Expiring Discounts for: BPS Level A Singapore, BPS Level B Singapore, Saville Wave Training Singapore, Personality Test Training Singapore

PsyAsia’s range of early-bird and group booking discounts for our October Psychometric Training Courses in Singapore will expire in just 7 days! If you intend coming on our October training for BPS Level A, BPS Level B (including Identity and Apollo Personality Questionnaire accreditation), Saville Consulting Wave or BPS Test Administration, please do ensure that you register by 30 July. All discounts will expire in our systems and cannot be reinstated! Please view all course dates at http://dates.psyasia.com.

Remember, PsyAsia International is Asia’s Independent Leader in Psychometric Tests and Training. We only sell the world’s best psychometric tests, our courses are run by resident fully registered psychologists and we offer blended e-learning with our face-to-face training for all BPS certification courses.

If you have any queries about our psychometric courses, do please get in touch – an easy way to get an instant response is to use the LIVE CHAT facility on our website. Alternatively, please email us.

Finally, don’t forget that we’ve arranged a session for anyone interested in Singapore Level A and B training to meet with the facilitator online. He will show you course slides and workbooks and answer any questions you may have. This session runs on Tuesday 27th July at 5pm Singapore/Hong Kong time. Click here to register.

Buying Online and Paper-Based Psychometric Tests from Registered Psychologists rather than non-psychologist distributors

One of the first things clients will want to know when choosing who to work with when ordering psychometric tests is “why should I choose xyz company”?

As the field of psychometrics continues to grow, overseas publishers are working hard to make inroads into local markets. Clients should therefore be wary of the expertise (or lack of it) in organisations that are distributing tests.

We firmly believe that those in the best place to distribute psychometric tests are those who have a background in personality psychology and/or organisational psychology. In fact this premise was shared by many reputable test publishers until relatively recently.

Greed and motivation to expand market share have taken over in many cases and some test publishers have delegated test distribution to non-psychologists or those with short-course qualifications in this area.

The downsides of this are tremendous. Not only does it threaten the very integrity of the test and the industry, but it brings into the fore concerns regarding malpractice and the like.

Registered Organisational Psychologists are registered with government bodies. They therefore report to these bodies on issues involving competence. In addition to their 6-10 years of training in psychology (i.e. as much as a medical doctor!), they are bound to undergo continuous professional development and must submit proof of this on an annual basis. This means they need to attend high-level conferences, read peer-reviewed professional and academic journals and more.

Non-psychologists of course are not subject to any of the aforementioned. In fact, many clients who have come over to us from such distributors have entertained us with stories of gross negligence and incompetence of these “salespeople” who lack expertise and passion for the subject matter. A couple of examples follow:

1. A client told us how when they contacted “******** Assessments” in Hong Kong and asked for more information on how the test has 95% predictive accuracy (as published on their website). They were told that this related to 2 things.

Firstly that the test has a sophisticated lie detection system and so is very accurate. A psychologist will tell you this has nothing to do with predictive accuracy! Predictive accuracy (or validity) is about using the test scores to predict work performance or something similar.

This same client was then told:

“The second form of predictive accuracy is construct validation which relates to the job prediction score”.

Again, a psychologist would point out that this salesperson is getting confused. Construct validity and predictive validity are two different forms of validity. Most importantly though, no psychometric test is 95% predictive! Psychologists know that and if they claim any different they would be reported to their board and struck off!

Unfortunately, at no time was this client provided with hard-data or evidence that this test (which is based on a theory that has not been peer-reviewed and has not been independently tested in Asia or Australia) actually predicts meaningful workplace behaviours and performance.

2. Another client told us how they contacted a non-psychologist distributor of another test brand in Singapore. They asked for information about impact of dyslexia on aptitude test scores and also wanted to know about the comparison between certain tests within that brand and those of the competition.

This distributor had no idea there and then, and said he would need to go away and find out. A psychologist would not need to do this. Unless the client is asking about an obscure test, Psychologists are trained to have the answers.

As we know, there are many things to consider when choosing the right psychometric test. Issues such as reliability, validity, norm groups, standard error of measurement, cost versus validity (ROI), report options, online assessment options and so on. This short article has added to that list and suggested that the background and currency of the people in the distributorship are also important.

To cast doubt aside, it is best to work with distributors who have demonstrated their passion in psychology and psychometrics through years of training in the subject along with years of experience. Choose those holding full registration as psychologists with government/professional bodies who must undergo professional development on a continual basis.

