1. Know what they are. Psychometric tests come in two main guises: personality and ability. Personality tests are usually multiple- choice, designed to find out how you’re likely to behave at work. Ability tests can be verbal, numerical or cognitive and come in many forms. Ask your potential employer what sort of test you will face so you’ll know how to prepare.

2. You can prepare for personality tests – to a degree. “A little bit of mature self-reflection can be helpful,” says James Bywater, the head psychologist at SHL UK, which provides assessment and consultancy services (shl.com). “As part of the application process think about what you’ve enjoyed in life and what you’ve found easy or fun.” If you know yourself you’re more likely to give a true representation in the test.

3. Don’t second-guess. “Some people try to create an unrealistically positive impression,” says Melody Blackburn, a principal consultant at OPP (www.opp.co.uk), a business psychology consultancy. “There are scales to judge whether someone is second-guessing.” Many of these tests have been years in the making and are freakily accurate. There are no right and wrong answers and they know when you’re trying to play the system, so just be honest.

4. Do crosswords. If you’re facing a verbal ability test, do things that exercise your verbal skills. Bywater recommends reading instruction manuals and texts with which you’re unfamiliar: “Look up strange words in the dictionary.”

5. Add up the cost of the contents of your shopping basket in your head. To prepare for a numerical test practise your mental arithmetic. “Force yourself,” Bywater says. “You can go through life not having to do any of that.”

6. Play chess. Strategic games are useful preparation for cognitive or abstract reasoning tests. Create diagrams of how systems, such as that in a library, work, Bywater suggests.

7. Practise. “If you’re at university get in touch with your careers service. They run practice test sessions,” says Keith Dugdale, the director of recruitment at KPMG, which routinely uses psychometric tests in its recruitment processes. Use books and websites too (see box, right).

8. Inform your prospective employer of any disabilities. “There are all sorts of versions of the tests,” Blackburn says. You must let them know if you need extra time or a magnifier, for example, so that they can factor it in.

9. Get a good night’s sleep. As with any test or interview, the usual sensible preparation rules apply. Written ability tests tend to be shorter than the exams you were used to at school or university, so the less time you spend trying to wake up and focus during them the better.

10. Ask for feedback. Even if you haven’t got the job, companies consider it good manners to offer your test results, and it’ll allow you to analyse where you could have done better. “It’s critical that we do that,” says Dugdale. “Students have invested time and energy in applying to us. It’s good practice.”

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