The General Aptitude Test Battery helps to evaluate the cognitive and multiple abilities of an individual in the workplace.
The General Aptitude Test Battery, or GATB, is used to measure the cognitive and multiple abilities of a candidate in a work-related environment.
The test was developed by the U.S. Employment Service (USES) to be used in occupational counseling.
The GATB has been widely used to study the relationship between general intelligence, cognitive abilities, and job performance.
The test was first developed by the national agencies and in-state employment offices in 1947, revised many times, and then ceased in 2002.
The General Aptitude Test Battery measures multiple cognitive, perceptual, and psychomotor abilities as preferred rather than the general mental ability when categorizing people into specific roles.
Because the GATB includes perceptual and psychomotor abilities, it’s different from a competitor battery, the Differential Aptitude Tests, and other similar batteries.
Watching employee abilities to specific jobs was the primary objective of the GATB, until USES authorized the test against some sixty-six occupational groups in five job families so only a small percentage is to be used.
20 Important Facts about General Aptitude Test Battery you need to Know
Here are major facts and tips you need to know about the General Aptitude Test Battery to help you perform excellently in it:
Historical development of the General Aptitude Test Battery
A program of aptitude test research was started by the USES in the mid-1930s, which resulted in approximately 100 ability tests designed to predict success across a broad range of jobs representative of the U.S. labor force at that time.
The USES then put the 100 ability tests through a series of factor analyses, finally identifying twelve tests that measure nine aptitudes.
The GATB edition B-1002 was published in 1947 in two forms (A and B) and consists of these twelve assessments. The two extra forms (C and D) were later published in 1983.
High schools, universities, technical schools, labor union apprenticeship programs, vocational rehabilitation agencies, and other authorized agencies used the General Aptitude Test Battery for vocational and career counseling, while the state employment offices used the battery for vocational counseling and applicant referral.
What does the General Aptitude Test Battery consist of?
The General Aptitude Test Battery consists of 12 tests designed to assess 9 abilities. These include:
General Intelligence (G) – Contains Arithmetic Reasoning, Vocabulary, and Three Dimensional Space
Numerical Aptitude (N) – Contains Arithmetic Reasoning and Computation
Verbal Aptitude (V) – Contains Vocabulary
Spatial Aptitude (S) – Contains 3 Dimensional Space
Clerical-Perception (Q) – Contains Name Comparison
Motor Coordination (K) – Contains Mark Making
Finger Dexterity (F) – Contains Assemble and Disassemble
Manual Dexterity (M) – Contains Turn and Place
Form Perception (P) – Contains Form Matching and Tool Matching.
How is the General Aptitude Test Battery administered?
The General Aptitude Test Battery is a timed paper-and-pencil assessment that takes about two hours and thirty minutes to complete.
This assessment is one of the oldest general mental ability tests still utilized today and is considered by some researchers to still be incomparable with other tests.
What is the validity period of the General Aptitude Test Battery?
The General Aptitude Test Battery has a validity period in which your result needs to remain valid within that time until it expires.
Therefore, a General Aptitude Test Battery result remains valid for a period of three (3) years before you may be required to take the test again.
What is the retest waiting period of the General Aptitude Test Battery?
Any applicant that doesn’t meet the requirement for the General Aptitude Test Battery the initial time must wait a period of three (3) months from their test date before being eligible to take another test.
Candidates who fail to meet the standard required for subsequent attempts must wait a period of six months before they can retest.
The candidate may rewrite within two (2) months before the expiry date, or anytime thereafter since a successful GATB result is due to expire.
How is the General Aptitude Test Battery scored?
More than seven hundred and fifty (750) items altogether are included in the General Aptitude Test Battery, and there are three steps in obtaining GATB scores. These three steps include:
i. Calculate the number of accurate items for each of the 12 sub-tests. ii. Convert raw scores to the norming population according to the subtest and category of the GATB used. iii. Sum up the converted scores into aptitude scores.
For each of the subtests in each category of GATB, there is a conversion table and the Mean for overall subtests is 100 and SD is 20.
In the interpretation of the GATB scores, 80 means below average, while 81 to 120 means average.
A score of 121 to 140 means above average, and 141 to 160 means good. 161 to 180 indicate a very good score, while 181 implies excellent.
What is the standard of the General Aptitude Test Battery?
What USES calls general working population, which is the subtest of 4000 of a total of 8000 workers for whom data were available in 1952, is the original standard for the General Aptitude Test Battery.
The reference population in which the GATB aptitude is standardized to have a Mean of 100 and SD of 20 is the general working population.
According to a study conducted in 1966 with test data from 23,428 workers, the standards remained firm to that point.
Reliability of the General Aptitude Test Battery
The reliability of the General Aptitude Test Battery reflects the stability of assessments over time.
Reliability was made appropriate and used, which was established for the adapted test by the Askok Dolke test-retest technique.
The coefficient of reliability for the first seven parts was attributed to employees computed in the textile industry. With a median coefficient of 0.81, this ranged from 0.51 to 0.92.
Applications of the General Aptitude Test Battery
The applications of the General Aptitude Test Battery (GATB) include the screening tool for recruitment, vocational guidance, preliminary career exploration, and research purposes.
These tools are used together to facilitate the application method of the General Aptitude Test Battery.
Critical analysis of the General Aptitude Test Battery
The General Aptitude Test Battery has always been regarded as one of the best aptitude assessments over time, but a lengthy and tiresome test.
