Author: GF

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1. What are aptitude tests?

Aptitude tests are similar to ability tests. The former assess the potential to acquire knowledge generally, whereas the latter place these in a specific work context. An aptitude test enables an employer to assess and appraise the potential, talent and ability levels of prospective employees. Employers can appraise one’s ability using an aptitude test to make a decision on the best candidates to decide on whether to hire someone or not.

2. Why are aptitude tests difficult?

For most candidates, the difficulty of aptitude tests lies in completing the tests under timed conditions. In numerical or logical reasoning tests, candidates tend to have about a minute or so to read the question, analyse the graphs and patterns, and choose the correct response. For those who have never practiced, stress kicks in as this is a new situation for them. Many candidates complain they did not have enough time to finish the tests, and the ticking clock made them too nervous to focus on solving the problems at hand.

Aptitude tests are used by big employers to sift through the candidates and reduce the number of candidates that are offered interviews.

If you do not want to jeopardise your chances of landing a job, you should start practicing aptitude tests now! Practice makes perfect.

3. How can I improve in aptitude tests by practicing?

The best way to prepare for aptitude tests and improve your scores is by practicing. The first thing you need to do is understand what type of aptitude tests you will be required to take.

Based on your chosen position and company, you can check to see which aptitude test/s you are likely to take by checking their recruitment website, through email communication, or by seeing what other candidates say about the process on online forums and employee websites. Visit our website to take a free aptitude test and see how you score.

Click here to practice. You can practice a free aptitude test under real timed conditions and also receive a personalised performance report with a list of recommendations to work on any improvement areas. Each aptitude test also comes with worked solutions, so you can study the most common types of questions in your own time to avoid surprises when you take the real test.

What else can help me improve in aptitude tests? Continue reading for our list of top tips.

4. Top tips to improve in aptitude tests

In this section we will present some of the general rules and best practice for solving aptitude tests, as well as presenting test-specific tips to improve your scores.

General Advice

Aptitude Test Tip 1: Don’t ask anyone to help you

Choosing to cheat with aptitude tests is the worst course of action. Not only is it immoral, but you may also be caught cheating and ruin your chances. Your employer may ask you to sit the same aptitude tests as part of your final interviews or assessment centre days to verify if it had been you solving them in the first place.

Aptitude Test Tip 2: Always ask for feedback to improve

There is nothing more valuable than good feedback, especially if you had not been lucky in receiving a job offer or progressing to later stages of the recruitment process. By reading the report, you will see what your weak and strong points were, so that you can work on your personal preparation plan. If you do not receive a report, contact the recruiter and ask for personalised feedback, perhaps over a call or over email.

It may be the case that it was one of the aptitude tests where you did badly that ruined your chances. Perhaps, you had done excellent in the aptitude tests but were unsuccessful before the interview stage, because your answers to motivational or competency questions in the online application form were not convincing. It is important to know what your improvement areas are so you can work on these going forwards.

Aptitude Test Tip 3: Focus on your improvement areas

This point reiterates the message of the advice written above. Understand what your improvement areas are and then practice, practice and practice similar assessments and challenges until you see your score improve. Practice can help you get familiar with working under timed conditions and reduce chances of error due to stress and time pressure. If you struggle with any specific aptitude test, the section below will be a perfect place for you to start.

Aptitude Test Tip 4: Understand the differences between tests

Before you can even start preparing or practicing the aptitude tests, you need to understand what skills they measure and understand the general format of the tests and questions. Are multiple choice options or a text box option provided for the answer? Are there any prerequisites to some of these tests?

You are best of starting your preparations with a list of tests you are confirmed, or you expect, to take and then understand what these tests are before you start practicing.

To read more about different types of aptitude tests click here.

Aptitude Test Tip 5: Check what you are allowed to use in the test

In some tests, such as numerical reasoning tests, you will be allowed, or rather expected, to make use of a calculator to arrive at your answers. Make sure you are familiar and confident in your accuracy and speed of operating it. Check that it works beforehand!

As a general rule for all tests, make sure you have a piece of paper and something to write with nearby.

