Psychologists and educationists have made tenacious efforts in examining human behavior to better assimilate the characteristics of behavior and direct it to the well-being of man and his community. In course of time, scholars and researchers have developed an objective and standardized measure of a sample of behavior of the human personality, including physical, mental or emotional aspects. The fact is that as far as the methods and tools of measurement – backed by psychometrics- are accurate we can pinpoint the positive and productive aspects in the individual for further enhancement , as well as identifying the points of weakens to treat, so an individual can build compatibility and balance within himself and his community.

When the mentor/instructor performs his duties and roles as prescribed by his profession, and while interacting with his students; he becomes interested in their behavior, aptitudes, orientations, educational achievements and everything they can excel at future; in order to achieve the goals of education and discipline. In this context, a mentor finds himself committed to make decisions that are not intuition-based, subjective or biased emanating from his imprecise personal observation, but rather must be based on scientific methods in selecting students, classifying them, diagnosing their behaviors and encouraging them. Stemming from this standpoint of importance; educationists, mentors and all specialists involved in education must accumulate the basic knowledge, procedural skills and necessary competencies related to psychological measurement and testing-or the domain of psychometrics.

Given the importance of psychometrics as a modern discipline that focuses on techniques for measuring and evaluating students in instructional institutions, by unfolding their attributes psychological symptom scales, and personality tests and IQ classification. We shall , elucidate, in this paper the theories of psychological measurement and testing, their importance, types, and approaches and what they can add to educators in improving cognitive capacities and skills.

The Concept of Educational and Psychological Measurement:

By applying the standards of educational and psychological measurement, we can measure the characteristics of the individual in a quantitative manner according to strictly defined rules and using numbers or symbols, but the characteristics of the individual cannot be measured directly, yet we can infer them from the observed patterns of behavior, because we cannot definitely measure an individual outright, but we are interested in measuring some of his traits and attributes that contribute to taking a decision and figuring out an observation. Such traits may be relevant to physical and physiological nature on one hand or psychological, mental and emotional nature on the other hand. The Educational and Psychological Measurement is an organized procedure that contains a set of stimuli (questions or expressions) developed to measure a sample of behavior, some mental data and psychological characteristics in a quantitative or qualitative manner, and these stimuli lead to the creation of responses on the basis of which the individual is granted a certain degree. In other words, it is a measuring tool designed to obtain an objective measurement of a sample of behavior in order to balance an individual's performance with a specific standard or level of performance.

Purposes of psychological testing and measurements:

1. Description (survey): assembling all the capabilities of an individual or a sample of individuals to be employed in a better way.

2. Diagnosis: Based on the students ’scores in tests and scoress, we can figure out the strengths and weaknesses of each student, and work to strengthen the strengths and mend weaknesses.

3. Prediction: Based on assimilation for individual capabilities, we can direct them towards studying or aspire a career in which the probability of success is higher, or predicting how individuals behave in a different situation.

The importance of psychological measurements:

1. Scouting skilled, adept, creative, genius people and those talented with extraordinary and mental abilities; as they are considered human wealth, that need to be advocated, and invested for a brilliant society, in a manner that ensures their continued superiority and the incessant use of their faculties to the fullest extent possible.

2. Discovering cases of scholastic backwardness and examining the mental and achievement factors and causes, whereby the weaknesses of each student are identified, and to ensure he is given the appropriate treatment plan; this helps vulnerable students to regain confidence.

3. Provision of psychology counseling to students during their academic progress, by delving into the grounds that produced challenging problems, and helping students solve them in the future, and directing them to specializations and professions that may fit their abilities, aptitudes and readiness and patterns of personalities.

4. Assist educationists and people involved in instructional process in classifying students into homogeneous groups according to their mental capabilities and psychological aptitudes; in order to take into account the individual differences among them, and in order to divide them into homogeneous classes or groups, some are devoted to the excelling students, others to the intermediate, and the other to the slow learner students. Eventually, each group proceeds with learning at an appropriate pace.

5. Classify students when enrolling in schools, where some tests and measures are taken to ensure that students are able to pass successfully in the following academic levels; this counts on the predictive value of psychological metrics.

Facts and basics about psychological testing and measurement:

- Psychological testing may not provide an answer to every quest, but rather provide information about partial areas of personality such as attributes, skills, abilities, and patterns of behavior.

- The psychological test is used only after it proves validity and credibility.

- Psychological testing, and its relevant interpretations and conclusions are only carried out by pundits.

- The results of psychological measurements must be kept strictly confidential and are only visible to insiders and those concerned with them.

- It is always recommended to rely on more than one test result to ensure the reliability of conclusions.

- When responding to any psychological tests far from pundits and specialist, it is highly recommended to read the guide that explains its purpose, mechanism of application, correction key, and how to construe the results.

The parameters of sound psychological measurement:

Standardization: Means that the construct of the test, its correction, and the interpretation of its conclusions are based on recurrent specific rules.

