What the predictive index behavioral assessment measures
The predictive index behavioral assessment is 1 of 2 tests sold under the Predictive Index name. It is an untimed adjective checklist, about 6 minutes, covering 4 workplace drives. The separate PI Cognitive Assessment is 50 questions in 12 minutes. Employers compare both against a target set for the role.
The short version, before the detail
- It is a self-description, not a quiz. There is nothing to revise and no pass mark
- 2 questions, each a list of 86 adjectives. Pick fewer than 6 and the result is void
- It reports 4 drives plus Objectivity, compared within you rather than against other people
- The 17 Reference Profile names are labels, and PI says they must not drive hiring decisions
- The timed 50 question test people also call PI is a separate assessment
What is a predictive index behavioral assessment?
Predictive Index Behavioral Assessment An untimed adjective checklist from the vendor The Predictive Index. It asks 2 questions, each showing a list of 86 adjectives, and reports 4 workplace drives plus a decision-making lens called Objectivity.
A link lands in your inbox after you apply. Question 1 asks which adjectives describe how others expect you to act. Question 2 asks which really describe you. PI says it averages 6 minutes, and no clock is running.
One test, many names
People search this as the predictive index assessment test, the PI index test, a predictive index survey and a predictive index personality test. All 4 names point at the behavioural half described here.
What happens when you take the PI behavioral assessment
- Question 1, the Self-Concept list You tick every adjective you feel describes the way you are expected to act by others. PI's name for this is Self-Concept.
- Question 2, the Self list The same 86 adjectives again. This time you tick the ones you feel really describe you. PI's name for this is Self. The gap between the 2 lists is part of what the report reads.
- Tick at least 6, and no more than 79 PI states the assessment only functions properly with a minimum of 6 words chosen per list. Fewer than 6 on either question and the results are not valid. The ceiling is 79 per question.
- Stop when you run out, not when the clock does There is no time limit. PI reports an average of 6 minutes, which is a description of how long people take, not a target to hit.
- The report goes to the employer, not to you Factor scores and a behavioural pattern come back to whoever sent the link. Some employers share the report with candidates and some do not. Asking for it is reasonable.
What does the predictive index measure? The 4 drives and Objectivity
Dominance: "the drive to exert one's influence on people or events"
Independence, challenges, and opportunities to compete
Encouragement, reassurance, and harmony
Extraversion: "the drive for social interaction with others"
Interaction, social acceptance, and connection with others
Privacy, time to think, and room for reflection
Patience: "the drive for consistency and stability"
Long-term affiliation, a steady pace, and consistency
Variety, change, and freedom from repetition
Formality: "the drive to conform to rules or structure"
Specific job knowledge, freedom from risk or error, and clear expectations
Flexibility, freedom from rules, and the ability to delegate details
Objectivity, which PI treats as a secondary factor rather than a drive
To examine facts, check sources, and look to the data
To weigh subjective feeling alongside the evidence on hand
The one thing almost everyone misreads
PI states that scores on the behavioural assessment represent relative differences within people rather than between people. The focus, in its words, is not how one person's personality compares to other people, but the relative dominance of how they express the factors themselves.
So a high Patience score means Patience pulls harder on you than your other 3 drives do. It does not mean you are more patient than the next candidate. Factors are plotted on a sigma scale, where 1 sigma is 1 standard deviation from the norm sample average.
The 17 Reference Profiles, which people search as PI index types
- Analytical: Analyzer, Controller, Specialist, Strategist, Venturer
- Social: Altruist, Captain, Collaborator, Maverick, Persuader, Promoter
- Stabilizing: Adapter, Artisan, Guardian, Operator
- Persistent: Individualist, Scholar
- The factor scores and the behavioural pattern underneath are the real output
- No profile outranks another, and no job requires a particular one
- 2 people with the same profile name can have visibly different factor charts
Reference Profiles "do not represent a validated output on which decisions should be based", PI writes. They "are not used for fit calculations, and they should not be used to make hiring decisions."
The predictive index behavioral assessment vs the cognitive one
| PI Behavioral Assessment | PI Cognitive Assessment | |
|---|---|---|
| The question it answers | How does this person tend to work? | How quickly can this person be expected to pick things up? |
| Format | 2 questions, each a list of 86 adjectives you tick | 50 multiple-choice questions across verbal, numerical and abstract reasoning |
| Clock | Untimed. PI reports an average of 6 minutes | 12 minutes. Extended-time versions run 18 or 24 minutes on the same score scale |
| Right answers | None at all. It is a self-description | Yes. The scaled score is built from the items answered correctly |
| What comes back | 4 factor scores, a behavioural pattern, and 1 of 17 Reference Profile names | A scaled score, referenced against a general population norm whose average is 250 |
| Can it be prepared for | No. Answering as the person you think they want describes someone who is not you | PI says each taker draws a different item set, so no 2 people sit the same paper |
How predictive index scores and results work
Behavioural results are not a number out of anything. They are 4 factor positions and a pattern, which a hiring team compares against a behavioural target set for the role. That comparison produces a match score from 1 to 10. Behavioural and cognitive matches are calculated separately, so 2 different numbers reach the same recruiter.
Cognitive results are a scaled score. PI restricts how the rest of that report may be used: only the scaled score at the top is intended for talent decision-making, and it states subscores "are not valid or reliable enough to support any hiring decisions". On the cognitive side, a score at or above the target scores a 10, with no penalty for going further past it.
A predicted tendency is not a verified claim
A scorecard from a live interview: each criterion scored out of 5, and resume claims marked against the evidence.