Aptitude Test Tip 6: Move on to the next question if you struggle

As you go through all questions, bear in mind the average time allocation you have to answer each question. If you only have a minute and a half to crack a numerical reasoning question, and you have been trying to understand the question for the past two minutes, it is probably a sign you need to move on.

These tactics may change if there is negative marking or no time limit. Generally, these tests are not negatively marked, so you are better off guessing the answer and moving to the next question in instances where the chance of correctly solving a problematic question in the next 30 seconds is low. Negative marking will be indicated in the invite email or test instructions, so make sure you read these carefully before starting the assessment.

Aptitude Test Tip 7: Read all questions and instructions carefully

Although this one seems obvious, you would be surprised how many candidates start answering the questions before having understood the objective of the question or data that is presented to them. Without reading instructions, some candidates are not aware of the required answer format, such as approximations to the nearest integer or providing an answer as a percentage or absolute value.

Read the instructions twice and carefully read the questions and make sure you understand them before looking at the figures and possible answers.

Test Specific Advice

1. Numerical Reasoning Test Tips and Advice

Click here to read more about what Numerical Reasoning Tests are.

Numerical Reasoning Test Tip 1: Refresh basic Maths.

The level of Maths that you will be expected to know for numerical reasoning tests does not go beyond basic GCSE arithmetic, such as calculations involving percentages, ratios, fractions, estimates, and data manipulation that can be related to time, currency or measurement.

You should work through online examples of GCSE math questions: calculating percentage differences, percentage increases and decreases, calculating ratios, converting measures and currencies, etc.

You should also practice reading data off a variety of data sources: tables, pie charts, line graphs, bar charts, stock charts, etc.

Numerical Reasoning Test Tip 2: Improve speed and accuracy 

Practising can help you manage your time effectively as both speed and accuracy is essential for success. To perform well, it is important that you work both quickly and accurately. Test takers who have practised have a much better chance of demonstrating their fullest potential, than those who have not practiced, as they are familiar with tests and working under time pressure.

Numerical Reasoning Test Tip 3: Get comfortable using a calculator

It will be helpful if you also practice working through numerical problems on your calculator to ensure that you feel confident in using it. Many candidates rush while working on their calculator and even a simple mistake or negligence may give them the wrong answer.

Numerical Reasoning Test Tip 4: GF Performance Reports to enhance your performance

Our reports provide data driven insights based upon your performance and make recommendations on how you can improve your performance in Numerical Tests. You can store your reports online and access them anytime whilst tracking your performance as you improve. By continuing to practice and applying the suggested recommendations, you can enhance your chances of a successful performance on your actual test.

2. Logical Reasoning Test Tips and Advice

Click here to read more about what Logical Reasoning Tests are.

Logical Reasoning Test Tip 1: Eliminate incorrect answers first

In logical reasoning tests, the main problem is identifying the underlying patterns in a series of a few diagrams to establish which of the diagrams in the answers will follow.

Therefore, focus on establishing the patterns between the diagrams presented and start by crossing out the answers that cannot be the correct answer.

It is recommended to make a list on a fresh piece of paper ahead of the test where in each row for each question you write down A, B, C, D, E for the answers, and as you work through the question cross out the answer that cannot be correct until you find the one that must be correct.

Logical Reasoning Test Tip 2: Get creative about the patterns

There is no pre-requisite for logical reasoning tests are there is no closed list of the types of changes and spatial manipulations you are expected to guess.

The list of possible patterns is endless.

But there are some common types of manipulations that you can train yourself to recognise, such as:

• Counting the number of shapes in each diagram to establish if there is any trend (number of shapes may increase/decrease across diagrams in a pattern).
• Counting the number of edges of the shapes in diagrams to establish if the sum of all edges of all shapes between diagrams have a sequence, or if the individual shapes change based on the number of edges across the sequence.
• Paying extra attention when it comes to information such as colours of shapes.
• Being aware that the positions of shapes around the diagram will typically not be random: the shapes may move between the diagrams and also change into other shapes; some shapes may cover other shapes as they move around the diagrams, either in a clockwise or anti-clockwise manner; or shapes may move along columns/rows/diagonally around the diagrams, even if these lines are not drawn on the diagram. Look out for such movements of shapes across sequences.
• Being careful when looking at shapes for any minor differences between diagrams, such as whether lines have arrowheads, or whether the shapes are filled or empty. The inclination may also change, or some shapes may disappear every now and then from the diagram completely.

