TestGorilla vs. McQuaig

Pre-employment assessments are a more effective way of shortlisting candidates than traditional resumes and save enormous time compared to in-person interviews. 

Skills-based tests can quickly assess your candidates’ cognitive abilities, cultural fit, job-specific skills, and more.

Read on for an in-depth comparison of two leading pre-employment testing providers, TestGorilla and McQuaig. We’ll look at test libraries, quality control, pricing, and other important factors to help you decide which one’s best for your business.

How does TestGorilla work?

TestGorilla offers a huge variety of 400+ scientifically validated tests to assess the skills and traits that are critical to your job role. 

Our tests cover personality and culture add, cognitive and language abilities, software and programming skills, and much more.

The candidate assessment journey is super smooth. Candidates can use any device with internet access to complete their assessments. You can either send the assessments straight to them or include a public link in your job posting.

Applicants simply click a link in your invitation and get started. Plus, tests are quick at 10-15 minutes each, supporting a positive candidate experience. 

Finally, our reports and analytics provide key data that gives you the confidence to make unbiased hiring decisions. You can easily check each individual’s scores and strengths while tracking overall assessment statistics.

How does McQuaig work?

McQuaig is a science-backed HR solution that offers pre-employment tests and surveys that measure candidates’ personalities and cognitive thinking skills:

• Word Survey: Measures a candidate's behavioral traits and temperament

• Mental Agility Test: Assesses how candidates think and solve problems

• Job Survey: Creates an ideal personality profile for a specific job role, identifying ideal behavioral traits and characteristics 

In addition, there are two internal tools to help your team create job profile benchmarks and develop your workforce’s skills.

You can’t customize any questions in McQuaig’s tests. But, McQuaig’s reports are very comprehensive and help predict future performance.

TestGorilla vs. McQuaig: Test libraries

A pre-employment testing provider’s library is its biggest asset. The larger it is, the greater the variety of skills and behaviors you can test your candidates on. 

Additionally, the ability to customize tests and questions means you can make the assessment even more relevant to your company and role.

TestGorilla’s test library

Our test library has 400+ tests and counting, across categories including:

• Cognitive ability

• Language

• Personality and culture

• Programming skills

• Role-specific skills

• Situational judgment

• Software skills

TestGorilla even recommends relevant tests for each job role you type in. You can add up to five tests per assessment and choose answer formats including essay, multiple-choice, and file upload.

Custom questions and tests mean you can make the assessment even more specific to the role you’re hiring for. 

And, if your team hires globally, you can use our localized assessments in 12 languages.

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McQuaig’s test library

The McQuaig test library includes two comprehensive pre-employment tests:

• The Word Survey: A personality test that analyzes how a candidate’s temperament influences their behavior at work. Applicants are assigned one of six profiles: Generalist, Pioneer, Administrator, Specialist, Cooperator, or Enthusiast.

• The Mental Agility Test: This test measures speed of thought and “intelligence” as defined by job requirements. Its questions cover basic math, vocabulary, and verbal reasoning.

Separately, The Job Survey is an internal tool that helps you define the skills and traits for individual roles. In addition, the Comparison Report helps you assess applicants’ profiles side by side. Both tools make it easier to benchmark candidates. 

Recruiters can hire globally with McQuaig, with tests available in over 15 languages. However, reports are available in English, French, German, and Portuguese only. And users can’t customize the tests or questions.

Test libraries: Comparison chart at a glance

TestGorilla vs. McQuaig: Functionalities for hiring developers

To ensure you hire the right developers for your business, it’s essential to test applicants’ programming and software skills.

Look for pre-employment testing solutions that can measure candidates’ coding language familiarity and knowledge of specific programs and frameworks.

Hiring developers with TestGorilla

Testing developers with TestGorilla is super straightforward. We have more than 140 programming and related skills tests, including 20+ coding languages like Java, Python, Ruby, and Go.

