Are the raw scores of the NEO-PI-R normally distributed?
Generally,  psychological scales that are the sum of forced-choice items exhibit skew as the mean approaches the floor or ceiling of the scale. 

The test manual for the NEO-PI shows the exact relationship between raw scores for domains and facets and corresponding percentiles. So if you want to be more precise and not assume normality, you can use that data.

Here's one table showing skewness values in an officer sample from Detrick &amp; Chibnall (2013). As is typical with this kind of data, there's a little bit of skew, but it's not huge. So the normal approximation wont be too bad.



Detrick, P., &amp; Chibnall, J. T. (2013). Revised NEO Personality Inventory normative data for police officer selection. Psychological Services, 10(4), 372.