Pymetrics assessment: games, traits and preparation

The Pymetrics assessment uses short neuroscience-based games to observe behavioural attributes such as attention, decision-making, risk tolerance and emotional intelligence. Pymetrics now sits within Harver’s assessment platform, but candidates still commonly see and search the Pymetrics name.

Learn common mechanics before assessment day without pretending practice reproduces employer scoring. Try game-based practice

What to focus on first

Common traps

• Looking for a magic number of balloon pumps. A copied rule cannot represent every role or scoring model.
• Changing personality mid-game. Over-strategising can make behaviour less coherent.
• Treating instructions as decoration. Confusing the mechanic contaminates the data from the first round.

How to practise from here

Do one untimed mechanics pass for each game family, then one focused realistic pass. Stop once the controls feel familiar; endless repetition can turn familiarisation into artificial strategy.

What the current Pymetrics assessment measures

Harver’s current Pymetrics page names effort, risk tolerance, decision-making, attention, focus, learning, fairness, generosity and emotion. The platform records many gameplay decisions and uses them to build a behavioural profile. That is different from a numerical test where each item has one objectively correct answer.

What the candidate experience is like

Harver describes more than 12 interactive, gamified experiences and an average completion time of approximately 25 minutes. The tasks are designed to be nonverbal and intuitive. An employer may combine them with interviews, cognitive tests or other assessments, so follow the actual invitation rather than assuming every Pymetrics journey is identical.

Common Pymetrics game families

Risk and reward

Balloon or repeated-choice tasks create a trade-off between banking a smaller outcome and continuing for a larger but uncertain reward. They can reveal how behaviour changes after gains and losses—not just the final total.

Attention and inhibition

You respond to a target signal and withhold a response to another. Rushing produces false alarms; excessive caution produces missed targets. Read the instruction and establish a controlled rhythm before chasing speed.

Effort and persistence

Repetitive actions may offer changing rewards. The system can observe how much effort you allocate, when you stop and whether your behaviour changes when the payoff becomes less attractive.

Fairness, trust and generosity

Exchange or allocation tasks ask you to divide resources or respond to another participant’s apparent behaviour. There is no universal instruction to be maximally generous or maximally guarded.

Emotion and social perception

Some tasks involve recognising emotional information. These can include accuracy-based elements, but the full assessment still looks at a broader pattern than one game score.

How to prepare responsibly

1. Learn the mechanic. Know what starts, ends and resets each round.
2. Use the practice instructions. Confirm whether speed, accuracy or both matter to the task.
3. Prepare your environment. Remove notifications and use a reliable device and connection.
4. Be rested. Fatigue directly affects attention, reaction time and working memory.
5. Respond consistently. Do not keep changing strategy to imitate imagined ideal profiles.

Pymetrics practice versus cognitive test practice

Cognitive questions reward learning a method and reaching a correct answer. Pymetrics familiarisation is different: you learn the interface and reduce anxiety, but you should not memorise a supposedly desirable behavioural profile. If your process also includes SHL or Aon reasoning, prepare that separately through the cognitive ability tests guide.

Source notes

Current product details come from Harver’s official Pymetrics gamified assessments page, which describes 12+ experiences, an average 25-minute completion time and attributes including effort, attention, risk tolerance, fairness and emotion. Employer configurations can change.

Frequently asked questions