What Is a Profiling for Success Test?
If you are at the point in your education or career where you may want to make further progress, you may come across the Profiling for Success psychometric tests.
Profiling for Success tests are a range of tests developed by Team Focus, a group of business psychologists.
The tests used by organisations for selecting candidates and recruiters and prospective employers rely on the test results when making hiring decisions, meaning that for you, the candidate, the tests can have a significant impact on your future career.
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What Is a Profiling for Success Test?
If this is your first encounter with a Profiling for Success test, you may wonder what precisely lies ahead. However, the title of this type of psychometric testing is almost self-explanatory. The assessments present a profile of your abilities and the levels you are capable of reaching in the workplace or in further education.
- Verbal reasoning
- Numerical reasoning
- Abstract reasoning
Verbal Reasoning
The verbal test looks at your ability to understand written information. You can expect to read a number of short passages. Each passage is followed by multiple-choice questions asking if a statement about the text is true, false or cannot say based on the information in the text.
The texts themselves are not difficult. However, you will have to use your reasoning skills under time pressure. You can expect to have twenty-five seconds per question.
Working on sample tests will hone your reasoning skills and help you avoid falling into the trap many do when doing a verbal reasoning test. You have to answer based on the information in the passage. You cannot use any outside information you may have to come up with your answer.
You also need to train yourself to work through the information and extract the relevant points quickly. Only regular practice on sample questions will give you that training.
To make a headstart on your preparation, try your hand at this free sample verbal reasoning test.
Numerical Reasoning
The numerical reasoning test assesses your ability to solve problems using mathematical data.
The test presents you with a table of numerical data and requires you to answer sixteen questions in seven minutes.
To ace this test, you need to practice doing calculations at speed. You will be allowed to use a calculator but becoming familiar with the workings of your calculator is essential if you are to work quickly.
Test your numerical reasoning skills with this free numerical reasoning test.
Abstract Reasoning
The abstract reasoning test measures your ability to work out the pattern behind a series of shapes and figures. You will be presented with two reasonably similar sets of shapes and a single shape. You will have to decide which set of shapes, if any, the single shape belongs to.
Having to complete sixteen questions in four minutes is virtually undoable for most people unless they have practised this type of test before the real one.
To test your ability to work with shapes and figures, try the following question.
To continue with your practice, try the following free sample abstract reasoning test.
Can I Prepare for a PfS Test?
Preparing for the test is essential. Firstly you may be new to this type of testing. Secondly, you need to familiarise yourself with the style of questioning. Thirdly, you will have to work at speed when doing the tests, something that needs to be practised beforehand.
A reputable and experienced job test preparation company will be able to help you with all of that. We recommend using Job Test Prep, a company with more than thirty years of experience in preparing candidates for job test assessments.
They will provide you with a Test Prep Pack giving you all the information you need to successfully undergo the test. In the pack, you will get sample test papers modelled on the real tests to practice on and a means of shaking your scores as you work through the tests.
Using the sample papers as the foundation for your preparation, you will quickly:
- Become familiar with the style of testing
- Hone your answering skills
- Learn to work within the test time limits
- Become aware of the areas you need to devote more time to
To become familiar with the types of test you will find in your test prep pack, try the following free sample cognitive test.
Further PfS Tests
Candidates are required to do the tests as part of pre-employment testing. However, the tests provide useful information to the person making career decisions also.
As well as the relatively standard numerical, verbal, and abstract reasoning tests outlined above, the developers of PfS testing have also developed a suite of other tests you may come across.
These include:
- A Learning Style Indicator questionnaire, which will tell how you learn material and, more importantly, indicate ways in which you could improve your learning. It can also tell a prospective employer if you have the ability to learn new skills in the workplace.
- A Careers Interest Inventory will be able to tell you which type of career you are best suited to and can be valuable to an employer in deciding if you are the right person for the job.
- A Values-Based Indicator of Motivation will be able to outline what values motivate you to behave in a certain way and, while useful to yourself, can be used to indicate how you might behave in the workplace.
- You may also be asked to do a Type Dynamics Indicator test (TDI), a type of personality test that may be useful to a prospective employer who has a mental picture of his ideal employee.
- The EI Questionnaire evaluates you in relation to your social and emotional functioning. This can give a picture of your ability to relate to fellow workers.
The person requiring the information yielded by the assessments will decide on what particular tests you have to take.
However, whichever test it might be, you will find all the information and resources you need by going here.
Written by Elizabeth O Mahony
With 25+ years’ experience as a teacher and state examinations corrector, Elizabeth now writes for the education and careers industry. Her experience preparing students for examinations and running an academy for supplementary education give her invaluable insights into what it takes for job seekers and graduates to succeed in assessments.
Sarah is an accomplished educator, researcher and author in the field of testing and assessment. She has worked with various educational institutions and organisations to develop innovative evaluation methods and enhance student learning. Sarah has published numerous articles and books on assessment and learning. Her passion for promoting equity and fairness in the education system fuels her commitment to sharing insights and best practices with educators and policymakers around the world.
