Psychometric testing today is employed in a wide variety of settings, from educational to industrial organizations, for a diverse range of purposes. Especially from the HR point of view, its uses have increased manifold over the last few years. However, it should be understood that psychometric tests should never be used in isolation; rather, they should always be used only as a supplementary device for improving the quality of various management related decisions.

The term "Psychometric Testing" evokes different reactions in different people. Some people think of it as an enigmatic thing, some others treat it as a recent fad and still others tend to think of it as something fearsome. By and large, a negative perception has been woven around psychometric tests.

In one of the multinational organizations where the author of this article was asked to administer psychometric tests at the time of selection, the reaction of the candidates was to be seen to be believed. Most of the junior level candidates were mortally afraid and a few were extremely apprehensive. At the senior level, the reaction was out rightly negative and the resistance was all the more higher. People thought of it as some kind of a rejection devise, an invasion into their privacy and as something mysterious.

Even for the most enlightened ones, psychometric testing appears to be a concept and practice that is shrouded in mystery, some kind of mumbo-jumbo, and a kind of pseudo-science. Some people even equate it to palmistry, astrology and graphology.

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