An aptitude test is a MCQ based quiz, which will help to evaluate a person’s capabilities in a particular field. They also assist people in discovering their latent talents and passions. An aptitude test measures your ability to handle and react to professional challenges. It will also help you to unveil your strengths and shortcomings. It is used for many purposes like in choosing a career, evaluating the intelligence of the candidate,their decision making capabilities etc.
Above mentioned are advantages of the test, but as everything has both pros and cons, aptitude tests also have both, they also have some cons that cannot be ignored. It is very important to know both pros and cons to use and give aptitude tests properly.
What is the purpose of taking an Aptitude test ?
An Aptitude test is designed to determine an individual’s skill or ability to succeed in a particular niche. It helps in many major decisions like :
- To know your career option
- Understanding strengths
- Know your personality
- Discover your inner talents
- Determine your passion
- Recruit better quality candidates
- Identify the skills gap
What are the Advantages of an Aptitude tests :
We already knew that aptitude testing makes objective comparisons of candidates more easier. There are several advantages of aptitude tests. Let’s check out some of them in following sections :
1 Check out other options :
You have already selected a field, working on it for years, but you often feel like you were meant to do something else. It may create confusion and may risk your career. An aptitude test will help you to assess your talents, strengths and hence your passion.
2. Discover your hidden talents :
Your perception of yourself is very complex. Similar to how you cannot see your own nose, you may often be blinded to the things you are best at. It sometimes becomes very hard to discover your brightest talents. This test will help you to determine your inner talents, of which you are unaware.
3. Evaluate Core competencies :
Aptitude tests help to assess an individual’s cluster of skills. These skills are collectively known as “competency” and it can be easily evaluated by a good quality aptitude test. Hence, by measuring cumulative skills, aptitude tests can offer precise evaluation.
4.Increased Efficiency :
As aptitude tests may be administered remotely, they are incredibly cost-effective and viable. It is more efficient when you’re able to get the information you need in less time. It also consumes less resources including human intervention, also free from any bias.
5.Tells you, your position in your industry :
Sometimes you remain unaware of your potential and capabilities, if someone asks you whether you would be considered an expert in your field, you don’t know it’s answer. An aptitude test lets you know your own potential and capabilities in your work and allows you to give the answer.
6.Recruitment of best candidates:
There is always a possibility that you will end up hiring the wrong person, which can trigger a whole series of negative consequences. An impressive list of qualifications and extensive work experience are certainly necessary, but these are not the only things you should factor in, when recruiting potential employees. Testing your candidates can help you determine who is the most skilled and qualified.
7. Standardized tests :
Each test is standardized and based on mental abilities. As, results are independent of educational status and work background, these tests are unbiased and fair. Also, Test findings cannot be manipulated by human interventions.
8. Hiring based on the performance :
You’re not hiring someone based on information provided in their resume,instead you hire them based on how they perform in tests. The resume will tell about their achievements in the past, but it is not the best indicator of their present capabilities.
9. To get a Insight of candidates potential:
Apart from seeing where each candidate stands currently, you also get an insight into their potential by knowing their strengths and flaws. Also, candidates who want to switch to a different job role can re-evaluate their decision.
10. Grasp your promotion:
Your company is not promoting you because you are lagging somewhere. By giving an online aptitude test you can assess your strengths and weaknesses and try to improve on your weaknesses. This will help you to grasp a promotion.
What are the Disadvantages of giving an aptitude test ?
Beside many advantages, there exist few disadvantages of an aptitude test. It is very Essential to minimize these,as otherwise it may pose a risk in your decision making. Let’s check out this disadvantages :
1. Generates Test Anxiety :
Stress is your response to pressure situations. It is a range of symptoms, a range of emotions, and thoughts that any student experiences when exams are approaching. While some amount of stress is necessary to drive you to your goals, it is the stress experienced in a negative way that serves as a trigger for various negative responses, like anxiety.
2. Applicants culture barrier :
Sometimes the language of exams is completely different from a candidate’s native language. A language barrier is any linguistic limitation that creates confusion or prevents comprehension. This may lead to a candidate in an aptitude test.
3. Early Judgements :
We can’t rely on only one aptitude test result, because his/her test may go wrong due to some genuine reasons. As, test does not include all other qualifications and abilities of the candidate, it may lead to an early judgement error.
4. It is just a probability test:
An aptitude test gives us a prediction of the probability only.There is never any certainty that prediction will come true. By this many talented students can be missed out.
Overall, Aptitude tests are important screening tools in many employment when used appropriately. It is important to integrate other types of assessment with aptitude tests.
If you also want to give an aptitude test, and want to assess your skills, I highly recommend you to go for Mercer Mettl, they helped out many students in their aptitude tests.
