Career Aptitude Tests
The test I selected for this assignment is the career aptitude test. This test is said to be over a century old as the need to establish individuals’ abilities existed way back in history. One of the areas in history where specific abilities were determined before recruitment was during battle preparations where soldiers were tested on their skills. The test later evolved to include a measure for mental, verbal and physical skills. As one of the most commonly used commercially available psychological test, the career aptitude test is meant to measure the ability of an individual. The term aptitude is often substituted with ‘ability”, which refers to individual attributes that enable one to learn a variety of skills (Canney & Bielefeldt, 2016). For instance, the ability to communicate is linked to myriad other abilities required for equally innumerable tasks. Therefore, career aptitude testing is focused on evaluating different abilities to gauge how well rounded an individual is and how they fit into certain roles. However, this is not to say that these tests measure every single ability but rather, a sample of them. For instance, to determine an individual’s knowledge of mathematical problems, a psychologist cannot test them on every existing problem. Instead, he/she only picks a couple of general problems to gauge an individual’s understanding – the same applies to other topics. One of the measures of effectiveness for career aptitude tests is that it should be taken under controlled conditions.
The career aptitude test has been widely used in the recruitment process to disqualify candidates that do not meet the skills needed by the employer. To counter the large number of applicants, these tests incorporate a standardized scoring system that enables the employer to compare candidates and pick those that suit the position better than the rest. Career aptitude tests are often conducted online and are hence more flexible allowing job candidates to take them from anywhere. This also makes the recruitment process less costly and the initial screening less complex for the human resource team. The tests have multiple choices and are timed – normally, candidates get a minute to answer each question. The primary categories of career aptitude tests are power tests and speed tests. The former entails few but complex questions and often require candidates to take their time to answer. The latter comprises of numerous questions that are usually straightforward. Speed tests are designed to measure a candidate’s accuracy within a fixed period and are often used at the clerical and administrative level. On the other hand, power tests are used for selection at the managerial level. Career aptitude tests can be specific or general. Specific ones test for specific subjects like numerical reasoning, behaviour and verbal abilities while general ones test for a combination of skills such as numerical, verbal and behaviour among others. The commonly known career aptitude tests include mechanical, clerical, numerical, verbal and abstract reasoning, and spatial ability (Savickas et al., 2018).
Mechanical reasoning tests measure an individual’s understanding of mechanical principles that are not centred on expert knowledge. These tests are commonly used in the selection of candidates seeking to begin a career in engineering, the police force, technical field and the military (Hirschi et al., 2018). Secondly, clerical aptitude tests measure an individual’s speed and accuracy and are used to select candidates to occupy clerical or administrative positions. An example of a clerical aptitude test is a typing test. Thirdly, numerical reasoning tests measure an individual’s capabilities for a job position based on their understanding of number sequences, graphs and general mathematical calculations. Additionally, verbal reasoning tests check for an individual’s understanding of grammar and is centred upon spelling checks, comprehension levels, grammatical accuracy and definition of terms. More so, abstract reasoning tests gauge one’s ability to learn new skills by evaluating their ability to solve patterns based on logical reasoning. These tests assist in the selection of candidates looking to join the technical field, where using abstract ideas is the norm. Lastly, spatial ability tests are commonly used in selecting candidates in the design industries by testing their ability to manipulate shapes.
Validity
The validity of a test refers to how precisely a test gauges the intended target. The validity of career aptitude tests thus focuses on how accurate they are in determining the abilities of individuals and selecting those with higher capabilities than others. By measuring the frequency and consistency at which these tests accurately select high performing candidates to fill employment positions in different fields, then the test can be considered to be valid. The validity is further exemplified by the fact that the various tests seek to select appropriate individuals for the task at hand (Lent et al.,2017). For instance, since clerical reasoning aptitude tests are used for selecting clerical and administrative candidates, their use in the recruitment process is to fill the said positions is valid. The same applies to the use of spatial ability tests to select individuals in the tech field that can work well with abstract ideas. Because of this specificity in the types of career aptitude tests used to gauge the variety of individual abilities, the validity of these tests is unquestionable.
Reliability
Reliability in tests is defined as how dependable they are in measuring certain characteristics. The most common questions that come up when evaluating a test’s reliability is whether the same score would be obtained if an individual repeated the test. If the answer is yes, then the test can be deemed reliable and dependable. The reliability of career aptitude tests –which fall in the category of standardized tests – is questionable (Buckley, Seery & Canty, 2016). To begin with, most of these tests are combined to bring out the general abilities of an individual. For instance, an individual may be required to take verbal, numeric and clerical reasoning tests to easily compare job candidates. Retaking numerical reasoning can create a difference in test scores. For instance, a job candidate can be anxious during the first round and may thus miss out on showing their numerical skills to their employer, exemplifying the unreliability of career aptitude tests. Additionally, a candidate working with a slow internet connection may end up getting disqualified by the test results. Therefore, not only does a job candidate lose a job opportunity, but an employer may also lose untapped talent.
Absence-of-bias
Bias in tests refers to the systematic errors that occur during measurement that consequently affect the scores of specific groups based on identified factors such as gender, ethnicity, education, race and age (Lent et al., 2017). Tests that have no bias are those whose scores are not affected by the personal characteristics of the individuals taking them. In my opinion, career aptitude tests are biased with regard to their basis for success. Passing these tests is considered a success as it takes one to the next screening stage while numerous other candidates are filtered out. However, the method used to determine successful candidates varies. For instance, a job applicant can do the test and score a 90 and still get disqualified if the average score is 91. This is despite the high chances that they may have gotten a higher mark if they had redone the test or the fact that they may have better skills than some of the selected candidates (Savickas et al., 2018). More so, career aptitude tests are not always combined, which means that candidates can be tested on their numerical reasoning alone. This limits the candidate from showcasing their verbal and clerical abilities, which coupled up with their numerical capabilities may be more efficient. Further, these tests fail to take into account personal hindrances like anxiety and over preparedness that may affect a candidate’s score and thus, assume that the high scorers are better than all other participants.
Improvement
One of the reasons individuals fail career aptitude tests despite their abilities is due to anxiety. These tests can determine one’s future within the little time given to complete the test. This couple up with the timing can scare candidates and in the end, they may end up not meeting the average score required to transition to the next stage (Buckley, Seery & Canty, 2016). One of the recommendations I can give to improve this test is reminding candidates to practice before taking the tests. Emailing them practice tests – especially times ones – can be quite helpful in helping them sharpen their accuracy and speed so they can have an equal chance as everyone else. Providing them with a variety of tests can also help in minimizing their anxiety, and thus reducing the bias it presents.
References
Buckley, J., Seery, N., & Canty, D. (2016). The validity and reliability of online testing for the assessment of spatial ability. In ASEE Engineering Design Graphics Division 71st Mid-Year Conference. ASEE.
Canney, N. E., & Bielefeldt, A. R. (2016). Validity and reliability evidence of the engineering professional responsibility assessment tool. Journal of engineering education, 105(3), 452-477.
Hirschi, A., Nagy, N., Baumeler, F., Johnston, C. S., & Spurk, D. (2018). Assessing key predictors of career success: Development and validation of the career resources questionnaire. Journal of Career Assessment, 26(2), 338-358.
Lent, R. W., Ireland, G. W., Penn, L. T., Morris, T. R., & Sappington, R. (2017). Sources of self-efficacy and outcome expectations for career exploration and decision-making: A test of the social cognitive model of career self-management. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 99, 107-117.
Savickas, M. L., Porfeli, E. J., Hilton, T. L., & Savickas, S. (2018). The student career construction inventory. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 106, 138-152.