How the EPP works
The EPP asks how accurately each of 140 statements describes you on a typical day when you are performing well. You answer on a five-point scale: Always true, Mostly true, Sometimes true and sometimes false, Mostly false, or Always false. There is no time limit.
It is built on the Big Five model of personality and reports 12 traits. Criteria describes it as a general personality assessment that can be used for most positions, and like its other tests it runs on any device.
How results are reported
Employers get a percentile for each of the 12 traits and a set of job-specific benchmarks: match scores estimating how closely your profile fits different job families. In Criteria’s sample report, one candidate matches the Analysis, Planning and Consulting family at 67%. The report also suggests interview questions, based on your answers and the needs of the chosen job family.
A validity and response style section checks how you answered. Inconsistent Responding shows whether you paid attention to what the statements meant or answered carelessly. Self-Enhancing and Self-Critical show a tendency to present yourself unusually positively or negatively, and Criteria says adjustments may be made to scores on that basis.
Employers can also choose to send you a Workplace Insights Report with feedback on your profile. Criteria’s norm group for the EPP is 1,375 people, and the reliabilities (alpha) of its 12 trait scales range from .66 to .88.
How to approach it
Answer for how you are at work on a good day, which is the frame Criteria sets. Read each statement for what it means rather than skimming for keywords, because careless answers show up on the Inconsistent Responding scale. A profile that claims every strength is what the Self-Enhancing scale is there to notice, so answering to a guessed ideal carries a visible risk.
How our practice version works
Our EPP practice uses 84 statements, seven for each of the same 12 traits, rather than Criteria’s 140. It uses an agree and disagree scale, from Strongly disagree to Strongly agree, instead of Criteria’s Always true to Always false wording, and some statements are reverse-worded. It is untimed.
Alongside your trait profile it reports two checks on how you answered: how much of the scale you used and your longest run of identical answers. It does not reproduce Criteria’s validity scales or its job-family match scores.