Candidates also have the option to choose from up to 20 different coding languages in our language-agnostic coding test. This way, they can work in the language they’re comfortable with.

You can also test candidates’ abilities related to frameworks like Google Cloud Platform and mobile-development frameworks, game engines like Unity, and platforms like WordPress and IBM Watson. 

We also provide AI-related skills tests, like our new Working with Generative AI test and AI Product Manager test. 

One particular advantage is being able to create your own coding and debugging challenges to see how candidates solve day-to-day business problems. You can even rewatch candidates’ responses with our coding timeline feature to see exactly how they work.

Plus, TestGorilla automatically scores developer tests, taking the bias out of the recruitment process and making it easy for you to identify top performers.

Hiring developers with McQuaig

McQuaig is a personality and cognitive ability assessment platform, and as such it doesn’t offer any tests to help hire developers.

Functionalities for hiring developers: Comparison chart at a glance

TestGorilla vs. McQuaig: Video interviews

Video interviews are an incredibly convenient tool. You can remotely test candidates’ responses to key questions and play back their answers on your own time.

They’re also a great way to learn a little more about your candidate’s personality, communication style, and attitude.

TestGorilla’s video interviews

TestGorilla’s one-way video interviews offer you flexibility in the recruitment process with completely custom questions. We even show you how many attempts the candidate made for each question, with a three-attempt maximum.

For added convenience, you can record and rewatch video interviews on any device and even limit the answer length to 30, 60, or 120 seconds. Our playback speed control feature lets you speed up or slow down your review process to fit your needs. 

Your HR team and hiring managers can evaluate candidates collaboratively by leaving ratings and comments.

McQuaig’s video interviews

McQuaig doesn’t include tools for managing video interviews.

However, a separate tool called the Job Fit Interview Guide can suggest interview questions, outline a job-candidate comparison, and provide pre- and post-interview checklists. 

In addition, The Word Survey reports recommend interview questions based on personality profiles.

Video interviews: Comparison chart at a glance

TestGorilla vs. McQuaig: Candidate experience and company branding

A smooth hiring experience means top candidates are more likely to complete your assessment and accept your job offer.

Tests that are quick to complete and mobile-friendly can contribute to a positive experience. 

The candidate experience with TestGorilla

Most TestGorilla tests take 10-15 minutes to complete, so candidates can fit them in easily.

Furthermore, applicants can take their assessment from any device with internet connection and don’t need to create a TestGorilla account, making the experience more convenient. Candidates taking assessments in English are redirected to set up an account upon completion, which enables them to view their results. But you also have the option to share all candidates’ results with them manually. 

You can add your company logo, brand colors, and a personalized message at the beginning or end – so applicants feel they’re engaging with real people instead of just a brand.

Our configurable integrated development environment (IDE) enables developer candidates to customize their workstation for coding tests according to their preferences. They can adjust elements like font size and color scheme to match their needs.

Additionally, each candidate has the opportunity to complete a practice question to get comfortable with the platform before starting the actual test.

What’s more, our support team is on hand if any candidates experience issues during their assessment.

The candidate experience with McQuaig

Candidates can take McQuaig tests from any device thanks to its mobile-friendly platform. However, it’s unclear if they must create an account beforehand.

Tests typically take 10-20 minutes to complete. However, the Mental Agility Test has a 15-minute time limit with 50 multiple-choice questions, giving candidates approximately 18 seconds per question, which can create a high-pressure testing environment. 

Limited branding options are available, including the ability to add a company logo to assessment pages, emails, and internal-facing reports. Unfortunately, there aren’t candidate support features to help them with assessment prep or completion.

Candidate experience and company branding: Comparison chart at a glance

TestGorilla vs. McQuaig: Enterprise and startup friendliness

Organizations prioritize different features in their pre-employment assessments depending on their size and stage of growth. 

Startups are typically more budget-conscious and need custom questions for unique job roles. Larger businesses, however, may need more assessments and an API to integrate with their existing tech setup.

