Aptitude Tests

[Linden Lewis]

We're employing an apprentice, and I'm keen to give the prospective candidates an aptitude test. Can anyone recommend a good resource, or website, where I can find some?

 

[The Byre]

Just try them out for a day, a week, or a month and pick the most likely candidate.

 

[Gecko001]

I just googled aptitude tests and was amazed at how many firms offer aptitude tests, not for employers, but for candidates to use to practice for employment aptitude tests.

You might end up with someone good at aptitude tests but not very good at doing the job.

I know in the USA there are certain tests you cannot use, such as IQ tests. I am not sure if this applies in the UK though.

 

[Linden Lewis]

Thanks both, yes - we will probably end up offering a trial as well. We'll probably create our own aptitude test as well, I have found them helpful at interview stage to offer a bit more insight. But I know a lot of theory goes into them, so thought something off the shelf might be useful

 

[The Byre]

I pick people mainly on intelligence and I gauge intelligence by talking to them. If they smile and are bright and cheerful and able to discuss things freely, from politics to technology and display a wide range of interests away from their career or vocation, they're in for a trial run.

In nearly 40 years of running businesses of various types, I have yet to come across any test of any sort that tells anyone anything about a candidate - and heaven knows that I have looked!

For example, there is no test that tells you if the candidate is lazy or able to cope with equipment failing when the customer is right there with them.

 

[Alan]

I gauge intelligence by talking to them. If they smile and are bright and cheerful and able to discuss things freely, from politics to technology and display a wide range of interests away from their career or vocation, they're in for a trial run.

So you only employ sales people then

My favourite 'trick' is to get the interviewer to do 90% of the talking by zooming in on their interests and problems and using open questions. Once the interviewer has heard themselves talking so much they will get the feeling that they have had a bright and cheerful discussion and generally they will think the talker ( themselves ) are fantastic.

 

[The Byre]

So you only employ sales people then .

Everybody has to deal with customers - so no place for wallflowers!

A typical question I would pose would be "Do you like spicy food?"

This leads to a discussion about cooking, i.e. nothing to do with anything we do around here.

BUT

Somewhere in that discussion, I will (after discussing Arabic, Indian and Chinese food) pose the thesis and/or question - "Should the hotness of a sauce be measured on a linear, quadratic or a logarithmic scale?"

We are still being playful, but I am also probing their technical and mathematical understanding and also testing their ability to think outside the box.

The discussion can go to Antarctica, spiders, dogs, whatever, but I want to see if they can 'riff' intellectually, in the same way that a jazz musician takes a theme of just a few notes and creates a whole new thing around it!

 

[Mark T Jones]

Out of interest, what type of apprentice are you employing?


Over the years I have taken on several admin apprentices and ended up with a few good, reliable long term employees

However, the starting bar was pretty low and the introducing college made virtually no effort to filter them

Being admin, and us being a finance company we required them to be somewhat numerate and literate

I created my own, very basicaptitude test. Comprising 3 questions

One was percentages. Something like if s 40,000 seater stadium is 60% full, how many spare seats are there? They wee given a calculator to use

Another was a simple ‘why do you want to work here?’ Subtext being ‘can you write a sentence?’

I can’t remember the third, but you get the drift. For apprentices, look for basic skills, a bit of enthusiasm and the ability to fit in.

 

[UKSBD]

See how they get on with this - https://www.sim64.co.uk/account/f.php

 

[Newchodge]

The first question you have to ask is 'what aptitude are you testing for', the second is 'what is the best way to test for it'?

 

[BustersDogs]

And 'would you employ someone who scores higher than you or your current team'. Because every time I've done a test as part of the interview, and the interviewer says 'you got higher than me' or 'you got higher than anyone currently working on the team', I might as well pack my bags up and go home at that point.

 

[Gecko001]

And 'would you employ someone who scores higher than you or your current team'. Because every time I've done a test as part of the interview, and the interviewer says 'you got higher than me' or 'you got higher than anyone currently working on the team', I might as well pack my bags up and go home at that point.

So you think IQ tests are to pick intelligent people? They are often used for the opposite reason: i.e. to pick people of low intelligence for low skilled/manual jobs simply because people scoring high in IQ tests for jobs of low skill/manual jobs will often not stay long in the job. I think that could be one of the reasons why IQ tests are banned in the USA for employee recruitment.

 

[BustersDogs]

I wasn't talking about iq tests, but the aptitude tests.