General Discussion

[dannyjt]

So I went for a job interview today and they had me do an Aptitude test. I've never done one before, but I did do some practise question in preparation.

The thing is, I did terrible. A combination of me being a slow reader, nervous and panicking meant I *beep*ed it all up.

How important are these test for employers? Have I pretty much messed up my chance of getting the job (Assuming I didn't already do that in the interview.)?

[Spotter5]

Probably not going to get the job :/

[fenian]

It depends on the employer.

Some are only interviewing you because they legally have to and they already have someone picked for the job. Nepotisim is still riffe with people hooking up cousins and friends with jobs.

Others the result isnt of any interest but how you handled it did you freeze up or not.

Others would use the result if it came down to being unable to decide.

Generally in fair interviews, your interview and past experience get you the job, things like this are added as a "flip of the coin" thing, if they really cant decide between two, then just pick the one who scored best.

But like I said, its impossible to say, I been to many job interviews that were a complete waste of my time, finding out later that I was more qualified than the person who got the job, did a better interview, but simply wasnt the head of hrs cousin and they were.

[ProjectVRD]

My aptitude test was full of questions that did not have answers, they were interested in seeing how you could cope with such a situation and what methods you would use anyway to try and seek an answer. Essentially, they were not looking for answer but instead looking to see how you apply logic to task at hand.

They also said after I had got the job nobody had ever worked out the questions were not answerable because to get that far would require several hours for the most talented of people. I thought I had completely failed the test but they liked the way I set about the task and phoned to say the job was mine.

[dannyjt]

I'll take it I'm just not going to get the job

[fenian]

I just accept that I wont get any job, and its all a waste of my time.. That way I can only be pleasantly surprised.

[Mr_Inconspicous]

Sounds like you'd hate the Army's aptitude test. All they use it for is to see what job/corps are open to you so its not a pass/fail test. Each job has a score, match or beat the required score then you can chose that role providing you can meet the other requirements.

It' straight forward and simple but its all about doing it quick. You could get 100% correct and get a low score by being slow and somebody else who 70% correct can score higher be completing it faster.

http://www.army.mod.uk/join/20281.aspx

Have a go and you'll see what I mean. It's so simple, you'll look at it and think how can you not get 100% (which you will in the practice). In the real test its all on touch screen and is really easy to make mistakes by tapping the wrong answer but that's purely down to the speed you do it at but its better to make a few mistakes and blast through it than to go slow  

Can't remember the score I got but when I finished it but every single soldier entry job was available to me.  The only one I couldn't pick was Military Police but that was due to only having a grade D on my English Language GCSE  

[fenian]

So basically the British army dosent mind if youre wrong as long as youre impulsive? interesting recruitment technique, explains some things.

I got them all right and blasted through them, spent most of the time moving the mouse, I suspect Id do it faster on a touch screen, but I think they got it all wrong, They should get rid of people who get 30% of their decisions wrong due to impulsiveness, thats crazy giving them a higher score.

[Mike939]

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Mr_Inconspicous wrote:

Sounds like you'd hate the Army's aptitude test. All they use it for is to see what job/corps are open to you so its not a pass/fail test. Each job has a score, match or beat the required score then you can chose that role providing you can meet the other requirements.

It' straight forward and simple but its all about doing it quick. You could get 100% correct and get a low score by being slow and somebody else who 70% correct can score higher be completing it faster.

http://www.army.mod.uk/join/20281.aspx

Have a go and you'll see what I mean. It's so simple, you'll look at it and think how can you not get 100% (which you will in the practice). In the real test its all on touch screen and is really easy to make mistakes by tapping the wrong answer but that's purely down to the speed you do it at but its better to make a few mistakes and blast through it than to go slow  

Can't remember the score I got but when I finished it but every single soldier entry job was available to me.  The only one I couldn't pick was Military Police but that was due to only having a grade D on my English Language GCSE  

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[Mr_Inconspicous]

If you were getting lots of mistakes but a very quick time you'd probably wouldn't get a high enough score for anything

You still have to get alot right. But the faster you do it the better your score will be but you still need to be getting enough correct  I think I explained it poorly Say me and you both sat it and got the same total correct but you did it faster you'd score higher. But if you get them all correct but I got a few wrong but a lot quicker I'd score higher than you.

I know on the day I dropped points by hitting the wrong answer particularly on the ones with a choice of four answers, thing is as I hit the wrong one I knew I'd made the mistake of hitting the wrong one