Candidates for IEBC Commissioner jobs to be subjected to Pyschometric tests

According to the notice published on Saturday, June 12, the panel’s chairperson Elizabeth Muli stated that the candidates would be subjected to psychometric tests before oral interviews are conducted.

“All shortlisted applicants are required to undertake a psychometric test on Wednesday, June 30, 2021 at 11am at the Kenyatta International Convention Centre, Nairobi,” read the notice.

For this exercise, the shortlisted applicants are required to provide their original ID cards or passports.

“The psychometric tests and oral interview shall be conducted in public,” the statement reads.

What is a psychometric test?

A psychometric test is any activity or assessment that is conducted in order to evaluate a candidate’s performance and includes, but is not limited to, skills, knowledge, abilities, personality traits, attitudes and job/academic potential.

It is a modern tool which is used during the early stages of recruitment as a means of filtering out applicants because many struggle to get past this stage.

Psychometric testing will help the panel assess the candidates’ abilities to analyse information, solve problems, make informed judgements, whilst also analysing their behavioural tendencies.

Types of psychometric tests.

Numerical Reasoning and Verbal Reasoning are two of the most popular tests used to assess a candidate’s ability. The test are usually time sensitive hence speed is required.

Numerical Reasoning tests are used to measure a candidate’s ability to interpret numerical data. You must be able to analyse and draw conclusions from the data, which could be presented in tables or graphs.

Verbal Reasoning tests are used to assess a candidate’s ability to comprehend a passage of text. This is usually followed by a series of questions based on the text.

Inductive reasoning tests, sometimes also referred to as abstract reasoning tests, are used to test the logical problem solving ability of each candidate.

Critical thinking tests measure a candidate’s ability to structure a sound, solid argument, to analyse and synthesise available information, and to make assumptions and inferences.

Situational judgement tests present candidates with a range of different situations that they might experience in the job for which they are applying. For each situation, a number of possible actions are suggested.