Delivering Excellence!
VA Research & Consulting
Assessment & Development
The labor market has undergone substantial changes due to technological advancement and globalization. Technological advancement has created new opportunities and redefined existing roles. A competency test is used to assess an individual's strengths and weaknesses in areas such as problem-solving, logical reasoning, verbal comprehension, and decision-making ability. Tests can also be used to predict future job performance, specific abilities, and areas in which an individual is likely to excel.
One of the benefits of assessments is that they put candidates through a specific evaluation that measures the competencies of specific job roles. They can provide dependable assessment metrics that correspond to job roles. To determine a candidate's suitability for a business analyst role, for example, one must thoroughly assess data processing and decision-making skills. In contrast, abstract reasoning and verbal ability aid in determining a candidate's suitability for a marketing position.
Aside from that, aptitude tests provide an unbiased score on intelligence or mental ability. And such a score can improve the effectiveness of the assessment, allowing for better L&D initiatives. A person with high aptitude, for example, can fit into multiple roles if given the necessary training. A suitable aptitude test can assist in identifying such high-aptitude individuals.
It is difficult to shortlist the best candidates for a role or an educational program unless there is data to support their ability to learn and apply that learning. Aptitude tests can serve as a foundation for that data because they assess several aspects of the test-cognitive taker's intelligence. The section that follows delves deeper into the subject.
Aptitude Tests and Human Intelligence
Before delving deeper into the aptitude test's benefits and drawbacks, we must first understand its relationship with intelligence.
Humans can acquire knowledge and purposefully apply it, which includes learning from experiences, comprehending abstract concepts, and processing available information. It consists primarily of cognitive and emotional intelligence. One of the most significant aptitude test advantages is their ability to measure several characteristics that define human intelligence.
Cognitive intelligence is the comprehension that comes from thinking, experiences, and senses. Attention, knowledge, memory, judgment, and reasoning are also examples of cognitive functions. It also indicates the ability to create new knowledge from existing knowledge.
Emotional intelligence is the ability to monitor and distinguish between different types of emotions. It also includes the use of emotional information in one's thinking and behavior. Emotional intelligence is the ability to perceive, use, comprehend, and manage emotions.
Raymond Cattell, a well-known psychologist, divided cognitive intelligence into two categories: fluid and crystallized.
The abstract reasoning abilities that help a person analyze a given situation and devise a solution are referred to as fluid intelligence. Fluid intelligence does not rely on acquired knowledge and operates at the moment. Fluid intelligence relies heavily on pattern recognition and logic to solve new problems.
All facts, information, and skills gained through experiences are included in crystallized intelligence. Cognitive intelligence employs pre-existing knowledge acquired through continuous practice when solving problems, addressing issues, or answering questions.
It is difficult to classify candidates based on their abilities when all of the aspects of intelligence mentioned above are taken into account. And aptitude tests are the most standardized way to thoroughly evaluate them, owing to their consistency across testing environments. They can be used repeatedly to evaluate a large number of candidates.