PI says behavioural results stay reasonably stable for 6 to 8 years. That is the point of the instrument: it describes tendency. It cannot tell you whether a line on a resume happened. On The Cognitive, a live AI interview scores each criterion against a rubric fixed for the role and marks resume claims verified, refuted or unclear.
How to use the Predictive Index in a hiring process
- Agree what the role needs first PI's Job Assessment can be completed by a single user or taken collaboratively by a team of stakeholders. Do it with people who actually know the work, and do it before a candidate result exists.
- Turn that into a Job Target The Job Assessment produces a job target, which PI describes as the guide to making a great hire. A cognitive target is separate and optional. PI urges clients never to set 1 baseline cognitive target across every role.
- Send the assessments Candidates take the behavioural assessment, untimed and about 6 minutes, and the cognitive one where the role uses it. Offer the extended-time version where a candidate needs an accommodation.
- Read the match, not a cutoff Matches run 1 to 10 against the targets. PI's published position is plain: it does not recommend the use of cutoff scores for either assessment.
- Spend the interview on the gaps A low behavioural match is a list of things to ask about, not a reason to cancel the conversation. Write the questions the result raises, and score the answers against the role's criteria.
Using PI assessment results fairly
Do
- Match against a job target rather than a cutoff, which PI does not recommend for either test
- Use the scaled score at the top of the cognitive report, and nothing below it
- Treat the result as an input to an interview, never a replacement for one
- Offer the extended-time cognitive version where a candidate needs an accommodation
Do not
- Screening people out on the name of a Reference Profile
- Reading anything into the cognitive subscores, which PI says cannot support hiring decisions
- Setting 1 baseline cognitive target and applying it to every open role
- Treating a 6 minute self-description as proof of what someone has done
Where employment law sits on hiring tests
- The EEOC adopted the Uniform Guidelines on Employee Selection Procedures in 1978, under Title VII
- A test that disproportionately excludes a protected group must be job-related and consistent with business necessity
- Under the ADA, employers must make reasonable accommodations in how tests are administered
- The EEOC advises validating a test for the positions and purposes it is used for
- This is general information about published guidance, not legal advice for your process
What the evidence supports, and what it does not
Predictive index reviews split into believers and debunkers, and PI's own numbers sit between them. Its validity documentation reports approximately 400 studies since 1992, says 94 percent found behavioural scores significantly associated with measures of job performance, and gives the average criterion validity coefficient in those significant tests as r equals 0.30. That is a modest association, not a verdict on a person.
It measures drives. It does not measure skill, experience, or whether a claim on a resume is true, and PI does not present it as doing so. Everything about what a candidate has actually built, shipped or run has to come from somewhere else in your process.
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Frequently asked questions
What is a predictive index behavioral assessment, or PI behavioral assessment test?
It is an untimed adjective checklist from the vendor The Predictive Index. It asks 2 questions, each showing a list of 86 adjectives: the first for words describing how you are expected to act by others, the second for words that really describe you. PI says it averages 6 minutes. Choosing fewer than 6 adjectives on a question invalidates the result.
What does the predictive index measure?
The behavioural assessment measures 4 drives: Dominance, Extraversion, Patience and Formality, plus Objectivity, which PI treats as a secondary factor about decision-making style. The separate cognitive assessment measures the capacity to learn, adapt and grasp new concepts, which PI frames as how fast someone can be expected to acquire new knowledge.
What is the PI cognitive assessment, or predictive cognitive assessment?
A timed test of 50 multiple-choice questions in 12 minutes. PI publishes the maximum items per category as 16 verbal, 18 numerical and 16 abstract reasoning. Extended-time versions run 18 or 24 minutes as an accommodation and are reported on the same score scale. PI says each taker draws a different set of items.
Can you fail a predictive index test, and what is a PI test anyway?
There is no pass mark. PI states plainly that it does not recommend the use of cutoff scores for either assessment. The behavioural half has no right answers at all, since it is a self-description. What an employer sees is a degree of match against a target set for the role, not a result you passed or failed.
What is a good predictive index score, and how do you read PI test results?
There is no universal good score. Behavioural results are factor positions compared with the role's target, not a mark out of anything. Cognitive results come back as a scaled score referenced against a general population norm whose average is 250, then matched to the role's target from 1 to 10, where a score at or above the target scores a 10.
How to use predictive index in hiring process, and how does the predictive index work?
Start with the predictive index job assessment, which PI says can be completed by a single user or taken collaboratively by a team of stakeholders, and which produces a job target. Candidates then take the assessments, and behavioural and cognitive matches are scored separately against the targets. PI's guidance is to shape interview questions from the result rather than filter people out with a cutoff.
What are the predictive index types?
There are 17 Reference Profiles in 4 groups: Analytical, Social, Stabilizing and Persistent. PI describes a profile as shorthand for a region of the factor chart, and states that profiles are not a validated output on which decisions should be based and should not be used to make hiring decisions. The factor scores underneath are the real result.
Is there a free predictive index test, and where are the predictive index answers?
PI states the behavioral assessment is free and takes six minutes, and invites visitors to try it on its own site, so a search for a free PI test or a predictive index free assessment is best pointed at the vendor. Practice packs sold elsewhere are not from PI. There are no correct answers to look up: it is a self-description, not a quiz.
How much does the predictive index cost?
PI sells an annual subscription priced by company headcount rather than per assessment, and publishes its plan structure on its own pricing page. Plan names and prices change, so check the vendor's current pricing page rather than any figure quoted second hand elsewhere.
Is there a predictive index behavioral assessment for healthcare roles?
There is 1 behavioural assessment, not a separate version per industry. What changes between a nursing role and a sales role is the job target that stakeholders define for the role, and candidates are matched against that. PI does not publish healthcare-specific norms for the behavioural assessment.
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