Many thanks to WWW for a very informative thread.
Having been a reader for several months now, content to just read through everyones opinions, I feel that I could contribute to this thread, or at least seek contribution from someone else.
I must admit to not being a fan of the physometric/personality etc etc tests (excuse my ignorance) but I did appreiciate what WWW said in his mail.
I have been to a few aptitude tests with the airlines (since 1993 in fact), admitably I was probably too imature for the early ones and decided to "rest" from doing the recruitment rounds - get that valuble "life experiance"! I recently went to 2 apptiude tests but "failed" again! Maybe I'm just out of practise now?
Now for my point! I sat a personally/physcometric test for my present job (Project manager in a software company) for which they gave me a "print out" of the results. I read these straight after my interview and was plesantly surprised with what I thought was a reasonably accurate result! However, there is a few things I'd like to point out, with my experiance.
1. There was a note at the bottom saying that the test was not to be taken on its own and should be taken in conjunction with an interview. Something you don't get during the airline tests, or at least not in my experiance.
2. On my return to the company for a second interview following the tests. The interviewer asked me what I thought of the results of the test. I was completely honest, I said that I thought they were reasonably acurate when I read them the same day as they were done. But when I came to read them again just before the second interview, a week later, I thought they were awful! The interview commented that she "didn't think they were too good" on first sight but on reflection thought they actually where "good" (for what they wanted).
This brings me back to my orignial point, about being sceptical - I beleive that the "image" the psycometric test gives of a person is dependant on the mood/mind frame of the receiptent of the results (i.e. the recuitment person at company) at the time. Could this in anyway be true?
I assume the airlines do not have time to revisit personality tests and thus has my experiance would mean that I would be unlikely to get past the first stage of airline pilot recuitment, as on first sight I don't fair to well? Or perhaps the mathematical way they are "marked" gives a number and the airlines what you to have a number between 80-90, thus they don't delve into the "context" of your answers? WWW's point about the "lie detector" question:
"I love reading books’ but later say Yes to ‘I prefer to watch an interesting TV documentary on world politics than read a book'"
You should be able to say you love reading books at one point, however, given the choice between the TV and books you really would prefer watching TV. Your not lying with either answer. You just happen to love watching TV more than reading books - it doesn't mean you don't love reading.
Just one final thing - I realise I might have failed the airline tests for other reason besides the personality tests, and maybe I'm just so unsure of the unknown that I worry inadvertanly and end up not giving a true test. I would also say I have a reasonable grasp of Maths, Verbal reasoning, and OK hand-eye co-ordination. (My reasons being a Computer Science degree and a small amount of flying experiance).
I would really appreciate any comments you can give.
Thanks in advance.