IBM Aptitude Test

As part of some interview process I had to take an aptitude test for IBM. Needless to say....but it was HARD! The questions themselves I don't think were difficult...but the time given to answer all the questions was so minimal that you have no time to double check an answer or go back at the end. In fact you have to work through them very fast...trying to do the easy questions first to make sure that you have more time to do the harder Qs on the page.

Just to give an idea of exactly what is asked I will describe the type of Qs that are asked. I'm not quoting from the test...OK IBM...so don't come and sue me! Anyway, you have 3 separate tests that you need to complete. The first is on a subject called Data Matrices...where they give you a table with 5 columns and 5 rows of data...each column has like one character in it...from a total selection of 5 chars. Then they ask you some weirdly worded Qs....like "Going Anti-clockwise across the grid starting from the intersection between row 2 and column 5, what is the second character after the third B that occurs?" (made up Q).

You have to think pretty fast...tracing by hand exactly what occurs where...how many chars have passed...etc. You get three different matrices with five questions each and you have exactly 13 minutes to do the test in. So you can see that getting less than a minute per question means that you can hardly afford to waste time on checking answers.

This part of the test was fine for me...I just rushed the final Q for this one. The next test was a killer! Again the questions were pretty easy. Even easier than the first test I thought. You have something like 6-7 questions per page...with 3 pages in total..making about 20+ questions. Now before I tell you the amount of time given let me describe the nature of the questions. They were all number questions where you have to give the next number in the series (something I am very good at usually) like "1,0,1,2,1,5,1" and you have to give the next number in the series...thats something I made up...but as you can see its pretty easy. (btw...the answer is 9).

Here's the killer...to do 20+ Qs you are given a mere 4 minutes to the do the whole test in. I managed to do about 15-16...before I had about 10 secs left...so I guessed the rest with random answers. This is probably the only test I've ever done where they dont expect you to answer all the questions...and so that itself was a major challenge in addition to answering each Q. Luckily I didn't get any sort of mental block that some people get when they are under pressure and so was able to do each question in a pretty calm manner.

The third test was the hardest for me anyway...and it was the longest at 15 minutes for about 15 questions. It was to do with percentages/fractions that you need to derive using deduction etc....Example Q : "If a firm buys two photocopiers A and B. If A costs 1/4 more than 4/5 of B and the total comes to $125,500 then wot is the cost of A"...(made up Q). When you have only a minute per Q....then even questions like that can spin you out.

All in all...I think that I probably didn't do too well on this test...but I blame the time constraints. In general though...I found it enjoyable. Just will have to wait and see what IBM say.