Can applicants use AI to complete ability tests?

At GFB we work closely with many organisations to help support them in how they select high potential candidates, that would make successful and valuable employees. Some of the more recent trends that our clients have observed is the use of AI and ChatGPT in completing application forms, the text created by AI on standard application forms appears very similar and can be fairly easy to identify. So it would seem, that in today’s world originality is to be valued; being less than perfect may become a way of standing out from the AI-using and reliant crowd, that are applying for roles in prestigious companies and organisations this year.

How we can help

Many of our clients ask us for advice and support in using ability tests to help them to select the highest calibre candidates, in particular those organisations where the ability to think critically at pace is an important aspect of the role. One example of this is the law firm sector when selecting graduates. We help our clients by recommending the most relevant ability tests and the most useful norm group, along with helping to interpret the results and to give advice on recommended selection levels. Some of our clients this year are asking for reassurance that the results that they are seeing are not using AI or Chat bots to attain better scores in the tests.

Is Ability still relevant. Why not use AI?

A person’s cognitive ability and how able they are to think in a critical way is even more important today than 20 years ago. Our education system today rewards good results to those who are successful at taking exams and these candidates are seen to have high levels of intelligence. However, it is well proven that success in the workplace and future potential can be identified through ability testing to establish how able a candidate is to think critically. The marked difference between intelligence and critical thinking is the mental facility to develop analytical reasoning skills to evaluate alternative viewpoints and persuasively argued opinions. To remain objective and establish what is fact and what is assumed is vital in today’s world of fake news and social media.

So can we use AI to do this for us? Is it important that our candidates can think critically without the use of AI. The answer is a very definite yes.

Can candidates use AI to complete ability tests?

In a previous blog we shared what measures we have taken to establish how “cheat proof” our ability tests are. For the full article and detail have a look here https://www.gfbgroup.com/post/can-chatbots-really-pass-the-watson-glaser

So in short thne ability tests we offer are cheat proof for the following reasons:

• Item banking – Watson Glaser is and item banked test and is the gold standard test preferred by many organisations for selecting graduates. No one test is the same and this reduces cheating.

• Time limits - Cut and pasting and using AI/Chatbots to take the tests does not improve performance, cut and pasting questions takes too long and the Chatbots don’t perform as well as real life candidates. Recent updates to tests prevent cut and pasting.
• Tracking response patterns – we can see if there is frequent tab switching so flagging possible cheating.
• Using high standard norm groups – comparing ability test results to high performance norm groups allows the best candidates to stand out and chat bots do not perform at this level.

Our clients are reassured by the measures that we have taken and the advice that we share with them to help them in selecting the graduates and candidates that they know will make successful employees. We are a trusted partner.

If you would like to know more about how we can help you to use Ability testing to help you to identify and select the very best candidates please get in touch.