Purchasing psychometric tests from non-psychologists may not achieve your desired goals. It may well equate to the partially-sighted leading the blind!

We wish our psychometric testing blog readers a happy holiday season!

PsyAsia International will be suspending blog posts to our educational sites at www.assessmentcentral.com, www.psychometrictests.sg and www.psychometricassessment.com/blog until after the Christmas and New Year break while our blog writers take some well earned time off.  Thank you for keeping up to date with us at our blogs during 2009 and we look forward to writing more about psychometric tests, human resource management and business psychology for our readers in Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia, China and worldwide.  Enjoy the holidays!

Caution in the use of Psychometric Tests in Singapore

Psychometric Test Distributors in Singapore

Please be cautious when choosing your psychometric test supplier in Singapore.

There are many internet-based tests available. However, many of these are poorly developed, based on theories that have not been tested in Singapore or which have been tested and generally refuted! Many tests are ipsative-only tests and should not be used in selection, yet the less scrupulous test publisher may omit to inform you of this. Some normative tests use norm (comparison) groups that come about by way of allowing people (anybody!) to complete the test online. The sort of person who will complete a test online in his/her free-time is a specific sort of person and your candidate should perhaps not be compared to this group. Furthermore, without an understanding of sophisticated statistics and more basic statistics such as the normal distribution, any norm group you use might not be relevant simply because it has not been normally distributed. Reputable test publishers will test for these things and inform you where necessary. Moreover, reputable publishers will require that you undergo training so that you are fully aware of these issues. If your test publisher does not require training, you are likely to make fundamental errors in using psychometric tests and in the interpretations you make from them.

Furthermore, we are aware that some people who have been trained to use tests in Singapore have misrepresented the qualification they have achieved. There are people in Singapore advertising that they offer consultancy in psychometric testing. For somebody to be able to state this, one would expect that they are fully registered psychologists or psychometricians and have at least a Masters degree in Psychometric Assessment, if not a PhD! A short course in Psychometric Assessment will provide you with the necessary skills to be competent in test use, but not to act as a psychometric test consultant!

Our consultants have really earned that term.  With at least 6 years of education in psychology in addition to specific training in psychometrics, supervised experience and registration with government statutory bodies they provide expert advice to government and blue-chip clients in Singapore on a daily basis.  Please consider seriously which distributor to trust and which test to trust when choosing psychometric tests in Singapore.

Free Webinar – Identity Self-Perception Questionnaire

Identity Psychometric Personality Questionnaire Webinar

-Overview of the Identity Self Perception Questionnaire
-Scales of Identity
-Derived Psychological Models
-Identity Reports
-Identity Online
-Benefits of Identity
-Applications of Identity
-Comparison with other leading questionnaires
-Identity Accreditation

Click here to register

Introductory Psychometric Test Training Workshop in Singapore, Hong Kong and Malaysia

Free Psychometric Training in Asia

Psychometrics Singapore, the Singapore arm of PsyAsia International is offering a practically free workshop as an introduction to the use of psychometric tests. One of the problems with psychometric test users in Asia is the lack of a requirement to undergo any form of extensive training prior to using tests.  We come across clients who tell us they are evaluating various psychometric tests, but when we ask them how they are doing so, they are often lost for words or basing their “evaluation” on things like price or number of questions.  This workshop has been designed for those with no background in psychometric testing as a means to teaching them through an experiential workshop about the important aspects of psychometrics.

The Introduction to Psychometric Tests course covers the following

• The history of psychometric testing
• Comparison of psychometric tests with other modes of employee testing and assessment 
• The benefit of using psychometric tests in recruitment/selection, development and coaching
• Reliability in psychometric testing
• Validity in psychometric testing
• Error in psychometric testing
• Review of different aptitude, personality and values tests on the market
• Questions to ask your test publisher or distributor
• What next?

Note: During the workshop, delegates will create quasi-psychometric tests in groups to enable a hands-on exploration of issues such as reliability, error and validity in psychometric tests.

Fee for the Introduction to Psychometric Tests Course

We only charge our costs for the day. We use a 5-star hotel and provide a full buffet lunch along with refreshments throughout the day.  All delegates receive handouts and a certificate of attendance.  The cost amounts to US$70 per delegate.  We offer this course as a non-profit course as a way of enhancing competence in the use of Psychometric Tests in Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia and throughout Asia.

For more information and to register for this psychometric training course
More information
Registration