PQA is an instrument designed to assess a range of personal qualities considered to be important for the study and practice of medicine, dentistry and other health professions. It comprises questions, grouped into three sections, the first to measure cognitive skills, the other two to measure particular personality/attitudinal traits relevant to health professional practice.

Test 1 ('MAT'; Mental Agility Test, D Munro & MR Bore) is designed to measure fluid intelligence. It is a high level reasoning ability skills test containing questions similar to those found in many "I.Q." tests. It is designed to discriminate between those of higher than average ability in this dimension. The test asks a series of verbal, numerical and spatial problem-solving questions. There are 45 questions to answer in 60 minutes. (Click here for example questions)

Test 2 ('Mojac'; Interpersonal Values, Social Responsibility, MR Bore) describes a number of situations where people have to decide what to do according to their opinions or values. Unlike Test 1, there are no right or wrong answers to the 49 questions in this test. Rather, candidates are asked to choose the answer that most closely reflects their value system and what they believe is appropriate in each situation. (Click here for example questions)

Test 3 ('NACE'; Interpersonal Traits, D Munro) presents 100 statements about people and lists the way individuals might think and behave in certain situations. Again, there are no right or wrong answers. Instead, candidates are asked to indicate how true or false each statement is about themselves. The time allowed to answer the questions in Tests 2 and 3 is 60 minutes. (Click here for example questions)

Test 4 ('PCI'; Personal Characteristics Inventory, MR Bore, D Munro & DA Powis) asks respondents to rate themselves on 100 statements designed to establish how honest they are about themselves and how truthful they are about their thoughts, feelings and attitudes The time allowed to answer the questions in Test 4 is 20 minutes. (Click here for example questions)

PQA is available as a hard copy test, with questions printed in booklets, or in electronic form where candidates complete the test under supervised conditions at a computer terminal.

Full instructions are given with each test. The test does not start until all candidates are clear about what they are expected to do. Candidates' answers to the test questions are made either in an OMR scannable Response Booklet or directly to server if the test is taken using keyboard and screen.

Candidates do not require any specific preparation or knowledge to undertake PQA. The questions do not test academic knowledge and do not require any special understanding of science. Furthermore training and practice in the test items is neither necessary nor advantageous.

Sample questions other than those shown on this web-site are NOT available.