The 9 Wonderlic Test Tips You Need to Know
The Wonderlic Personnel Test is one of the most difficult online pre-employment exams available for graduates and job seekers. With only 12 minutes to answer 50 multiple choice questions, the test isn’t easy by any means.
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Introduction
The Wonderlic Personnel Test is one of the most difficult online pre-employment exams available for graduates and job seekers. With only 12 minutes to answer 50 multiple choice questions, the test isn’t easy by any means. In fact, many successful, intelligent candidates have been denied interviews simply because they failed the exam.
However, you’re not going to fail the exam because armed with these 9 simple Wonderlic test tips from psychometric professions, you’ll be well prepared to take the assessment.
Time is Against You
Your biggest enemy on the Wonderlic test is time. On the whole, the questions are fairly simple. You shouldn’t need any more than a very basic high school education to understand the large majority of the questions, and if you do need a bit of brushing up, it shouldn’t take you long at all.
So, your main goal when taking the test should be, first and foremost, to beat the clock. As time is of the essence, you need to make sure to use every second wisely. Since you’re only given a total of 12 minutes on the standard Wonderlic assessment and 8 minutes on the quicktest, you absolutely cannot let your mind drift off.
The following 8 Wonderlic test tips will tell you exactly how you can shave off precious seconds from your response time and what you can do to capitalize on the time you do have.
Feel Free to Skip
On the Wonderlic Personnel Test, the questions are given in no particular order, so you should feel free to skip around as much as you like. Because you’re given only 12 minutes, you won’t want to waste your time answering long, complicated questions when there are plenty of easy points to snatch up.
Why bother working out an algebraic mean when you can answer questions about the months of the year? You can always come back to difficult questions later if you have time, but don’t let these prevent you from finishing as many questions as you can. After all, only 2-3% of all job seekers actually finish the test at all, and of those who do, very, very few of them receive perfect or near-perfect scores.
Even electrical engineers and programmers can miss between 15 to 20 questions and still pass through to the next stage in the interview process.
Use Scrap Paper Judiciously
Writing numbers down on a sheet of scrap paper will take an inordinate amount of time. Try to perform calculations in your head as often as possible without sacrificing on accuracy. There are some questions that require the use of the scrap paper.
However, in most cases, there are shortcuts and tricks that will lead you to the answer much more efficiently. In general, when doing Wonderlic test prep, you need to think like an athlete. An athlete maximizes his performance through seemingly marginal improvements. For instance, a swimmer will shave his legs before a meet to reduce resistance in the water.
A runner might practice in Denver, Colorado to challenge himself to run at a higher altitude where the air is thinner. So too, as you prepare for the Wonderlic Personnel test, you should be looking for easy ways to cut out a few seconds here and there. While a few seconds may not seem like much, they can add up pretty quickly.
Don’t Leave Answers Blank
No points are deducted for incorrect answers, so you’re better off answering every single question. You have at least a 20% chance of guessing correctly. Plus, in most cases, you should be able to eliminate at least one of the answers. If you can eliminate just one answer, your chance of answering correctly rises 20%.
Even if you really have no idea what to answer, if you can cross off at least a couple of wrong answers and make an educated guess, you have a good chance of earning yourself an extra point. Make sure though that you mark an answer right away.
Very few people finish all the questions, and even fewer have time to go back and review their answers. If you decide to guess on a question, you’ll want to mark your answer right away because you probably won’t have time to return to it.
Don’t Look at the Clock Too Frequently
Though it may seem trivial, you should make sure not to look at the clock too often. While you should look at the clock occasionally to make sure you’re budgeting your time properly, you’ll lose your focus if you glance up too often.
You’ll need all of your concentration when you head to the assessment center. If you’re constantly checking the time, the constant distractions will affect your concentration.
Don’t Skim Too Quickly
It can be tempting to try to skim through the questions as quickly as possible, but if you have to read a question twice you’ll end up wasting more time than if you had just read it carefully the first time around.
You’ll want to move as quickly as you can without sacrificing on accuracy. If you answer a question incorrectly because you’re hastily rushing through each of the questions, you’ll have missed the point entirely.
Don’t Waste Your Time Reviewing Algebra or Vocabulary
Most psychometrics exams will test your literacy and basic math skills. That being said, a general numerical reasoning review won’t help you improve your score on the Wonderlic all that much. Anyone who tells you to simply jump on Khan Academy to brush up on all the math skills you may have forgotten is wasting your time.
This is a unique exam, and in order to succeed, you’ll need to focus specifically on Wonderlic test tips and strategies. Of course, if you come across a concept you don’t recognize, by all means go ahead and review it. However, you’ll save yourself hours of preparation time if you start by completing a Wonderlic practice test and carefully reviewing the Wonderlic test answers.
Then you’ll be able to immediately identify your weaknesses and target your preparation towards those areas in particular. A free Wonderlic study guide may seem helpful, but if it contains nothing more than a general review of mathematics, it won’t really help you on the Wonderlic specifically.
Practice, Practice, Practice
The Wonderlic was originally designed as a simplified I.Q. test meant to be administered to prospective employees during the screening process. According to modern psychology, I.Q.predicts success better than almost any other factor.
Many studies have come out in the past 70 years since the Wonderlic was first distributed argue the Wonderlic doesn’t actually measure I.Q. all that well. While Wonderlic Personnel Test and the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS) score may have some sort of correlation, results have been generally inconsistent.
We here at Wonderlic Test Prep strongly affirm that students can and often do improve their scores with practice. Many intelligent, competent individuals receive poor scores on the Wonderlic simply because they’re not prepared.
If you take the time to practice on sample Wonderlic tests and carefully review the questions and answers, you’ll feel far more confident when walking into the assessment center.
Eat & Sleep Properly
You’ve heard this advice a hundred times, but we’ll tell you again because it’s probably the best Wonderlic test tip that we have. If you don’t take care of your body, you can’t expect your mind to perform at its best either. Regular sleep has been linked to higher test scores and higher grades time and time again.
Believe it or not, according to an article published in Time Magazine, the loss of just one hour of sleep is roughly equivalent to the loss of two years of cognitive development. That means that a fifth grader will perform like a third grader if he’s sleep deprived.
You should also make sure you’re eating healthy, balanced meals not only the morning before the test but also the week leading up to it. Your brain needs nutrients to function properly.
Your Final Wonderlic Test Tip:
Another Wonderlic test tip? Don’t stress it! If you’ve prepared properly and practiced diligently, you should have absolutely no problems at all.
After all, no one will ever see your test score besides the hiring manager, and he probably won’t even look at it that carefully once he’s invited you for an interview.
This is just a screening exam, and very few employers make it a significant factor in their hiring decisions. Your job, very simply, is just to pass, and with the excellent Wonderlic test tips we’ve given you here, that should be no problem at all.
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