PROCEDURE OF CONSTRUCTION OF SPECIAL APTITUDE TESTS
Aptitude is defined as the natural, learned or
acquired ability to do something. It is the readiness of an individual based on
his willingness and ability to acquire some skill or knowledge particular to
certain activities. Knowledge of aptitude can help us to predict an
individual’s future performance. Hence, an aptitude assessment looks at one or
more clearly defined and relatively homogenous segments of ability. They assess
a test taker’s potential for learning or ability to perform in a new situation
based upon their cumulative life experiences. An aptitude test is designed to
assess what a person is capable of doing or to predict what a person is able to
learn or do given the right education and instruction. It represents a person's
level of competency to perform a certain type of task. Such aptitude tests are
often used to assess academic potential or career suitability and may be used
to assess either mental or physical talent in a variety of domains.
Examples
of Aptitude Tests
Some examples of aptitude tests include:
·
A test assessing an individual's aptitude to become a fighter pilot
·
A career test evaluating a person's capability to work as an air traffic
controller
·
An aptitude test is given to high school students to determine which type of
careers they might be good at
·
A computer programming test to determine how a job candidate might solve
different hypothetical problems
·
A test designed to test a person's physical abilities needed for a particular
job such as a police officer or firefighter
Students
often encounter a variety of aptitude tests throughout school as they think
about what they might like to study in college or do for as a career someday.
High school students often take a variety of aptitude tests designed to help
them determine what they should study in college or pursue as a career. These
tests can sometimes give a general idea of what might interest students as a
future career. For example, a student might take an aptitude test suggesting
that they are good with numbers and data. Such results might imply that a
career as an accountant, banker, or stockbroker would be a good choice for that
particular student. Another student might find that they have strong language
and verbal skills, which might suggest that a career as an English teacher,
writer, or journalist might be a good choice. Aptitude tests may be single or
specialized as per the skill or ability such as artistic ability, manual
dexterity, clerical skills and motor abilities or maybe general.
Structure of a basic
Aptitude Tests
Usually,
basic aptitude tests are divided into sections that gauge numerical ability,
logical reasoning, verbal comprehension, spatial awareness and cognitive
ability. These sections can vary, depending on the qualities sought by an
employer or institute. However, the elements common to most versions of ability and aptitude tests are listed
below.
- Most of these tests
contain multiple-choice questions.
- There can also be
mathematical equations and true/false question formats.
- The questions are
designed to assess a candidate’s ability to process information quickly
and devise accurate solutions/answers.
- Candidates are
expected to finish every section within a fixed duration.
Special Aptitude Tests
Special aptitude tests are those designed to
look at an individual's capacity in a particular area. For example, imagine
that a business wants to hire a computer programmer to work for their company.
They will likely look at a range of things including work history and interview
performance, but they might also want to administer an aptitude test to
determine if job candidates possess the necessary skill to perform the job.
This special aptitude test is designed to look at a very narrow range of
ability: how skilled and knowledgeable the candidate is at computer
programming.
The
different Special Aptitude Tests are as under:
(A)
Mechanical
Aptitude Test: Like intelligence, mechanical aptitude
is also made up of many components.
A number of tests are available for measuring
mechanical aptitude for a fairly large field of occupations rather than for a
single occupation.
·
Minnesota Mechanical
Assembly Test.
·
Minnesota Spatial
Relations Test.
·
Minnesota Paper Form
Board
·
Johnson O’Connor’s Wiggly
Blocks.
·
Sharma’s Mechanical
Aptitude Test Battery.
·
Stenguist Mechanical
Aptitude Tests etc.
This
is usually include the following items
·
Asking the subject to put
together the parts of mechanical devices
·
Asking him to replace
cutouts of various shapes in corresponding spaces on a board
·
Solving geometrical
problems
·
Questions concerning the
basic information about tools and their uses
·
Questions relating to the
comprehension of physical and mechanical principles
For
instance, the Bennett mechanical comprehension test has 60 items in pictorial
form. They present mechanical problems arranged in order of difficulty and
involve comprehension of mechanical principles found in ordinary situations.
