Mike Bryon - How to Pass Advanced Numeracy Tests: Improve Your Scores in Numerical Reasoning and Data Interpretation Psychometric Tests

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This ebook published in 2013 by Kogan Page Limited 120 Pentonville Road London N1 9JN UK www.koganpage.com Mike Bryon 2002, 2008, 2010, 2013 E-ISBN 978 0 7494 6790 6 Contents PART ONE
Psychometric tests and practice PART TWO
Hundreds of really relevant practice questions PART THREE
Answers and many detailed explanations I owe thanks to Carla Valerio-Chapperon, Miriam Walfisz and Ed Hateley for contributing many practice questions and checking answers. Their contributions make the title a far better book and I trust more valuable as a source of practice. The views expressed and any errors are entirely my own. E mployers used to argue that candidates could not improve their score in psychometric tests. Mike Bryon proved otherwise.

It is now unanimously acknowledged that every candidate can improve how they perform in these common selection tools. Mike Bryon was first published in 1991 and now has 17 books in print on how to pass the tests and assessments used by large employers. He is the best selling author on the subject. Each book contains advice on the winning mind set, insights and tips, hundreds of realistic example questions, practice tests, answers, explanations and interpretations of your score. Hundreds of thousands of people have used the books to get down to some serious score improving practice and succeed in the test and assessments they face. The books have sold worldwide and have been translated into many foreign languages including Indonesian, Portuguese, Russian, Polish, Indian and Chinese.

After three years of postgraduate research into adult learning at the University of Birmingham (UK) he founded a consultancy, and for 15 years he provided recruitment and diversity consultancy to organizations in every industrial sector and a great many major UK and international companies, including Departments of the UK Government, National utilities, high street retail chains, rail companies, local and emergency authorities, and multinationals such as the Ford Motor Company and British Airport Authorities. The consultancy contributed extensively to EU research programmes with research partners drawn from across the union. His books review the strategies and provide the practice you need to gain a competitive advantage. Importantly they offer practice at a level that reflects that of the actual tests. These books really do offer hundreds of realistic practice questions; 400 or 500 as a minimum. Many of the titles offer far more than this.

The Ultimate Psychometric Test Book contains over 1,000 practice questions and is perfect for the candidate who faces tests at the intermediate level or seeks an introduction to graduate material. The titles reach across the whole testing spectrum from intermediate through to graduate and the high flyer. There is winning advice, insights and tips on personality questionnaires, situational awareness tests, assessment days, group exercises, role plays and in-tray or e-tray exercises. There are books to help candidates who dare to dream of a single career goal including applicant firefighters, candidates for the UK civil service (including the FastStream), postgraduate business schools applicants who face the GMAT and medical school applicants who face the UKCAT. Mike Bryon has also written on secondary transfer for children of 11 years of age, and adults who face a test as speakers of English as a second language. Mike Bryon has over 10 years of experience in the training room, making sure every candidate demonstrates their full potential and realizes the career of their choice.

His ground-breaking approach has proved decisive for countless thousands of candidates. His work remains contemporary through his continual research and writing and through the many readers who contact him for advice and suggestions on sources of practice questions. During your programme of review, if you hit a problem or if you would like suggestions of sources of practice material then e-mail Mike Bryon at: help@mikebryon.com. This book provides highly relevant practice questions and explanations that will help candidates prepare for psychometric tests of numerical skills. It deals extensively with the core competencies tested at the advanced level including: analytical skills in a financial context; the comprehension of financial language; the ability to discover data relevant to financial decisions; decision making with numerical data; the ability to learn and apply numerical ratios and solve business problems. It also reviews the numerical methods and rules that underlie psychometric tests of numerical skills.

Many readers of the existing Kogan Page list of testing books have requested more practice numerical questions and more challenging material than is currently available. In response, this title offers many hundreds of new questions, including four realistic mock tests relevant to numerical skills tests used by employers and educational institutions today. Like a real test, each chapter starts with easier questions that get progressively harder. Again, in response to readers requests, many more detailed explanations to answers have been provided. Employers numerical tests represent a considerable challenge to candidates who have specialized in numerical disciplines, let alone those who have not. Often accomplished individuals may not have practised their numerical skills for some years and need to revise them if they are to present themselves as the all-round candidate who possesses both numerical and verbal competencies.

Even if you feel confident with your numerical skills, these exercises will help you to achieve, as psychometric tests are used to recruit to many top jobs, careers and professions and there is considerable competition amongst many candidates. You have to be at your very best if you are to succeed in your chosen career, and only practice will ensure that you maximize the advantage you enjoy over others. The user of this book is likely to face a psychometric test in relation to their work or study. Many readers will have applied for a job or course of study and found that the process involves them taking a test. In this context psychometric tests are used by the institution or employer for selection purposes. The tests comprise a standardized series of problems, either multiple choice or short-answer, taken with either pen and paper, at a computer terminal or, increasingly, online.

The conditions under which the test is taken will be the same for everyone. Strict time limits are likely to apply and the results will be marked or scored in a way that allows comparisons to be drawn between candidates. At the graduate and professional end of the testing spectrum they are likely to be tests of endurance lasting many hours. They comprise a series or battery of tests sat one after the other. It is therefore all the more important for candidates to adopt strategies to maximize their score. Think back to the days of examinations at school or university.

You will attend a test centre with a room set out either as an examination hall with small desks or with banks of computer terminals, depending on whether you face a paper and pen or computer administered version of the test. Other candidates are very likely to be present. In some instances there may be many other candidates. A test administrator will welcome you and explain the process. He or she will be following a prepared script and will be happy to answer any questions that you may have, although the answers given may seem rather brief or superficial. The administrator will be reluctant to stray far from the script so that all candidates (including those who have attended on other days and will not have heard your question) receive the same information and experience the same test conditions.