Becoming a Psychometrist Part 1

My application process at the University of Johannesburg (Psychometry)

*It is important to take note that this article/information snippet is based on my application process at UJ. The process, fees, structure, etc., may have changed as time progressed. The information is shared to assist students with their questions related to the information it contains.

The process starts by applying after having met the listed criteria. Criteria include, as listed by UJ back then when I applied,

• An Honours degree in Psychology or Industrial Psychology, or a B.Psych degree, obtained with a minimum average of 65%.
• A key admission requirement is that candidates must have passed a “full” module in psychological assessment at a post-graduate level.
• The Honours degree had to have been completed not more than 5 years ago. If not the case, candidates have to motivate in a separate letter why their application needs to be considered, including any relevant documentation indicating how they had practically applied their qualification in these 5 years. “.

Although my average was 63.5%, I have met all other criteria, and still applied. I got informed that I went through to the next round, psychological testing with PsyCad, unsupervised and online. A fee of R790.00 was payable for the assessments. The assessments that had to be completed were Adapt-G (general reasoning ability), 15FQ+ (personality), and LCI (psychological construct locus of control).

Process of the assessments:

• Completed a consent form and intake Questionnaire via Google Forms.
• Sent in a few personal docs via email
• Assessments were completed via links that were sent that took me straight to the assessments to be completed.
• You can not prepare for the assessments, in a way that will help you achieve “good results”. The best way to answer these assessments is to answer as truthfully as possible. Do it in a quiet room, with minimal distractions, and when your mind is “fresh and clear”.

After this stage, I was informed that I had been selected. I then had to go for an interview at my place of practicum, and should it be successful, may continue with the program. Luckily for me, I was already employed at a Clinical Psychologists’ practice back then who agreed to supervise me for the duration of this course. For this reason, the interview process was very brief, as my supervisor already knew most info to the usual interview questions.

UJ places a certain amount of students with a place of practicum, and would your chances of getting into the program possibly be greater if you find your own practicum, as in my case. Or perhaps this was just my experience.

A total of 40 students were selected to enroll for the program.

After being accepted and placed in your practicum, UJ hosted a Teams orientation session.

During this session, they shared all info about the program, and questions could be asked and answered.