TestGorilla’s enterprise and startup friendliness

Small and large businesses alike can meet their assessment needs with TestGorilla.

Our free forever plan will especially appeal to small businesses without much budget. And growing businesses will love to know that our pain plans scale according to the size of your business.

And if you’re hiring across multiple roles for an enterprise, performing bulk actions and candidate invitations saves time. Assign different roles and permissions for each team member, integrate with many ATSs, and use our API to sync with your internal apps. Feel secure knowing that TestGorilla is also completely GDPR compliant. You can send public links to candidates through email or include them in your online job postings. This lets you track which links attract the top talent, helping you target the best candidates for future job openings. You can post your job openings on our job board and make use of our pre-made, skills-based job description templates, which are perfect for companies looking to expand.

McQuaig’s enterprise and startup friendliness

McQuaig offers several enterprise-friendly features, such as third-party ATS integrations via an API key and bulk assessment invitations using a CSV file. McQuaig is also fully GDPR compliant.

However, it’s unclear if you can easily view all candidate results and their status in the hiring process in one place. And, though reports are highly detailed, users can only view one at a time, which may be inconvenient for big businesses. 

Unfortunately, you can’t personalize your tests with custom questions, which is a particular drawback for smaller businesses with niche roles to fill.

Enterprise and startup friendliness: Comparison chart at a glance

TestGorilla vs. McQuaig: Quality control

Pre-employment assessment providers often have a quality-control process in place to ensure tests remain relevant and accurate. 

This process often includes regularly improving or replacing test questions according to expert reviews and candidate feedback.

TestGorilla’s quality-control processes

TestGorilla’s quality-control is based on science. 

Our team of industry experts regularly checks our pool of questions, and there’s a 28-step process – including subject-matter expert checks and peer reviews – before each new test goes live.

To make sure every candidate gets different questions, each test includes more than 100 questions that rotate. And to keep things fresh, we replace questions after a certain number of uses.

Our internal algorithms also track useful candidate data including time taken per question and success rates. This helps identify potential issues, like a question being too hard to understand. In addition, TestGorilla relies on user and candidate feedback to make sure our tests continue to be easy to use and accurate for each role. 

McQuaig’s quality-control processes

McQuaig assessments draw from proprietary R&D into industrial psychology. They’re also compliant with the United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) guidelines.

Statistical analysis ensures McQuaig’s tests assess the intended traits and that results are reliable over time. For example, it checks correlations between different answers to continuously improve the way it describes personalities.

It’s not clear whether McQuaig randomizes test questions or replaces them after reaching an exposure limit.

Quality control: Comparison chart at a glance

TestGorilla vs. McQuaig: Anti-cheating measures

Conducting pre-employment testing online and remotely makes it possible for candidates to attempt to cheat, either by looking up answers in real time or sharing questions with others. 

Embedding anti-cheating measures in tests makes assessment results more reliable, meaning you hire only genuinely qualified candidates. 

TestGorilla’s anti-cheating measures

TestGorilla minimizes cheating attempts on assessments with a number of features:

• Randomized questions from a pool of 100+ for each test

• Time limits of about 10 minutes per test (with some coding tests lasting 30 minutes)

• Disabling copy-pasting 

• Alerts if candidates exit full-screen mode 

• Webcam snapshots during assessments (with candidate permission)

• IP-address logging

• Candidate locating tracking

Also, questions and answers are hidden from employers to help maintain test integrity and prevent leaks.

McQuaig’s anti-cheating measures

McQuaig doesn’t specify which anti-cheating features it uses in assessments.

That said, The Word Survey and The Mental Agility Test have relatively short time limits, making it implausible to cheat and still finish on time.

Anti-cheating measures: Comparison chart at a glance

TestGorilla vs. McQuaig: Reporting and analytics

Assessment reports enable you to gain a clear overall picture of each candidate’s strengths and weaknesses across the assessment. 

