December 1, 2008 at 10:01 am
Hi all and Happy post Thanks Giving
Has anyone been asked to take a pre-employment assessment test from PreVisor? I have not taked the test as of yet, but was looking for any feedback from anyone that has.
Thanks in advance for your advise
Bill Dillon
Bend, Oregon
December 2, 2008 at 7:41 pm
I was asked to take that test once by a recruiter. I didn't, because I found a job before I could take that test.
Good luck and let use know what questions they ask on that assessment test.
-UM
July 6, 2009 at 9:26 am
Hi Bill.
Did you take the test? I have been asked to take a previsor assessment test and would appreciate any feedback or guidance.
Thanks and Regards,
sunshine
July 7, 2009 at 11:17 am
I took one through TEK Systems, and I was quite pleased with my results, but you definitely can plan on a test not that different from the Microsoft tests - there were quite a few questions where an educated guess is all most folks can do, and in real life, you'd be able to research it. However, with a 3 minute limit for each question, some of the questions don't lend themselves to research that happens that quickly, so you have to know your stuff. A bookworm might do rather well.
Steve
(aka smunson)
:-):-):-)
Steve (aka sgmunson) 🙂 🙂 🙂
Rent Servers for Income (picks and shovels strategy)
July 7, 2009 at 11:54 am
ok. Thanks. sounds pretty similar to brainbench.
September 17, 2009 at 6:27 am
I'm suppose to take one today , What type of questions are on the test , career stuff , job knowledge of what your applying for, or just personality stuff
September 17, 2009 at 4:21 pm
They are skill-set based. I took mine on SQL Server 2005. I was suprised at the level of focus on triggers, so be prepared. These are not unlike the level at which Microsoft tests you - right down in the weeds, at times, where everyone knows the only way to get the answer right is to look it up in BOL.
Steve
(aka smunson)
:-):-):-)
donventura (9/17/2009)
I'm suppose to take one today , What type of questions are on the test , career stuff , job knowledge of what your applying for, or just personality stuff
Steve (aka sgmunson) 🙂 🙂 🙂
Rent Servers for Income (picks and shovels strategy)
November 18, 2009 at 2:15 pm
Can you post some of the questions here?
Thanks in advance
viren
November 18, 2009 at 2:46 pm
VirenMann (11/18/2009)
Can you post some of the questions here?Thanks in advance
viren
SSC is not a Braindump site. Posting any exam questions in braindump format to this site is ill-advised.
Jason...AKA CirqueDeSQLeil
_______________________________________________
I have given a name to my pain...MCM SQL Server, MVP
SQL RNNR
Posting Performance Based Questions - Gail Shaw[/url]
Learn Extended Events
November 19, 2009 at 8:39 am
Yes I forgot that....
Anyway I did the exam yesterday and it was easy in almost the same format as the MCITP ofcourse there were some tricky questions as well. if anyone is good in development the exam should be OK.
Thanks
Viren M.
December 4, 2009 at 10:16 am
Pre Visor tests are useless as far as testing for real skill. They feed you diagrams you've never seen in real life and I think the idea is if you can adapt to their environment it is a test of whether you know your skills.
Having tested on preparatory exams for 70-305, I have to disagree that Pre Visor is essentially the same as Microsoft.
My experience with them is negative. I know what I'm doing and I know I know what I'm doing. By the time I'm done with a Pre Visor "assessment" I haven't got the slightest idea what I've just answered.
I'd prepare for a bad experience. I've told recruiters at TEK I flatly won't do them. There is an office of TEK now which uses Kenexa Prove It! and this is far superior.
December 5, 2009 at 12:03 pm
I didn't mean to suggest that PreVisor tests were just like Microsoft's - only that they bear some similarity, and in my case, a rather surprising focus on triggers for a SQL 2005 test - one would think a greater focus on backup and recovery in addition to skills related to improving performance might be more appropriate.
However, I'm not sure you're being entirely objective. Your considerable disgust/rancor with PreVisor suggests that your test result may have more to do with your perspective than the facts. There are many aspects of any given test topic that will be notoriously difficult to test for, and no amount of thought or technology can necessarily overcome those limitations. You may want to investigate test results for PreVisor on a wider basis than your own results in order to draw a more objective conclusion.
Just my two cents...
Steve
(aka sgmunson)
:-):-):-)
Steve (aka sgmunson) 🙂 🙂 🙂
Rent Servers for Income (picks and shovels strategy)
December 5, 2009 at 9:36 pm
Thanks for the reply.
My mind is made up on Pre Visor and from here on out I'll pass on any job where the prospective employer will not objectively drill down on my skills with a personal interview but prefer Pre Visor and no interview.
I've got better things to do with my time than try to pass a Psychology based, non-standard test where the apparent attempt is to reduce one's self-esteem. Heck, I'm surprised they don't end off with an Effexor or Prozac ad at the end of these.
I've taken so many better tests that measured my skill correctly that I'll concentrate on employers who offer those.
I did some homework on Pre Visor, see their site and reviews for yourself. Their tests are made "with respect to the highest standards of Industrial Psychology," this is pretty much word for word from their site. I have no respect for Psychs and haven't met any 2 of them that agree on anything. Hence, I see no "standards" and haven't seen a Psych test yet that really measured anything. But that's just me.
If they want to give their tests to College students, fine. I'd rather they leave hard-working professionals alone.
Phew !!! -- Sorry about that.
I get your point of view and I respect it. After I read the above on their site yesterday I was really fed up with them, though. Don't confuse my sentiments to mean disrespect for your point of view. If that's what you found, then it's true. What I found is right from my point of view.
Thanks again, do well.
