Hi,Does anyone know what the cut-off score for psychometrics tends to be?Do they also take into account other stuff on your CV or is it more of a binary thing?Thanks

Hi, Nano. I'm not sure that you quite understand what psychometric testing is all about. There is no "score" per se, and there isn't normally a cut-off point.Psychometric testing is used to help understand your attitudes, and personality traits. For example, it may test your attitudes towards team-working vs. solo working, or assess how you feel about taking on a leadership role, or your preference for creative thinking vs. logical thinking. In general, there are no right or wrong answers.At my firm, we have a profile of psychometric fit. It isn't a hard and fast rule, but if someone falls outside the accepted norms, it is an area that we'll explore in more detail during interview. We would never reject a candidate based on the psychometric tests alone.Bear in mind that different firms will have different psychometric profiles that they recruit against, and the profiles may even vary from department to department. Someone applying for an actuarial position would be expected to show a preference for numerical and analytical thinking; those skills might not be so important for someone applying as an HR consultant.Don't stress about the psychometric testing.

Hi VI,Thanks for that - very helpful.I guess I was also meaning things like numerical tests as well when I referred to a 'cut-off' and score - any thoughts?

Village Idiot's advice holds true and is good for psychometric personality profiling tools. They are tools to analyse the way you think and work rather than being a test of knowledge.For psychometric ability tests (numerical, verbal ability etc.) again there are no hard and fast rules about "pass marks". These tests assess your ability to apply your skills in a particular way. Grades are on a curve and are relative to a pre-tested sample population. For example, you may score at the 70% level, which means you performed better than 70% of the sample graduate group who were subjected to the same test under controlled conditions. There is not a direct translation between this percentage "score" and how many questions you get right for example. Some tests weigh both how many questions you attempt and how many you get right. Some weigh certain questions more heavily than others.As a rule of thumb, if a psychometric test is being used on its own as a first-line assessment, then there will be a set cut-off point. If it is being used as part of an assessment centre then it will be weighed against performance on other types of test.As Village Idiot suggests, testing for different types of jobs will emphasise different abilities. Some companies will only apply psychometric tests for the critical abilities e.g. actuarial firms just setting numerical tests. Others will apply a basket of tests but pay more attention to the results of some than others.

Just out of curiosity Village Idiot, which firm do you work for? cheers,

Also, VI, what is your IQ score?

I work for a large operational consultancy, and I'm afraid I'm not willing to say more than that. Lurk here long enough and you can probably put all of the pieces of the puzzle together.Mental deficiency used to be more finely classified using the following technical terms that later began to be abused by the rest of society (5):IQ Range Classification 70-80 Borderline deficiency 50-69 Moron 20-49 Imbecile below 20 Idiot ...so I would have thought my handle would have given away my IQ.

The pass mark for verbal and numerical tests will vary from firm to firm. When I sat the tests at PA, it was explained to me as follows: A cross-section of PA consultants took the tests under controlled conditions. The median score is then used as the 'pass' mark. This ensures that no new joiners are below average and hence will not dilute the gene pool. The median score is re-done every few years. In theory the numerical and verbal reasoning ability of the consultants will increase over time. Hope that helps.

Hi, just for your information, "psychometrics" is the science of measures of psychological phenomenons like "econometrics" is the science of how to measure economic phenomenons. For example, psychometric theory explains how to measure attitudes (e.g. work satisfaction) or values (individualism).I would be interested in knowing when and how often consultancies ask their employees to fill in such surveys. And in general any informations about surveys that you guys are asked to fill in by your companies.Many thanks

We are asked to complete a workplace engagement/satisfaction survey every three years. We don't use psychometrics for recruitment. This is for a large, international consultancy.Accenture don't use psychometrics for recruitment either, interestingly.