A recent SSHRC-funded study (November 2013, source below) reinforced the notion that pre-employment standardized test results are reliable predictors of job performance. Many hiring consultants are increasingly emphasizing standardized test results over the actual interview process, in terms of which is a better metric to determine the candidate’s competency. What this study brought to the table was the influence of the candidate’s anxiety going into the standardized test. To illustrate the findings of this study, let us compare a highly anxious test taker, Anxious Annie, to one who is confident and self-assured, Confident Chris. Will there be a significant difference in test result outcomes for these two candidates? Will one outperform the other on the job?

As you may very well have predicted, anxiety has a direct effect on test performance. Anxious Annie’s test score is highly likely to be lower than Confident Chris’. However, the interesting finding was that this discrepancy actually translated to job performance! If both candidates are hired, Anxious Annie will not perform as well as Confident Chris will. This finding, in my opinion, only reinforces the reliability of employment standardized tests and benefits they offer companies.

The principal researcher, McCarthy, suggests that the anxiety level experienced at the time of taking the test is indicative of more general behavioral responses and tendencies. If the candidate is anxious about a test and consequently scores lower on it, similar emotion-rousing scenarios encountered at work will induce the same results. Meanwhile, Confident Chris will not be negatively aroused by the same situation, and thus his job performance will be superior.

However, an important caveat to note is that anxious situational reactions to the test were NOT linked to actual job performance. For example, if Anxious Annie was only anxious because she did not think the test itself would be an accurate portrayal of her skills (as opposed to anxiety stemming from being in a test situation), then we cannot predict that her job performance will be inferior to Confident Chris’.

Have any of you taken a standardized test as part of an interview process? What were your experiences, vis-à-vis anxiety?