In the employment world, assessment tests are given to evaluate a potential employee’s personality, abilities and/or aptitude. Personality assessments will provide an idea of what your values and temperament are. An abilities assessment will measure your reasoning skills, and aptitude assessments test your knowledge. Although it’s hard to know what to expect from an assessment test, there are things you can do to help you prepare and get a winning score.

Ace an Assessment Test

Know what the organization is all about, and have a good understanding of the position for which you wish to be hired. Keep in mind that the point of the company-given assessment is to see who will be a good fit; the questions on the assessment are focused around that.

Try to find out which assessment test will be used. If you can get this information, you can do some research about how companies use the assessment scores and why they might be important. This research can give you a better clue about what a company might be seeking in potential employees.

Take a practice test. If you know what kind of assessment will be given to applicants, there’s a chance you’ll be able to find a practice test online or in a book at your local library. Do the practice test not to get all of the “right” answers but to see how you might score. If your assessment suggests you have traits that are the opposite of what a company might be looking for, this could be a sign that the job you’re applying for may not be right for you after all. Also keep in mind: You don’t truly know what a potential employer is looking for in an assessment, nor do you know how much your score reflects upon your ability to be hired.

Be prepared for person-to-person assessments. Not all assessments are in paper format; some are done with a group of other candidates to see how you relate to and perform around others. Some assessments come in the form of a person asking you questions you must answer, or even require you to give a presentation to a panel. You can prepare for these by thinking about your answers to possible interview questions and practicing what you’d say in a speech or presentation.

Study for aptitude tests. Some fields require you to know standard information that’s considered basic yet essential. Emergency responders, police officers and those in the medical field are more likely to have to take a pre-employment aptitude test than others. There are several workbooks and study guides to help a person prepare for these assessments in advance.

Be yourself. If you do well on an assessment because you answered the questions honestly, you’ll find that you’ll enjoy your role with the company. When people answer assessment questions the way they think employers want to hear or see, and are hired as a result, they may find that they are not as happy with this career choice as they thought they’d be.