It’s useful to be able to export these reports in PDF and XLSX formats to share with your hiring team for further analysis.

TestGorilla’s reporting and analytics features

TestGorilla provides clear, easy-to-understand reports on each applicant’s individual results – and benchmarks these against your entire historical candidate pool. 

You can easily view each applicant’s scores for each test and compare these with other applicants.

The results present the data in a straightforward, numerical way, so you can easily see who the top performers are and make unbiased recruitment decisions. 

You and your team members can also add their ratings and comments to reports. Then, export the reports as a PDF, XLSX, or CSV file to continue analyzing the results offline.

With our PDF reports, you get an in-depth look at candidates' strengths and weaknesses. These results look different for different test types. For skill tests, results are broken down by specific skill areas. For personality tests, results include the candidate’s personality type, a summary, and more.  Sharing these results with your team is simple and efficient. 

Our customizable weighted scoring allows you to determine how much each test impacts the overall score, ensuring that the most critical tests for your role have the greatest influence.

Additionally, we provide filters to simplify candidate comparisons. You can evaluate candidates based on test scores, responses to custom questions, answers to specific question types, and more.

McQuaig’s reporting and analytics features

Each McQuaig test has a different report structure. 

The Word Survey includes five reports that detail the candidate’s personality profile, including leadership and selling style, motivating factors, and team approach. 

The Mental Agility Test results include the applicant’s overall score, time taken, percentile ranking, and category, ranging from “below average” to “exceptionally high.”

In addition, you can use The Job Survey and The Comparison Report to benchmark a candidate’s results against the job profile or another candidate.

There are some customization options for reports. For instance, you can select the language, choose to display a table of contents, and opt for a print-friendly report. You can also choose to add recommended interview questions.

Reports are downloadable with a shareable link via email. But it’s unclear if reports are exportable as PDF, XLSX, or CSV files. 

Users can opt for a high-level overview of the Word Survey Report, called an Executive Summary Report – but they can’t add their own scores or comments to reports.

Reporting and analytics: Comparison chart at a glance

TestGorilla vs. McQuaig: Customer support

You need to know you’re in safe hands when you have questions about your assessments. Many providers offer email and live chat support, and some have informative online help centers.

TestGorilla’s customer support

Every new TestGorilla customer receives free training and onboarding. You can also reach our support team by email and live chat – and by submitting a ticket on our website.

Plus, we have an extensive help center and FAQ section, where you can get useful tips on every feature of the platform. Our blog is packed with useful information, including regular product updates and detailed how-to guides. Whether you need tips on hiring for specific roles or insights into skills-based assessments, you'll find it all there.

McQuaig’s customer support

You can reach McQuaig’s customer support team by email, online request, and phone. An extensive FAQ section and client-only knowledge center are also available. 

McQuaig also offers an extensive blog and resource center containing assessment guides and webinars. 

Onboarding and success planning come with all plans, helping you get the most out of the product from day one.

Customer support: Comparison chart at a glance

TestGorilla vs. McQuaig: Pricing

Many pre-employment assessment solutions charge either an annual or monthly subscription, but some offer pay-as-you-go models or even free plans.

For an extra fee, you can usually add assessments or candidate credits, and bonus features like video interviews.

TestGorilla’s pricing

TestGorilla offers three pricing plans to suit your needs:

• Free Forever at $0: Grants full access to five tests, five custom questions, and additional features and is suitable for businesses of any size

• Starter from $75 per month: Unlocks the entire test library and allows for unlimited concurrent assessments

• Pro from $115 per month: Includes everything in the Starter plan plus extra perks like video questions, ATS integrations, API access, and options for custom branding

Our pricing adjusts based on the number of full-time equivalent employees (FTEs) in your organization. For example, two part-time employees whose combined hours equal full-time hours count as one FTE.