(B)
Clerical
Aptitude Tests: Like the mechanical the clerical
aptitude is also a composite function. According to Bingham, it involves
several specific abilities namely,
·
Perceptual ability. The
ability to register words and numbers with speed and accuracy.
·
Intellectual ability. The
ability to grasp the meaning of words and symbols.
·
Motor ability. The
ability to use various types of machines and tools like a typewriter,
duplicator, cylostone machine, etc.
A
number of tests are available for measuring clerical aptitude:
·
Minnesota Clerical
Aptitude Test.
·
General Clerical
Aptitude.
·
The Detroit Clerical
Aptitude Examination.
·
P.R.W. Test.
·
Orissa Test of Clerical
Aptitude.
·
Clerical Aptitude Test
(C) Tests of Artistic
Aptitude: Some tests have been devised to measure
the artistic aptitudes.
Some
such tests are listed below:
i.
Graphic Arts Test: These tests are devised to discover the talent for graphic
art
ii.
Musical Aptitude Tests:
iii.
Literary Aptitude Tests:
(D) Professional Aptitude
Tests: These tests primarily measure aptitude
for different professions. Such tests are administered before admission into
professional institutions like medical, legal, engineering institutions. There
are many tests to measure aptitude in medicine, science, mathematics, law,
engineering, teaching etc.
(E) Scholastic Aptitude
Tests: These tests measure the scholastic
aptitudes. Some examples of such tests are Scholastic Aptitude Tests and
Graduate Record Examination.
(F) Other Tests like
Motor Dexterity Tests: Other Tests like Motor
Dexterity Tests, Sensory
Tests, Visual Tests and Auditory Tests.
Test
construction.
The process of constructing aptitude tests
involves a rather technical sequence combining ingenuity of the psychologist,
experimentation and data collection with suitable samples of individuals, the
calculation of quantitative indexes for items and total test scores, and the
application of appropriate statistical tests at various stages of test
development. Some of the indexes applied in the construction phase are
difficulty levels, the proportion of responses actually made to the various
alternatives provided in multiple-choice tests, and the correlation of item
scores with total test scores or within an independent criterion. A
well-developed aptitude test goes through several cycles of these evaluations
before it is even tried out as a test. The more evidence there is in the test
manual for such rigorous procedure the more confidence we can have in the
tests.
There
are other problems that generally must be considered in evaluating test scores.
Before a test is actually used, a number of conditions have to be met. There is
a period of “testing the tests” to determine their applicability in particular
situations. A test manual should be devised to provide information on this.
Furthermore, there is the question of interpreting a test score.
Standardization. The
concept of standardization refers to the establishment of uniform conditions
under which the test is administered, ensuring that the particular ability of
the examinee is the sole variable being measured. A great deal of care is taken
to ensure proper standardization of testing conditions. Thus, the examiner’s
manual for a particular test specifies the uniform directions to be read to everyone,
the exact demonstration, the practice examples to be used, and so on. The
examiner tries to keep motivation high and to minimize fatigue and
distractions.
Reliability. One
of the most important characteristics of a test is its reliability. This refers
to the degree to which the test measures something consistently. If a test
yielded a score of 135 for an individual one day and 85 the next, we would term
the test unreliable. Before psychological tests are used they are first
evaluated for reliability. This is often done by the test-retest method,
which involves giving the same test to the same individuals at two different
times in an attempt to find out whether the test generally ranks individuals in
about the same way each time.
Validity.
An essential characteristic of aptitude tests is their validity. Whereas
reliability refers to consistency of measurement, validity generally means the
degree to which the test measures what it was designed to measure. A test may
be highly reliable but still not valid.
The
selection ratio. Another important factor
affecting the success of aptitude tests in personnel selection procedures is
the selection ratio. This is the ratio of those selected to those available for
placement. If there are only a few openings and many applicants, the selection
ratio is low; and this is the condition under which a selection program works
best.
