Question

1. Differentiate between cognitive tests and aptitude tests.
2. What are the advantages/disadvantages of work sample tests?
3. What is reference checking? What are the various ways in which it may be conducted?
4. What are the three models under the statistical approach?

Answer 1

Answer 1:- The difference between cognitive/intelligence tests & aptitude tests are as follows:-

1. Cognitive tests-

• These are the most common type of intelligence tests which is based on IQ ( Intelligent Quotient) which does not specify the specific knowledge.
• The questions here more generic & meant to gain an understanding of the ability of a person in learning.
• These tests are subjects that asked to answer questions in completing tasks and the results are often used in education among students which needs to placed in special services. Sometimes employers used these tests on employees as well.

2. Aptitude Tests-

• These tests differ from IQ tests because that are testing the ability in specific areas. As per the Psychometric research, there are almost 5000 different tests on the market which is based on a specific niche.
• Here some tests are based on specific skill & other on variety. Aptitude looks for strengths in numbers, verbal analysis & other areas of a person.
• These tests are often times & used in for more specific purpose as for job placement or college admission like SAT & ACT for example.

Answer 2:- Following are the advantages/ disadvantages of work sample tests-

Work sample tests are the research method that is applied in the field of human resources for decades. Here its aim is to match the employee with the best job position. Here this check the employee's behavior & abilities are consistent with the required features by the specificity of work where it is also an applied method of psychology

1. Advantages of work sample tests-

• Here the work sample tests are caused by confirmed high predictive validity by many researchers as the tasks which correlate with the job requirements are perceived by candidates as fair.
• Here as per the researchers, these tests help in witnessing the capability of job preview.
• The work sample test help in assessing the positive attitude of the applicants by analyzing the psychology or physical assessments.
• Here these tests helps in giving the reliability of results on various assessment center exercises done to address the check on employee performance.

2. Disadvantages of work sample test-

• As per the researchers, there is a certain limitation to this test as it only makes sense in the case of candidates who already have professional experience.
• Here working out the entire procedure for tests generates additional costs not only the financial as alone.
• Here it also consumes more time as the tasks for each position should be different thus it requires individual approach & qualified assessment specialists in specific areas so that they could create proper tasks for each set of employees.

Answer 3:- Reference checking & its various ways in which it is conducted is explained below:-

Reference checking is a part of the human resource department of an organization as an essential part in the hiring process. Here the employer contacts an applicant's previous employers, colleges, schools, & other individuals in personal reference as such to learn more about the applicant. With such checks can learn more about the candidate's employment history, educational background, job qualifications, strengths & weaknesses as well as behavior

The following are the ways it is conducted-

• Verifying the candidate's name is the first way in conducting the reference checks to sure & verify the name of candidates whether it's true or fake by reaching out to the earlier employer by verifying the title & dates of employment.
• Confirming that how they know the candidate as depending on the requirements as the list of different types must be presented by the applicant. The business might require that the applicant gives at least two personal references in addition. By cross-checking the details the given helps in verifying.
• Asking what makes the applicant good fit in is another way by the reference to check whether or not the applicant will be a good fit for the position offered. By explaining the scope of the job to the reference and asking them whether he could thrive in this position & why all response is listed on reference as well as the silence of it makes an impact on decision making.
• Gauging our candidate's strengths & weakness is another way the reference checks are made as by other sets of questions there must be some specific sets to ask the strengths & weaknesses of applicant. Their reference can be asked to tell the two strengths or weaknesses of the applicant to gauge whether the person suits the job or no.
• Another way it can be conducted is by asking the candidate's behavior & attitudes can help in predicting how they act in the work environment by digging in more about thier behavior when asked to the employer in previous for reference.
• Finally, all these conducting checklists are the different ways in conducting the tests which may be done through various means of asking questions by proper framework & by various means of a communication channel as on-call, in-person meetings, social media interactions & so on to verify the applicant.

Answer 4:- The basic three models under the statistical approach is as follows:-

• One of the satistical models used commonly is mean as the arithmetic mean to measure the middle sometimes called average. Here to calculate that the sum of all data values is divided with the number of them. Here are the most sorted statistical ways in the sampling test of the population by researchers.
• Predictive models used in parametric & nonparametric where it makes more assumptions & more specific about the features of the population used in this model. Here predictive analytics use this model as for various statistical techniques as linear regression, cluster analysis, chi-square test, factor analysis, Matrix operations & so on.
• Hypothesis-testing is another model as with their values as 'p' on one side as a statistical model with standard errors & their confidence intervals on the other side which are kept distinct. Here this helps in selecting the simplest summary model that is adequate to represent the data in the sample collected.