Objectivity: It means that the test application and its use are not related to the examiner.

Reliability: Means overall consistency and accuracy of results.

Validity: The validity of a measuring tool, for a particular purpose, refers to the degree to which it measures and what it purports to measure

Extensiveness: Test parts are holistic and entail all components of the behavior that we want to measure.

Types of psychological measurement:

1. IQ Intelligence Tests: is a total score derived from a set of standardized tests or subtests designed to assess human intelligence entailing speed of apprehension, ability to learn and promptitude, adaptability, the most important intelligence scales: Stanford - Binet, Wechsler–Bellevue Intelligence Scale, Raven's Progressive Matrices, and General Intelligence (G factor).

2. Aptitude Tests: These are used to predict academic and professional achievement, as they measure the individual's ability to learn or train and reach an advanced level in a specific field, such as the Academic Aptitude Test (APT), and the Thurstone Primary Mental Abilities which test components of human intelligence such as reasoning ability, word fluency, verbal comprehension, facility with numbers, spatial visualization, and rote memory .

3- Personality Tests: These tests measure emotional aspects of behavior, such as the measure of emotional compatibility, attributes and features, such as subjection, control, introversion, and extraversion, notably the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) personality inventory.

4. Interest Assessments: These tests measure the appetite, preference, or attraction of students to a specific type of activity or topic, and are used in career counseling or profiling for their ability to determine an individual’s tendencies towards a profession that suits him, such as Strong Interest Inventory Test, Kuder Career Assessment and Professional university scale.

5. Attitude Scale: used to predict behavior in order to determine or change trends and situations such as the Likert scale and Thruston Scale for attitudes and opinions.

6. Personal Values Assessment (PVA): It aims to measure the different values ​​that lead to the compatibility of the individual with himself or with the community: such as Values and Motives Inventory (VMI), and Work Value Test.

Categories of psychological measurement:

Individual vs Group test: A test can be said individual test in the sense that they can be administered to only one person at a time. Many of the tests in these scales require oral responses from the examinee or necessitate the manipulation of the materials. Group test was developed to meet a pressing practical need. Group test can be administered to a group of persons at a time. Group tests were designed as mass testing instruments with accurate instructions.

2. Verbal and performance tests of intelligence: Verbal testing depends on the use of a verbal symbol, whether it is a letter or a number, and performance tests require doing something to solve a specific problem, such as mechanical, engineering and musical quizzes.

3. Speed ​​tests vs. power tests: Speed ​​tests are required to know the largest possible number of correct answers in a given time, while strength tests are concerned with measuring power regardless of time.

4. Emotional versus cognitive intelligence tests: Cognitive tests are designed to measure mental capabilities and achievement, such as language proficiency test, while emotional tests measure an individual's behavior in emotional situations such as personality patterns test.

5. List of psychological tests and measures for mentors and instructors:

6. Psychological and educational tests and standards are employed and applied on large scales and the most important tests that educators can benefit from using and employing in instruction and discipline have been identified, notably: social skills, self-efficacy, parental tutelage, patterns of thinking, learning motivation, time management, reading habit, religiosity, teenage anger, internet addiction, multiple intelligences, talent, personality patterns, university specialization, professional interests, exam anxiety, self-esteem, intolerance, aggressive behavior, emotional intelligence, innovative thinking, cognitive intelligence, bullying, leadership personality, psychological needs, inclination to life, psychological rigidity, study skills, motivation for achievement, ambition, communication ... and others.

Can psychological measurement (psychometrics) influence mentoring and instruction?

1. Employing psychometrics is a qualitative and competitive added value to any educational institution, as it will work to promote the image of the institution in society, as these standardizations are one of the modern methods that reduce waste in time, effort and cost, and better control pupil evaluation process.

When the instructors adopt psychometrics in education process, they can realize a rapid professional promotion in their field in the short term. The results of the tests are an accurate indicator for assessing the efforts needed to perform work with their students. Also, these are modern techniques that facilitate student assessment process in a timely manner as planned.

Due to heavy responsibilities and tasks that should be carried out by people involved in education, a mentor cannot rely on imprecise personal observation of knowing his students, and in order to avoid subjectivity and factors affecting the measurement process, he shall observe scientific method in gleaning data about his students, and accordingly, psychometrics can perform this role; it measures with high accuracy and with less effort compared to old traditional methods. On the other hand, this contributes to enhancing the mentor’s confidence in his performance and self- satisfaction and develops his education institution. Moreover, these metrics, their application and interpretation of results develop educational and disciplining fields, as well as the mentor’s profile as they will enable him conduct field research that rely primarily on standardizations as tools for research, whether in his career or when he enrolling in post graduate studies

As for students and their parents, they will feel a high degree of safety towards instructors and the institution, especially when they feel that these tests contribute to solving their problems and help them learn about their abilities, aptitudes and tendencies, and take important decisions in their lives, especially when choosing a major or career.