For companies with 1-15 FTEs, an annual subscription is required. Larger teams can opt for monthly pricing, with costs varying by team size. For example, a company with 16-30 FTEs will pay $120 per month for the Starter plan, while one with 31-50 FTEs will pay $208 per month, and so forth.

All our plans include unlimited candidate testing and account users, plus access to our job board.

We also provide a free trial, letting you try out our features with no obligation.

McQuaig’s pricing

McQuaig offers several plans that include learning and development tools for your workforce, as well as assessments. If you’re looking to screen applicants only, the Basic and Starter memberships will suffice.

McQuaig doesn’t offer a free plan.

The paid plans are:

• Hire and Retain Basic: Contains three different pricing options: New Hire Pack ($1,250 for 90 days), 10 Pack ($2,500 for one year), 25 Pack ($4,900 for one year). Offers access to assessments, reports, and full technical support

• Hire and Retain: Contact McQuaig for pricing. Contains everything in the basic plan plus CSM planning and full access to hiring workflows

• Collaborate: Contact McQuaig for pricing. Doesn’t include access to assessments or benchmarks – only features like CSM planning and reports

• Full Talent Management: Contact McQuaig for pricing. Contains all features from each plan

Pricing: Comparison chart at a glance

TestGorilla vs. McQuaig: Ease of use

An intuitive UX not only helps the hiring team set up assessments easily but also increases test completion.

A well-designed platform is easy to navigate and provides enough information without being overwhelming.

TestGorilla’s ease of use

TestGorilla is designed to be a user-friendly platform for all users.

Our reporting section helps you understand and compare your candidates’ results easily, taking selected applicants to the next stage without delay. And our new features, like test previews and personalized test recommendations, streamline the process of finding and creating assessments tailored to specific roles. 

For instance, when you set up an assessment and choose a job role, the system suggests relevant tests that best suit your needs.

Creating new assessments is also extremely straightforward. You can choose from suggested tests based on job title, search the test library, or even create your own tests or questions in very little time.

Assessments are also short, encouraging candidates to see them through right to the end.

Why TestGorilla excels in candidate screening

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McQuaig’s ease of use

McQuaig’s tests are preset, so the setup is very simple and easy to use. The downside is you can’t customize tests to suit the role or your organization, which could make them simpler to administer but less flexible for your specific needs. 

Assessment reports are easy to understand, with the candidate profile and result interpretation clearly broken down into headings and aided by visuals. And McQuaig’s easy integrations with ATSs can streamline the process of sending assessments and receiving results.

Conclusion: TestGorilla vs. McQuaig 

Both TestGorilla and McQuaig offer personality and cognitive ability pre-employment tests. But TestGorilla’s library of 400+ tests also cover culture add, job-specific skills, motivation, and software and programming. 

Also, you can’t customize questions or tests on McQuaig, whereas with TestGorilla you can add up to 20 custom questions per assessment. TestGorilla also offers video interviews, while McQuaig doesn’t. 

McQuaig’s test reports are highly detailed and even contain interview question recommendations. However, you don’t seem to get the same high-level view of all candidate results as you do with TestGorilla, and it's unclear which file types McQuaig supports for transferring and sharing these results with team members and candidates. 

Both McQuaig and TestGorilla have a rigorous quality-control process, but while TestGorilla also enforces tough anti-cheating measures, McQuaig doesn’t appear to – or isn’t transparent about its processes for preventing cheating.

Finally, TestGorilla is the more affordable solution with its transparent pricing and the Free-forever plan.

Streamline your hiring process with pre-employment testing 

Using pre-employment assessments during your hiring process can help you find the right candidates for your role quickly and reliably – especially compared with traditional resumes screening.

These assessments spotlight your applicants’ key skills, behavioral traits, and overall fit for the role. This means you’ll have fewer surprises from your new hires and lower turnover over time.

Get started today with TestGorilla to benefit from a wide range of tests, in-depth assessment reports, and a great candidate testing experience. Sign up for a free plan or give it a test drive with our free 45-minute live demo.