I've just tried to put the 'open minded' case when it comes to psychometric testing, and personality profiling in particular which is what most of us think of when the 'psycho' word is used.
My theory with these tests is that you MUST remain open minded and honest when answering the questions and don't start thinking they are below you or that there is no answer that you would want to put. It's
preferences and you have to decide which you prefer, not necessarily which one is you to a tee, taken together with all the other questions the individual ones that appear repetitive, but slightly different build up your degree of 'x' or 'y' trait.
I again agree with you Paxboy that good interviewers can find out all they need to know about a candidate in a one-on-one, but what if the interviewee is very good at lying (a la Niel Robertson perhaps!), maybe, just maybe this kind of profiling together with an interview could have posed some doubt? Again, it's just another tool in the box to use to complement the interview, not to substitute for the interview and any company that uses it to make up for bad interviewers is frankly probably not one you would want to work for.
df1 - I think you have slightly missed the point when you say
I don't mind doing a psychometric test again having listened to the advice of PP, but I would prefer it to be at a later stage in the process where I have decided that I like the look of things and that my errors in ticking the odd wrong box won't go against me.
There are no 'wrong' boxes, there are no 'right' answers. It's not a test, it's a profile and to give an honest view of yourself you must answer honestly, not for fear of being 'wrong' but to ensure your profile is correct in the eyes of the selection team. If you have undesireable characteristics then you need to worry, but you would do anyway with just an interview! Many people seem to cock these profile tests up for thinking that there are right answers and trying to second guess what the 'right' answer is. The biggest danger is that you are perfectly suitable in character but you portray an undesireable profile through 'second guessing' and trying to be something that you are not!
My advice is to practice verbal and numerical and aptitude tests as much as possible before a selection process as your scores can be increased significantly with exposure. As for the profiling I would advise getting online and doing the freebie tests and practice being honest, open minded and answering from the heart. Read your profile from the results and see if you think it correctly portrays you. Also get your nearest and dearest to read the profile and tell you honestly if they feel it is you. Often our own view of ourselves is somewhat different to other people's. Prepatration helps to give the right impression, and as I've said, the best candidate is one who is best prepared and who displays themselves better than the others. View the tests as the hurdles you need to cross to get the job offer, don't lose sight of the aim and think positive!
PP