t spend all your time running, doing weights and playing ping pong right? These may all gradually assist, but surely the bulk of your time should be spent on actually playing tennis itself. Same goes for psychometric tests.
In terms of facing the actual test, all things that generally help mental performance should help your score. Fairly obvious things like ensuring you are well-rested, you are in a quiet place and not hungry or thirsty. So, make sure you’re at home in your bedroom when you’re taking the test and you have asked people not to disturb you. Even losing 20 seconds of concentration can be vital, and could be the difference between getting an interview or not. Also, for the numerical reasoning tests, ensure that you have a calculator on hand, both a physical one and a browser-based one. A good idea is also to have a spreadsheet open, as sometimes you have to do a lot of calculations to arrive at a final answer, and it’s easier to store them in a sheet rather than writing them on paper.
For the diagrammatic/inductive reasoning questions, it can also help to have a short list of the most common patterns to look through first. For instance, you might have: shape rotating 90 degrees, 2-3 shapes interchanging positions, entire panel rotating by an extra 90 degrees each step, shapes alternating colour etc. The idea is that once you are presented with a question, you can quickly cycle through these options first, before then going to trying to solve the problem some other way.
Doing well at numerical reasoning tests is pretty straightforward. You must practice, practice, practice. With practice, all the most common tricks and patterns will become second nature to you. Unfortunately there are no short cuts. You can get ahead of your competition by taking the free numerical reasoning test here on GradTests.
Well this isn’t really an FAQ, but if this does happen, please contact us.
Practice, practice, practice. The same goes for numerical reasoning tests and inductive reasoning tests. You need to put in the hard yards to improve, to learn all the tricks and most common pitfalls. You can take a free verbal reasoning test here on GradTests.
No. Just no. This is a very risky strategy. The reason is that many employers who use SHL tests during the graduate/intern recruitment phase will use them twice. First they're used during the initial culling stage, before interview. Here 1000s of candidates will be invited to take on online test. It may be tempting to cheat here because you sit the test at home, but don't! If you progress further on and get to interviews, assessment centres and super Saturdays, you will probably be re-tested in the employer's office. If there’s a large variance in the score that you get during supervised conditions vs. at home, it will raise suspicion. You may be disqualified if the variance is very large.
