Passing your exams An HRM perspective for MA students 22 nd April 2008

Overview Issues affecting your performance in exams Working towards better answers Preparing for exams and higher marks

Your exam performance In your view, what issues contributed to a poor performance in your exam?

Working towards better answers Understanding the question (I) Finding out what you know Understanding the question (II) Key points to make in the answer Getting things together Understanding the question (III)

Understanding the question “Critically assess the techniques used in employee selection” So the question is about Employee Selection techniques and I have to critically assess them…so as a starting point I need to realise what “employee selection” is and what “techniques” are used in it…

Understanding the question Employee selection is about how companies evaluate potential employees and are considered against the job specification It’s how companies decide who they want to employ out of all the people attracted by the companies’ recruitment activities OK, so I know that bit; what about the “techniques” used?

Employee Selection (techniques) CV / Biographical info Assessment Centres Graphology Psychometric Tests Interviews References What do I know about this topic?

Understanding the question Critically assessing something is like asking about “strengths and weaknesses” so what are the strengths and weaknesses of each employee selection technique I have thought of?

CV / Biographical info Assessment Centres Graphology Psychometric Tests Interviews References Strengths and weaknesses of each Do any exist?! Range of tests Candidates like them (Salgado, 1999) Generally good predictors of job performance (Hough and Oswald, 2000) Employee Selection (techniques)

CV / Biographical info Assessment Centres Graphology Psychometric Tests Interviews References Strengths and weaknesses of each Cost Bad assessment centres can also be designed! Low construct validity (Goldstein et al, 1998) Employee Selection (techniques)

Getting things together From my notes and wider reading I know that each approach has a number of strengths and weaknesses I need to show the strengths and weaknesses of each employee selection technique Then show which ones seem to be (relatively) stronger / weaker as I get towards my conclusion

Getting things together Of the techniques I’ve got, and thinking about their strengths and weaknesses, which ones seem to be the weakest and which the strongest? I will order them in my essay with the weakest first For each technique I will state the strengths but then show the weaknesses and say whether, on balance, this seems like a good technique

Getting things together How could I conclude this exam answer? The question says: –“Critically assess the techniques used in employee selection”

Understanding the question (III) So perhaps I just need to indicate that I’ve covered some of the main employee selection techniques and by looking at their strengths and weaknesses I have critically assessed them I could then suggest which (overall) seem to be the strongest employee selection techniques (include reasons why)

Essay plan Intro (say essay is about…) –Assessment centres (S = Range of tests, Candidates like them (Salgado, 1999), and Generally good predictors of job performance (Hough and Oswald, 2000) –Assessment centres (W = Cost, Can be badly designed, Low construct validity - Goldstein et al, 1998) –EST 2 S –EST 2 W…(and so on) Conclusion (essay has been about…)

Basic tips Learn the basic materials Incorporate some wider reading –This provides your raw materials and forms a vital part of exam success Practice applying this to exam questions and planning answers to the exam question