What is a psychometric test?
A psychometric test is a measure of a psychological construct (such as personality or aptitude) that has been constructed according to psychometric principles. In addition, the test should be administered, scored and interpreted in a standardised manner. Psychometric principles means that the test was developed in the following manner:
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Constructed according to a valid theoretical rationale
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Items (questions) developed on the basis of that rationale and in order to assess the construct the test purports to measure
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Trialling of items
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Analysis of the items for reliability and other statistical properties
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Refinement of the items on the basis of the analysis
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Re-trialling of the items
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Further analysis and retrialling as necessary to provide a reliable scale
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Validation research to ensure that the test constructs measure what they purport to measure and to assess whether the test can also predict meaningful outcomes such as performance
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Standardisation and development of a norm group for comparative purposes
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Writing up of all of the above in the test’s technical manual.