Nina Pasterny, our resident Watson Glaser & Ravens Matrices superstar (she scored 98% on WG and 92% on RM!!! đ±) shares her tips on how she did it⊠and how you can too. Listen up!
Hi, my name in Nina. I am a third year LLB student at the University of East Anglia who will be graduating (*touch wood*) in July. As part of many gruelling application processes I have encountered many aptitude tests â and boy do I hate them! By some miracle and a lot of hard work, I managed to pass the Watson Glaser and Ravens matrices with flying colours.
I cannot emphasise enough about how much I thought I was a total failure when it comes to aptitude test. The sheer sight of reading a description for an application that stated psychometric tests as one of their stages send shivers down my spine. Any of my good friends can vouch for the amount I dreaded them. I am basically that meme:
literally no one: âŠ.
Me: I hate psychometric testing, isnât it the worst, why do they even use them?
Literally just no.
Not to sound dramatic but combating my fear wasnât easy. I went through many of stages to accept that if I was going to pass, I needed to take matters into my own hands. At first when I failed (repeatedly), I tried to pass off the blame to anyone but myself. I blamed my university, my education and I convinced myself that the people who progressed were super-humans. Although this made me feel better in the short term it wasnât a productive mindset. The reality was that I was at a great institution and I had amazing resources at my fingertips. The first time I realised that I needed to take more ownership was during Workshop 4 with Strive. I felt like everyone at Strive really wanted us to do well and they stressed the importance to being well-prepared. So, this is how I set about to do it.
Top tips
1. PractiseâŠ
⊠practise then practise some more. If you have the time, try to practise a few tests every day. The repetition of doing it over consecutive days with breaks in between really helped me internalise what I was learning.
2. Learn from your mistakes
After doing practise tests you will receive results on how you performed. After sitting there frying your brain because you concentrated so hard on the test it is easy to just look at your test score and move on. Try to find it in you to read through every answer you got wrong and try to understand where the mistake was. If you donât understand, you wonât learn from it.
3. Listen to S01E04 of #StriveSpeaks
If you havenât heard of Strive Speaks, it is a podcast made by Strive which summarises the workshops we did on the Supernova programme. If you werenât fortunate enough to take part in the Supernova programme this year you may not have had access to Workshop 4 materials. Luckily though, the lovely people at Strive have made this handy little podcast which summarises it all for you. I like to listen to it, in the background, of the morning Iâm going to do the test whilst I am getting ready for the day. (Link to podcast - https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/strivespeaks/id1447109030?fbclid=IwAR1WfH8-BJZGpSLA4jEXFikhhOQgS8BSAGZlcL9uFqNfNjTN6cwLMsyO-Ho&i=1000426288766&mt=2 )
4. Join Strive
Being a Strive member enables you to access practise tests that were invaluable when it came to prepare. Free online tests are great, but they do not always reflect the difficulty level of the real thing. I know this is shameless plug here for Strive but I back this organisation 101%.
5. Utilise the resources at the careers department
If youâre at university, the careers department is likely to already have subscriptions to websites with practise tests which will save you ÂŁÂŁ. At UEA you can still access certain resources after you graduate, which includes practise tests, but check this at your institution.
6. Donât listen to others
Ok, this isnât quite true. What I mean is do not listen to anyone who says âOh, this isnât the kind of test you can practise forâ. One too many times did I comfort myself with this to justify my lack of preparation. You can practise for them, and you really should. Youâve put so much effort into your application to get this far, donât let yourself down now. Try to find the time to practise.
7. Start now
Firms can give you very quick turn around dates by which you need to complete the test. This may leave you with inadequate time to practise â especially if youâre a busy person. So, if you get a head start on the practise now, you will thank yourself later.
Finally, I just want to say you can do it. I literally cannot stress enough, if I managed it, you can. If youâre reading this, donât sleep on these aptitude tests. Use this as your wake up call and get practising.