Logical Reasoning Test Tip 3: Adjust your approach by becoming aware of the common types of spatial manipulations in logical reasoning tests.

There is no better way to adjust yourself to analyse such subtle spatial differences between diagrams than by practicing logical reasoning test questions. After having done only a couple of logical reasoning tests you will already be familiar with some of the most common spatial manipulations used. This will put you in good stead to get familiar with some of the types of questions you may be faced with.

3. Verbal Reasoning Test Tips and Advice

Click here to read more about what Verbal Reasoning Tests are.

Verbal Reasoning Test Tip 1: Get as much practice as possible

Get as much practice as possible. Use practice websites that offer timed tests, so that you can be relaxed and confident when taking the assessment and more focused on doing a good job.

Verbal Reasoning Test Tip 2: Read a lot

Ideally relatively complex information such as scientific or journal papers. Focus on understanding the logical flow of the text. Convert sentences into questions. Attempt to answer: True, False, Cannot Say from your prepared questions, as you would in a Verbal test.

Verbal Reasoning Test Tip 3: Get familiar with the way the texts are written

Verbal Reasoning Texts are written in a specific way. The passage of text is written to fit test objectives. It is not a familiar piece of text taken from a newspaper or a book. It has to be very precise, short and leave no room for interpretation. Thus, you need to learn how to find information, then extract and interpret this in order to answer the questions.

Verbal Reasoning Test Tip 4: Only base answers on information contained in the text

In verbal reasoning tests, you are allowed to make logical inferences only based on the information in the text. It is often difficult to evaluate if statements in the question are true or false, if the candidate has pre-existing knowledge. Questions may be asked in a way to trick candidate into giving answers based on what they know, and not on what they read in the passage.

4. Situational Judgement Tests Tips and Advice

Click here to read more about what Situational Judgement Test is.

Situational Judgement Tests Tip 1: Understand the expectations for the role you applied for

There are no right or wrong answers in Situational Judgement tests, but there are answers that are more or less likely to get you your dream job. Situational Judgement Test examines your fit to the role you applied for, as well as overall company culture.

To do well in this test you need to understand the requirements for a role you applied for, the type of everyday work situations that may be challenging, areas of conflict, as well as overall goals and ambitions of the company. Do some research to understand the culture of the company.

You need to demonstrate yourself as a candidate who will fit in well and hold similar priorities and preferences that are echoed across the organisation.

Once you understand what these encouraged behaviours and solutions to problems are, try to identify these in the Situational Judgement Test questions and point to the answers that will present you as the best fit.

Note: Selecting a Worst course of action as the Best course of action (and vice versa) may lead to negative marks. Be careful in choosing your response/s to a particular scenario.

Situational Judgement Tests Tip 2: Think back to your previous experiences

Situational Judgement Tests will present you with work life scenarios in which you will need to identify the course of action that is most desirable. In many of these situations it will be helpful for you to think of your own past experiences, or perhaps the professional behaviours of someone you admire. If the SJT scenario presents a situation similar to your previous experiences (or the experiences of your role model), think of the solutions that brought you/them the most value and success to the team and the ones that made work easier, more transparent and engaging.

Similarly, have a think about what someone else who you admire for their professionalism would have done.

Concluding Remarks

Aptitude tests continue to be used by many organisations across the globe. Practicing these can help ensure they are even more effective at doing their job – practicing will reduce the chance of error, such as issues of managing time and unfamiliarity with the assessment type itself.

Keep practicing and good luck!

