Meaning:

An employment or a selection test is an instrument designed to measure selected qualities and abilities of a prospective incumbent in terms of job specifications. Such tests provide a sample behaviour that is used to draw inferences about the future behaviour or performance of an individual. The use of tests in wide spread and hence there is a long list of tests. A variety of tests are used as selection tools. They may be classified as intelligence tests, aptitude tests, achievement tests, interests tests and personality tests.

Various tests are conducted to judge the ability and efficiency of the candidates. The type of tests depends upon the nature of job. An important advantage of testing is that it can be administered to a large group of candidates at a time and saves time and cost.

The various tests are :

(a) Personality test,
(b) Intelligence test,
(c) Performance test,
(d) Stress test, etc.

(a) Intelligence tests are a measure of the individual's capacity for reasoning, verbal comprehension, numbers, vocabulary, word fluency etc. They are used to eliminate candidates who are insufficiently intelligent for efficient job performance. Such tests aim to measure intelligence i.e. mental ability and alertness to make decision and judgment.

(b) Aptitude tests are measure of the individual's capacity or latent ability to learn a job if he is given adequate training. They are used to determine their ability for effective job performance after the completion of the training period. Such tests are more valid when an applicant has little or no experience along the lines of the job opening.

(c) Achievement tests are used to ascertain whether the individual actually knows what he claims to know. When a candidate claims that he knows some trade or art, these tests are administered to verify the veracity of his claim. Trade tests are the most common type of achievement tests. They are designed to measure knowledge or skill in a specific trade such as machinist, carpenter, plumber etc.

(d) Interest tests are used to predict whether a candidate is interested in a particular job or not. Interest test is an inventory of likes and dislikes of people in relation to hobbies, occupations and recreational activities. These tests measure interest of outdoor, mechanical, computational, scientific artistic, musical, clerical etc.

(e) Personality tests are designed to measure such personality characteristics as emotional stability, tolerance for conflict capacity to get along maturity and psycho neurotic and psychotic tendencies. These are generally used for the selection for executive jobs. In any case, they need trained experts for their administration and evaluation.