General Guidelines for Best Use of Psytech Intruments in SA

Wherever possible, use South African norms for Psytech tests in South Africa.

• It is particularly important to use South African norms for ability tests. South African groups do not perform as well as the UK groups on ability tests, particularly tests that involve numerical abilities. Where possible, a South African norm group should be used.
• The South African norms can be found towards the lower end of the lists of norms offered by the GeneSys system when generating a report. In GeneSys 3 , the norms are listed alphabetically. South African norms are always prefaced with the letters 'SA'.
• It is often better to use a local norm group in preference to a UK norm group, even if the local norm group is smaller than the UK group.
• If available, a norm group from a similar industry, or a norm group specific to the organisation where the decisions need to be made, must be used.
• It is very easy to create a local norm group using the functionality provided by the GeneSys software.
• Keep in touch with your test publisher regarding new norms. Visit this web site frequently and enquire telephonically or by e-mail if you are unsure about the appropriate norm  group to use.

Do not allow respondents or line managers access to the raw scores and profiles without the necessary counselling and explanation.

• People who have not had the required training and have not been sensitised to the problems in interpreting psychological test results, frequently misinterpret or over-interpret the technical summaries that are appended to the computer-generated narrative reports.
• In many cases, it is still necessary to edit the computer-generated reports and put the results in context, relating them to the competencies that are required to do a particular job successfully.

Pre-screen respondents for literacy when there is any indication that their English may not be up to par.

• It is well known that literacy standards in South Africa are not what they should be. This is particularly true of people whose home language is not English. The problem is not limited to those who have had limited formal education. Hough and Horne have reported low levels of functional literacy among people who have completed Matric.
• For this reason, we urge our clients to accept that not all South Africans can be fairly assessed with questionnaire methods. We are in the process of developing targeted screening tests to identify which questionnaires can be used on respondents, but in the meantime we urge users to employ a literacy or verbal reasoning screening test prior to using a personality questionnaire.
• As a general rule (a very rough guide) we recommend a sten of no less than 3 on the verbal reasoning subtest of the General Reasoning Test Battery or the Clerical Test Battery (using SA norms). Psytech tests are not the only instruments that can be used for literacy screening. The HSRC has suitable screening tests, and the Hough and Horne Elsa test is widely used as a pre-screening instrument. Respondents should have an English literacy level of about Grade 10 or Grade 11 before one can test them with confidence using a personality questionnaire.
• Educational level is often not a good enough indication of English literacy level.

We shall keep users apprised of research results in this regard.