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The existence, scale, and handling of discrimination has been highlighted by the recent year’s historically pivotal social movements. Support for the Black Lives Matter movement and the challenging of disparities between different groups of people have become widespread globally, not to mention that the UK this year marked 25 years since the Disability Discrimination Act 1995. Much has changed, but much work is still to be done to level the playing field. Workplace discrimination is no exception to these systematic forces, whether this is concerning the well documented wage gap between men and women, or the low acceptance rate onto undergraduate or PhD courses of BAME applicants. In this article, we are going to explain the challenges faced by applicants and employers in the hiring process in light of existing social structures, and how employers can take appropriate measures to avoid discrimination when hiring.

Forms of Discrimination in the Hiring Process

Before we delve into the ways that companies reduce the risk of discrimination entering the hiring process, it is important to bring focus to this article, which will refer largely to three non-exhaustive ways that someone can be discriminated against in the hiring process. It will also be important, for the purpose of this article to understand the aspect of the hiring process that are vulnerable to letting through existing discriminatory attitudes, or behaviours.

• Physical and Mental Disability Discrimination. As with many areas of society that are shaped around a set of norms of mental and physical well-being, so too can the hiring process. This means that a candidate’s mental or physical well-being and individual circumstances could be overlooked when it comes to assessing for certain abilities, such as numerical, or verbal ability, or in a candidate’s behavioural competence in an interview. This means that factors extraneous to those that make the individual good at their job impact on their ability to take a test as compared to someone who does not consider themselves to have a physical or mental disability.
• Discrimination based on one’s actual (self-identified) or perceived gender. Someone’s actual gender has been shown to correlate with differences in technical ability. For example, men tend to do better in numerical reasoning tests than women, but woman do better than men in verbal reasoning. One’s perceived gender, or the gender identity someone is deemed to be by others to have, could affect how they are perceived in CVs (e.g., name), interviews (bodily markers) etc. with the existence of unconscious or explicit biases.
• Discrimination based on one’s actual or perceived race. Like gender-based discrimination, there are differences in performance on technical tests depending on one’s actual race (importantly, this is correlational and so causation cannot be inferred). One’s perceived race, such as your name in a CV, or bodily markers in an interview, could elicit pre-existing biases. For example, an interviewer who has discriminatory attitudes may manifest these by judging a Caucasian person to be more professional sounding than a person of colour despite providing the same interview response.

With these in mind, we now move onto identifying the reasons why processes should be put into place to avoid forms of discrimination. Then, we’ll cover three processes that exist and are used by employers actively to avoid these forms of discrimination, of which you can look out for in an application process.

What are the advantages of avoiding discrimination?

There are two important beneficiaries of avoiding the existence of discrimination in the job application process.

1. The first of these, of course, are the disadvantaged or under-represented applicants to the roles. There are measures in place that reduce the strength of the forces of systematic and/or individual discriminatory beliefs. These measures work to give all a fair and true test of their suitability to the role, where otherwise factors beyond their control may be used for or against them.
2. The second advantage of reducing discrimination is for the employer. This benefit is broad and can be felt in many ways. For example, through these additional steps, the employer can work more effectively towards diversifying their work force as they reduce the chances of eliminating candidates in a discriminatory fashion. Another example of a benefit to the employer is that they can be more confident that they take on the best candidate for the job.

What do employers put in place to mitigate risk of Discrimination?

We now move onto what employers can and should do within the hiring process to reduce the risk of discrimination. It is important to mention that while these measures often do decrease the chances of discrimination seeping into the process, they are independent factors, so do not alone determine the success in avoiding discrimination – nor indeed are they jointly sufficient for eradicating discrimination. Nonetheless, here are three ways that many employers explicitly attempt to avoid discrimination.

1. Safe measures of success in Online Assessments.

Assessments can roughly be separated into three different categories, depending on what they aim to discover about the candidate who takes them. Some assessments assess a candidate’s technical ability, the ability to deal with and interpret information and draw conclusions. These include Numerical and Verbal Reasoning Tests. Other assessments unveil insights as to the personality or preferences of a candidate, for instance the Work Personality Questionnaire. Finally, some assessments aim to discover one’s behavioural competence, such as a Situational Judgement Test.

With this background in mind, it can be appreciated that each of these is equally important as to someone’s suitability to the role and company. However, certain categories can have vulnerabilities that if not addressed could increase the chances of discrimination being expressed.

