reliability and validity of psychometric tests

Different people have different experiences and might analyze the answers differently. Rater's judgements: Maybe the only change between the two test attempts is that different raters evaluated it.Test form: If your candidate scores differently on online and offline forms of the test, the test is less reliable.Environmental factors: Changes in the testing environment, such as lighting, noise, or even the test administrator, can affect your candidate's performance in the test.Candidate's physical and mental state: A major league football game the night before the test? They might have stayed up the whole night rooting for their favourite team and had no sleep before the test.How do you account for the change? Some possible reasons (errors) are: Say your candidate obtains different scores each time they take the test. If this is true for your pre-employment test, it is considered reliable. Think of reliability in this way: No matter how many times you take the test, you obtain similar scores.

Reliability refers to the extent to which a test consistently measures a characteristic. The extent to which a test satisfies these conditions is determined by two properties: Reliability and Validity. Simply put, a test must be reliable and valid for it to be considered 'good'. it measures a trait essential for the job. If the test claims to measure a particular characteristic, it must measure that characteristic.If your candidate retakes the test, they will get similar scores as their previous attempt.They are used to determine your potential employees' abilities and traits.įor a test to be deemed as 'good', it must satisfy three main conditions: Pre-employment tests are a standardized way of obtaining data on candidates during hiring. How well can the test predict your potential employee's job performance? - Validityīefore jumping to determine the usefulness of these tests, you need to understand what a pre-employment test is.How reliable are the scores obtained in the test? - Reliability.To do this, you need to answer two questions:

Pre-employment tests need to be vetted to determine their usefulness. So, there is a high possibility that you are part of an organization that uses tests to hire new employees.ĭoes that mean you can pick up any test, implement it for your hiring needs, and end up with stellar employees at work? Definitely not. Research shows that almost 85% of today's companies use some form of pre-employment assessment in their hiring procedure.

Reliability and validity of psychometric tests