Different types of A, B, C, D, E, and F have been revised, but a single and last updated type isn’t used everywhere. Therefore, regularity must be included in the test usage.
The evolution of the General Aptitude Test Battery
The General Aptitude Test Battery has presently changed into what is called the Ability Profiler.
The change the test made back in the 80s reduced the time required to complete the assessment, the look and feel of the test, and a simpler way the test is being measured and scored at the end.
People who are struggling to get into vocational jobs or are in career counseling trying to understand their direction in life rely on the Ability Profiler.
The Ability Profiler is designed to be administered in two and a half hours, and if required, individual tests can be taken alone.
The test has been made part of O*NET managed by the Department of Labor, which contains resources that people need to use when trying to get a job.
What are some components of the General Aptitude Test Battery?
Some of the components of the General Aptitude Test Battery are listed below, including:
Verbal – This test centers on writing, reading, as well as speaking, and evaluates the innate skill in being able to communicate with others successfully.
Spatial – The spatial is the skill required to make photos in your head from ideas, as well as being capable of viewing a 2-D image and understanding the relation to the 3-D image.
The General Aptitude Test Battery is the most widely used test battery
Of course, the General Aptitude Test Battery is the most widely used test battery in the job selection.
Little research has been performed to investigate the factorial assumptions of the General Aptitude Test Battery despite its extensive use.
The results of the battery show that the exam doesn’t sufficiently assess nine specific fundamental aptitudes, but four.
Who needs the General Aptitude Test Battery?
The General Aptitude Test Battery comprises twelve (12) subtests that are timed and scored separately to compute nine (9) aptitude scores.
The administration of the General Aptitude Test Battery doesn’t require an expert. It takes two and half hours to complete the test, and it’s appropriate for individuals in Grades 9 through 12 or for individuals in the workforce.
The General Aptitude Test Battery instructions to test-takers
Both the general instructions and the test-specific instructions provide limited information concerning test-taking strategies for GATB Forms A through D.
The AERA/APA/NCME joint committee on test standards in 1985 developed test standards that require test takers to be told how tests would be scored and provided with specific instructions that permit them to improve their scores.
Therefore, changes to scoring processes go before the consideration and revision of test-taker instructions.
The General Aptitude Test Battery item pretest
Both general and test-specific instructions are modified to improve the information provided to test-takers during the item pretest.
During the pretest, the related part of the general instructions used states that you most likely will not have the capacity to complete all the questions in the first three parts.
Each part contains a lot of questions that very few individuals can complete within the time given. You need to try as many questions as you can.
What are the instructions given for each of the speed tests?
The instructions provided for each of the speed tests after completing the practice items state that you work as fast and as carefully as you can.
Speed is very essential in this exercise. You may take the advantage of guessing accurately if you don’t have an idea of the answer to a question, even if you are not 100 percent correct.
Don’t waste time guessing if you don’t have an idea what the correct answer is. But instead, move on to the next question.
You can take your best guess if you can eliminate one or more of the choices to a question.
Test takers are simply instructed to work as accurately and fast as they can for the power tests.
The General Aptitude Test Battery test tryout instructions
An adjustment on instructions helps give information about the scoring procedure as well as advice on test-taking strategy during the test tryout.
The tests are recorded at this time so that all of the power tests could be administered first, accompanied by the three speed tests.
For the power and speed tests, separate sets of general instructions are provided. The general instructions for the power tests (one, two, and three) state that you should work carefully on the next parts and then have sufficient time to answer each question.
Answer every question to your advantage and make your best guess even if you are not sure of an answer.
Fill in your answer, and move on to the next easier questions. You will not be punished for answering incorrectly, remember.
G-General Learning Ability
This test is part of the General Aptitude Test Battery designed to assess your ability to understand instructions and the fundamental principles, as well as the ability to reason and make judgments.
V-Verbal Aptitude
Your ability to understand the meaning of words and use them successfully is measured using the V-Verbal Aptitude.
In this test, your ability to understand relationships between words and to understand the meaning of the entire sentences and paragraphs are assessed.
General Aptitude Test Battery Practice Questions and Answers
If you can make use of these sample questions and answers here and study them, you will surely get yourself ready for the big exam.
GATB Numerical Aptitude Practice Questions and Answers
Question 1
What is the sum of the following numbers 23, 16, 90, 54?
A. 129 B. 192 C. 183 D. 138
The correct answer is C, 183.
Question 2
What is 58 multiplied by 16?
A. 928 B. 982 C. 99 D. 91
The correct answer is A, 928.
Question 3
What is 693 divided by 7?
A. 75 B. 91 C. 0.99 D. 99
The correct answer is D, 99.
GATB Verbal Aptitude Practice Questions and Answers
From the other words in the following lists, choose the word most different in meaning:
Question 4
A. Content B. Happy C. Joyful D. Morose
The correct answer is D, morose.
Question 5
A. Humid B. Hot C. Heated D. Boiling
The correct answer is A, Humid.
Question 6
A. Petrified B. Sullen C. Sacred D. Frightened
The correct answer is B, Sullen.
Conclusion
The General Aptitude Test Battery is a professional career aptitude exam that assesses 9 various aptitudes and can be used to evaluate the probability that you will be successful in a particular type of skill.
As a 12-test battery, the assessment measures 9 job-related aptitudes and is one of the most widely used test batteries in the area of job selection.
To determine a General Aptitude Test Battery score, you need to sum up the overall converted scores into aptitude scores after a number of accurate items have been calculated for each of the 12 subtests.
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