Lo Chaps!! So here's the low down.A few weeks back I applied for two different jobs with the Met Police(Civil Servant),so with the help of me mum(whom allready works for the police) i filled out these application forms. I wasnt expecting to get back any reply as i dont have any solid qualifications or have any clue what i applied for(Performance analyst,System Admin) but as i thought that theres no harm in applying and also the money is really good!! So a few weeks go by an i didnt thnk any off it.But as i came back from yesterday afternoon.I open a letter thinking that its a warning letter from the bank telling me im over my overdraft again but no.............. it was a reply fro the performance analyst job which was the first form i sent off coz of the due date. Its turns out that ive made it to the second stage of the selection process but now heres the problem......its a "Psychometric" test which will start at 9.45 and will last 2 hours. WTF??? is a "psychometric" test and has any of you chaps sat one?? what do i have to prepare for??? what should i expect??? what do they want to know??? Im completly baffled bout this test.If anyone's got any info on it it will be helpfull. Thcnks!!!
you can easily cheat them if you know how. get yourself on amazon, you can get some good books that will guide you through the tests, and show you what the questions are really asking
erm they make you proritise a bunch of sentances that describe you. ie, "works well with others" "is a team leader" "likes to burn things" and you'd have to put them in an order of most like you, to least like you. In short its a very blunt tool if your remotely complex (like me ).
The tests vary with each type of job, I'm surprised that they didn't send you a sample test. I sat one a couple of years ago for the RUC (now PSNI) passed the test but cocked up the interview. In that case it was to identify patterns from a set of documents and then prioritise them in order that they should be investigated.
Those tests use multiple sets of similar questions to see if you are faking your results. While not exactly the same repeating similar questions can reveal inconsistoncies in what you say. You're best off answering truthfully. They aren't going to reveal you for the nutjob you really are. Who knows, the traits you don't think are important they may value most highly (and vice-versa). In my current job I was told that my refference from my past job (state manager) told my new boss that I was arrogant at times. Turns out they consider this highly desirable as the previous people doing my job were too soft. You just never can tell.
