
"The use of DAT™ Next Generation often complements a personality inventory, a critical thinking assessment test, and an interview, to evaluate managerial potential in a candidate or to validate their ability to evolve in changing or different environments."
Christelle Cadoret,
Occupational Psychologist Consultant, collaborator of Pearson TalentLens
As a Consultant Work Psychologist, Christelle Cadoret has been collaborating with Pearson TalentLens for 20 years advising users of Human Resources assessments and customer support through services using our solutions. She shares with us her feedback on the use of the DAT™ Next Generation.
I use the DAT™ Next Generation during customer support services where clients delegate the use of tests in their evaluation processes or are themselves recent users. For the majority, the evaluations are carried out in the context of internal or external recruitment.
For cognitive tests, it is often about environments where quality and reactive reasoning is expected, where fields of knowledge are sharp and complex, where knowledge updating is frequent and where the intellectual sphere is mobilized.
The Pearson TalentLens Professional Services Department takes care of all the logistics of inviting candidates, sending tests remotely, and scheduling interviews with candidates as well as the client. For my part, I receive the results and conduct interviews with the candidates. These are structured interviews that allow us to explore further the modes of thought, methods of gathering information, analysis and decision making, but also the way of presenting solutions or action plans, arguments, etc.
The results of the various tests that make up the DAT™ Next Generation are presented to the candidates and then returned to the client with an opinion on the application, interview advice, training and/or management.
A good complement to other assessment tests (Personality, Critical Thinking, etc.)
Most of the time, I use the verbal and abstract tests of the DAT™ Next Generation to validate the level of adaptability of reasoning and learning abilities of a candidate, but also to assess the quality of their incoming and outgoing communication.
The use of the DAT™ Next Generation often complements a personality inventory (SOSIE, PfPI), the Watson-Glaser™ III critical thinking assessment test, and an interview, to assess managerial potential in a candidate or to validate their ability to evolve in changing or different environments.
A personality profile that is very open to experience and change, for example, will operate differently in their position depending on whether they have intellectual plasticity, the ability to solve unusual problems, the ability to consider different points of view, or to learn and quickly grasp new concepts and tasks.
In relation to critical thinking, which I assess using the Watson-Glaser™ III, the DAT™ Next Generation is also a good complement because it is easier to take a step back and distance from information to capture its reliability, relevance, and make an objective judgment if abstract reasoning is effective. Similarly, going through a demonstration to argue choices and orientations is easier if verbal reasoning is operational.
A personality inventory gives us elements of understanding of a person's behavioral tendencies, the Watson-Glaser™ III will evaluate how the person is able or not to put distance, height, objectivity in their information gathering and decision making, where the DAT™ Next Generation will tell us how and with what level of precision, accuracy, their intellectual capital is mobilizable and mobilized.
Beyond the degree, experience, level of position reached by the candidate, the results of the DAT™ Next Generation test indicate to what extent their intellect is mobilizable, and allows them a flexible, nuanced and precise approach.
An adaptative test designed on item banking for a fairer assessment.
The DAT™ Next Generation has the advantage of using test items that are item banked. To construct each administration, the system will draw from a database, items selected for what they assess in terms of concept, aptitude, and level of difficulty. This ensures that each administration is unique and new, thus enhancing the quality of remote administration. There is no risk of learning the exercise, leakage, or overly precise preparation.
The DAT™ Next Generation consists of five tests that can be used independently or combined to form a battery for a wide range of professions. It is designed in an adaptive format, which is new for users of this type of cognitive battery. The system adapts the level of difficulty of the items presented based on the person's success or failure in answering the questions.
The candidate experience is much more pleasant as there is no risk of spending 30 minutes and 30 exercises on a series of failures, for example. The system stops before that. All participants are presented with an item of medium difficulty level (randomly drawn from the item bank). If they give the correct answer, the system then offers them an item of higher difficulty level. If they fail, an item of lower level is given to them. If they succeed again, the level increases, if they fail, the level goes down and so on.
The adaptive mode means that candidates who are struggling with their reasoning feel that they have not done well on the exercise, but they do not have this feeling of crushing failure that a blank page on several items can leave. Candidates who demonstrate effective reasoning can perceive the increase in difficulty but do not need to challenge themselves for too long as the system stops when the maximum level is reached.
The evaluator, a user of the DAT™ Next Generation, obtains information that is as close as possible to the person's actual level in a shorter time (around 15 minutes).
A very appreciable customization of the DAT™ Next Generation for the user
As a user, I find the solution very suitable for the context and candidates to whom I administer it. The instructions are clear, you can customize an invitation email when you administer it remotely, and even add alerts or consent requests. The results report is enlightening and not too long. It is easy to give back to a candidate, and the concept of item banking and adaptive level allows them to understand well at what level they are.
The advantage of a battery of cognitive abilities is that it canadjust according to different situations, the number and type of tests: verbal, numerical, spatial, etc. with the same test ergonomics. The DAT™ Next Generation is rich with 5 subtests that can be supplemented by the BENNETT MECHANICAL COMPREHENSION TESTS II (mechanical reasoning), which allows it to adapt to recruitment roles as varied as manufacturing, logistics, legal, sales or communication, etc.