The psychometrics is a very wide field. What i mean by reasoning is mental reasoning, not language reasoning. for eg, how fast you can see the sequences, how your mental calculation works and such in a time frame, whether you can think under pressure, etc. Alright let me use the term aptitude then. Think that term suits better. Psychometric tests are used in every field and different tests are used for different industries.
And no I am not discouraging people from applying. As I said before, it's also due to the stiff competition with regards to degree and non-degree holders. Passion can't be judged as there is no standardization or scale for that. I am sure most applicants have the passion and interest and passion only can be shown at the interviews. HR dept have their own system anyway. And it changes from intake to intake. A good example of handling influx is university applications. From what I heard, don't know how true it is, every application is read even though weeding out is done. As I said, is better for one to get prepared than give false hopes. Or else people won't be asking so many questions about qualifications, intake, experiences and such.