Association of Colleges

Psychometric testing

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Occupational Personality Questionnaire (OPQ)

  • OPQ is a suite of questionnaires designed to assess the typical or preferred behaviour of individuals in a way that is relevant to the world of work.
  • OPQ is concerned with a person's typical or preferred way of behaving, thinking, and feeling.
  • OPQ32 is the most detailed version of the questionnaire with 32 dimensions of personality and is divided into three domains; Relationships with People, Thinking Style and Feelings and Emotions.
The OPQ examines personality under three key areas:
  1. Relationships with people
    This looks at whether they enjoy being in charge and comfortable directing a group. It also examines how they typically influence others to buy into their ideas and if they see themselves as strong negotiators or typically shy away from putting pressure on others to change their point of view.

  2. Thinking style
    This element looks at their typical decision making process and how they make judgements & arrive at decisions. This area also looks at whether they are likely to think strategically or whether they typically take a short term view and prefer to immerse themselves in the detail rather than the bigger picture. It also examines whether they enjoy working with numbers and analysing data and how critically evaluative of information they perceive themselves to be.

  3. Feelings and emotions
    It also looks at an area called 'emotional control' which provides insight into how a person is likely to act in terms of their approach to others, for example is someone likely to tell you straight away if you have upset them, or will they hold back and conceal their feelings, preferring not to reveal what they are thinking or feeling. This particular aspect of the OPQ can provide valuable insight into a candidate's potential management style.

Numerical critical reasoning

Numerical tests are designed to measure the ability to make correct decisions or inferences from numerical data. This is related to various numerical aptitudes. The tests are designed to measure candidate's ability to cope with figures in a practical and realistic context.

Verbal critical reasoning

The Verbal analysis test assesses the ability to understand and critically evaluate passages of high level written information. The verbal passages chosen are particularly businesses focused, hence reinforcing the job relevance of this test.

For further information on any of the above tests please don't hesitate to contact us. E-mail: recruitment@aoc.co.uk