Best,
Mike
December 6, 2009 at 6:46 am
Interesting perspective. I guess I'm just clueless as to what content on their tests could possibly lead one to the conclusion that it's a psych test instead of a skills test. I saw nothing on my PreVisor test to suggest that it was anything other than skills-based. It's over-focus on triggers only suggests that either their question randomization is considerably less than optimal, or their overall question content has a definite slant in that direction.
You may not agree with me, but I'm now certain that your reaction to their test had everything to do with an unanticipated negative result, and nothing to do with anything else. My test allowed me to look up information in Books Online (aka BOL), and given the extraordinary value of the availability of such a tool during a test, along with a 2 to 3 minute time allowance for every question, I have a hard time believing that one could possibly have all that much difficulty with such a test if one is truly skilled in SQL Server, as "looking it up" is a critical skill with SQL Server technology, because no one person could possibly remember it all. I see nothing wrong with judging that after 2 to 3 minutes with access to BOL, you don't have an answer, that you just don't know that question.
If you chose to take such a test without finding out it's conditions and rules ahead of time, and thus took the test without access to BOL only because you weren't aware of that being ok, then you really shouldn't be surprised at the results of a lack of preparation. That may sound harsh, but if you think about it, such a scenario boils down to lack of preparation. That said, however, the key thing here is to realize that this was only one test, and if you have the opportunity to re-take it, you may wish to pursue it, as it might be a valuable learning opportunjity.
Also, I'd be very interested in knowing why the mere mention of psychology on the PreVisor website has you so agitated. Do you honestly think that one can not make use of some of it's principles in coming up with useful tests? Is it because you feel that the use of psychology is entirely some kind of unethical trick? You might want to consider that getting at the truth often requires psychology, lest folks all too easily "game the system", effectively invalidating the testing results.
Steve
(aka sgmunson)
:-):-):-)
mdurthaler (12/5/2009)
Thanks for the reply.My mind is made up on Pre Visor and from here on out I'll pass on any job where the prospective employer will not objectively drill down on my skills with a personal interview but prefer Pre Visor and no interview.
I've got better things to do with my time than try to pass a Psychology based, non-standard test where the apparent attempt is to reduce one's self-esteem. Heck, I'm surprised they don't end off with an Effexor or Prozac ad at the end of these.
I've taken so many better tests that measured my skill correctly that I'll concentrate on employers who offer those.
I did some homework on Pre Visor, see their site and reviews for yourself. Their tests are made "with respect to the highest standards of Industrial Psychology," this is pretty much word for word from their site. I have no respect for Psychs and haven't met any 2 of them that agree on anything. Hence, I see no "standards" and haven't seen a Psych test yet that really measured anything. But that's just me.
If they want to give their tests to College students, fine. I'd rather they leave hard-working professionals alone.
Phew !!! -- Sorry about that.
I get your point of view and I respect it. After I read the above on their site yesterday I was really fed up with them, though. Don't confuse my sentiments to mean disrespect for your point of view. If that's what you found, then it's true. What I found is right from my point of view.
Thanks again, do well.
Best,
Mike
Steve (aka sgmunson) 🙂 🙂 🙂
Rent Servers for Income (picks and shovels strategy)
December 6, 2009 at 7:33 am
Ah ... There is missing information Steve. Having taken several of their tests, none in SQL and really feeling like I'd been through the wringer, I questioned my recruiters as to the wisdom and design of their tests. Nearly every recruiter I've spoken with knows the tests are, in their own words, imperfect.
Also, 1 for 1, every recruiter and Account Manager I've spoken with has told me I'm in the majority as far as complaints as to the "real-worldness" of thier questions and the lack of testing for best practices. I have it there's quite a majority of developers fed up with Pre Visor tests.
I got to doing home work by googling Pre Visor and ended up here at this forum where I'm already a member. It would be strange indeed if the only thing Pre Visor gets right is tests for SQL, perhaps this is the case.
I took their OO Fundamentals test and ran into nothing whatsoever that covered OO Fundamentals as I learned them on the MCSD 70-305 Exam course. I never have taken their SQL exam. Perhaps I should.
I see your point on Psych and have to agree with you. I just don't agree that Psychology is a science. Engineering disciplines, Chemistry, Medical sciences such as Dentistry, Cardiology, produce predictable results every time. A person who would have had to have heart surgery even 20 years ago, could more recently get an Angioplasty and it's an outpatient operation. I'm sorry but Psychs plainly have no such results. That's my point.
So as soon as I saw that their tests were based on the best standards of Industrial Psych, I said to myself "this all adds up."
For whatever reason and I don't know how, I've placed well on their C#.net and VB.Net tests. The point is their questions make no sense, are not real world and are not based on Microsoft Best Practices. Again, as I have it from recruiters, I'm in the majority with such sentitments.
I appreciate someone being honest with me. I was, in truth, being a bit rancorous -- excellent choice of evaluative terms on your part.
I like a test that challenges my skills and isn't designed out of fear that someone might "game" it. A person who "games it" is going to get caught anyhow. I see no point in creating a test that tries to take the place of active, 1:1 human interaction. I have to say that if a person doing an interview really does probe the prospect, he has to know what he's doing in order to accurately assess the prospects skills. That's just my opinion.
Well, if you can pass an SQL test on Pre Visor and score well on it, I will admit that you've certainly got a knack for abstracting your knowledge out. By that I mean with Pre Visor's (I'm sorry) use of their own non-standard diagrams in questions deliberately crafted to confuse people, if you can answer those and score well, my hat's off to you. I could not make enough sense out of their diagrams and given keys with OO Fundamentals to make any sense of it. And I know OO Fundamentals all the way down to CIL -- at least with respect to the work that I do.
But thanks for getting back with me and challenging me. I like that and look forward to your reply.
Best,
Mike
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