One example of such a vulnerability is technical ability assessments. Employers using assessments that aim to measure your ability, whether that be numerical or verbal for example, must be wise to existing research that exists. Research has shown that there are existing group differences between groups outside of the 30^th percentile. However, no one demographic dominates the lower end of the normal distribution curve. In other words, no one group performs better in technical ability until after the 30^th percentile. Research suggests that there are groups/demographics that tend to achieve higher scores as compared to the norm group on certain tests. This means that some people’s actual race and/or gender correlates with performance. For example, research has indicated that women outperform men on their verbal reasoning ability (e.g., Izzaty & Setiawati, 2019). To ensure that such group differences do not impact performance, the cut off for progression in the application process should as industry standard be set this low at around the 30^th percentile. Companies can then morally and legally defend their recruitment process as attempting to avoid the discrimination that we see in different groups.

Another example of a potential vulnerability for exposing the process to discrimination is in interviews which largely aim to find out about one’s behavioural competence. If done in the incorrect way, with insufficient or misguided training, the chances of discrimination can increase. Structured Interviews and training can be used to reduce the impact of pre-existing discriminatory attitudes of the interviewer. One example of an existing bias that may exist is identifying with a candidate, whether intentionally or not, more if they perceive a resemblance between themselves and the interviewee. Structured Interviews can ensure that the biases of the interviewer do not seep into the decision-making response and guide the interview. Instead, the performance is based solely on the responses given for the same questions, like-for-like.

2. Reasonable Adjustments

If you consider yourself to have a disability, employers should have measures in place that take this into account. This is because those with issues of accessibility, whether that be to do with vision, mental health, mobility, learning, may well be equally suitable for the role. Disability is not a reflection on the individual’s ability to perform on the job, rather a reflection of society’s structured ability to cater for everyone who exists outside of widely used ‘norms about how people can typically physically function’ (Jenkins & Webster, 2020). Some examples of measures that can be put into place to improve accessibility include subtitles, audio reading, assessment zoom functionality, and additional time. Each of these take steps to ensure that people have a fair chance of displaying their technical talent, behavioural competency or personality. With respect to additional time, even if this is not made explicit, you are well within your rights to contact the employer you are applying to regarding additional time if you consider yourself to require this. Other accessibility features may vary depending on the company and/or assessments required. However, if they do exist, it is best practice to make this explicit in communications with applicants – so watch out for these.

3. Practice

Familiarity with assessments can be a large factor in one’s performance in employer assessments. Those who are more familiar with the type of questions they may be asked, whether it is a numerical reasoning test, or a situational judgement test for example, are more likely to perform closer to their true ability. It is important to stress that practice in not designed to make you better as such at certain things, e.g., numerical ability, and certainly not personality (this is largely considered rigid in nature). This is especially the case here where employers are looking for an applicant’s true ability rather than learning ability. Rather, practice helps candidates get familiar with the environment. They ease stress, nervousness, and other confounding variables that can affect one’s performance.

However, not everyone prior to their job application is aware nor able to, for whatever reason, practice assessments and gain this much needed familiarity. Encouragement and/or practice assessments prior to the “real thing” could be a sign that the employer acknowledges group differences as well as research around the importance of familiarity (Bradley et al., 2019). People who are familiar are significantly more likely to perform closer to their true score, free from extraneous factors. Practice can then be a step taken to eliminate risk of employers receiving assessments that do not reflect ability, rather a show of candidate’s individual circumstance.

Closing Remarks

Having now covered the realities of discrimination, the importance of combatting discrimination, and how it is presently combatted in the hiring process, I’d like to conclude by stressing the importance for employers and candidate’s alike of recognising and acting on existing discrimination. Discrimination should not be ignored, disregarded, overlooked, nor understated. While measures have been put in place, such as those discussed above that you can look out for, this is a space we should and are continually striving to perfect. Additionally, as assessments develop whether that be in the game-assessment arena, or more interactive assessments, further discussions will need to be had around the topic of discrimination and further measures that can be put into place.