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Are you interested in joining the next cohort for the Civil Service graduate programs or early careers 2023? This ultimate guide provides everything you need for your Civil Service online assessment practice.
Our website provides scientifically validated practice assessments tests, interviews and assessment centre exercises that can be used to practice and prepare for the recruitment and assessment process.
Check here for Free and Premium aptitude assessment tests and video interviews to practice and prepare for Civil Service recruitment.
Not sure if you should practice to prepare for the Civil Service assessments? According to research, 60-80% of candidates are rejected based on their aptitude tests results. It is proven that practice increases your chances of getting hired.
A recent study (Bradley et al, 2019) found that candidates who do not practise assessments, tend to fail at the first hurdle of psychometric assessments (54%-84%). This study looked at the Top 100 global employers.
How to prepare for the Civil Service assessment process and tests to get the job?
The Civil Service uses a variety of aptitude assessment tests. These may include:
You may get rejected already after these aptitude tests; these tests sift out 50-80% candidates at this stage. The only proven way to get to the next round is practice.
The Civil Service employs the use of various competitive exercises during the assessment centre to assess and pick the best candidates. Ensure you practice a variety of exercises including:
Hone your written and spoken communication technique. Research online, prepare and practice presentation of as many business case studies as possible.
Be aware; not many get to this stage. The competition is very fierce.
Prepare for your one-on-one interview with a senior manager. Expect and practice for behavioural and competency-based questions. Aim to stand out. They have interviewed dozens or hundreds of candidates at this final stage.
Refine your technique for your final Civil Service interview to showcase your:
For your final interview, use our video interview platform and record yourself answering the interview questions using the STAR+R method.
Continue reading to get answers to these critical questions:
Looking into assessments with the Civil Service, simply click in the table below to practice assessments relevant to your assessment process!
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The UK Civil Service is the permanent bureaucracy of the crown employees, supporting the government of the UK in administration. These employees are not members of the British parliament, but assist the ministers on policy development and implementation.
Civil Service employees are defined as “politically impartial” and help to deliver the work that the current government in place requires at the time.
How can you join the Civil Service?
To join the Civil Service, there are many routes into the 24 departments into which it is divided.
Whether you are a graduate or a professional, there is an application path, including Civil Service aptitude tests, for you to become part of the Civil Service.
You can apply to the Civil Service through any of the following routes.
Below are some of the key Civil Service departments and roles you can apply for:
Throughout your application to the Civil Service, ensure that you keep in mind their values and Success Profile. But what are these? Keep reading to find out more!
What are the Civil Service values?
The Civil Service code indicates the core values of the Civil Service and the standards of behaviours required of all civil servants. This includes;
What is the Civil Service success profile?
The success profile is a framework used by the Civil Service to attract and retain talents from different sectors, in accordance with the Civil Service workforce plan commitment.
The success profile framework introduces assessment of candidates against several elements, such as:
Good to know: The Civil Service behaviours that are assessed are specific to the grade level and requirements of the job role. Check the job description to understand which key Civil Service behaviours are ideal for the job.
The Civil Service success profile framework aims to divert the recruitment process from using only a competency based system form of assessment with differing selection methods depending on the role.
So how is this used for your upcoming application process? Keep reading to find out how.
What is the Civil Service application process?
The Civil Service hiring process can vary depending on the grade level and the job requirements. However, the typical recruitment process is made of 4 important steps. These steps are:
Without further ado, let’s dive in!
What is the Civil Service online application?
The Civil Service online application form is the first step after you have found a role that suits your skills and interests you. You will be asked for details of your personal information, previous education and experiences.
This is a good chance to impress your recruiters, therefore take your time to tailor your skills/experiences to the requirements of the job role.
Civil Service Application tip: Ensure you meet the minimum requirements for experience and behaviours for the role you apply for.
Depending on the role you apply for, you might be asked for a CV and a personal statement. The personal statement is an opportunity for you to prove how your skills are relevant and why you should get the job.
Top 7 Tips to write a good Civil Service CV and Cover Letter
Below are basic tips to consider while writing your Civil Service CV and cover letter or personal statement:
Once you have submitted your application form, it will be screened against the job criteria. If successful, you will be invited to take some online tests.
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What are the Civil Service online tests?
The Civil Service selection tests are Cubiks psychometric tests used to assess your mental ability, strengths and potentials required of the job role you applied for. The tests are to be answered in English or Welsh and are usually not timed.
What tests do Civil Service use?
The Civil Service psychometric tests may include:
Good to know: Depending on the job you have applied for, you may be asked to complete one or more of these Civil Service online tests.
Let’s check out what to expect in each test below, starting with the Civil Service verbal reasoning test.
What is a Civil Service verbal test?
The Civil Service verbal reasoning test is used to assess your ability to read, understand and come up with logical conclusions from a written text. In the verbal reasoning test, you will be given a passage along with a statement.
You are required to read and comprehend the information given in the paragraph, then decide if the statement provided is, ‘true’, ‘false’ or ‘cannot say’.
How many questions in the Civil Service verbal test?
The Civil Service verbal reasoning tests are usually untimed and adapt to your performance. Therefore, the tests can vary in length depending on how many you get wrong or right.
Gain key insights in this under 1 minute video about the Civil Service verbal reasoning test:
Want to practice more such free questions similar to those of Civil Service verbal test questions, register with GF and take your free verbal reasoning test now!
Have a go at this Civil Service practice test question below designed by our expert team at GF.
Civil Service-Style Verbal Test Question Example
Got the answer? Check it out at the bottom of the page.
How to ace the Civil Service verbal reasoning test?
For your Civil Service practice, discover even more verbal reasoning tips ahead of your Civil Service verbal test with our short video below!
For even more Civil Service verbal reasoning test practice, register with GF today and practice more Civil Service verbal reasoning tests with answers, worked-solutions and professional score reports including personalised tips based on your performance.
With verbal reasoning Success done and dusted, it’s time to become an expert in your Civil Service numerical test answers.
What is the Civil Service numerical test?
The Civil Service numerical test requires you to answer questions regarding numerical data and assesses your ability to evaluate and interpret the numerical information.
How many questions in the Civil Service numerical test?
The assessment tests are usually untimed with about 15 -20 quantitative reasoning questions. Depending on your performance, you are more likely to get a harder question next if you get a question right and an easier question next if wrong.
Civil Service numerical tip: You can expect questions on percentage, average, graphs, pie charts, simple interest, compound interest, etc. Ensure to revise these key areas!
Check out this video below to find out more about how the Civil Service numerical reasoning test works!
Want to start your Civil Service numerical test practice right away? Register with GF to sit a free industry standard numerical reasoning test now!
Test your numerical reasoning skills with our example Civil Service numerical test practice question below!
Civil Service-Style Numerical Test Example
Check if you got this Civil Service numerical test answer correct at the bottom of the page.
How to ace the Civil Service numerical test?
These numerical reasoning tips will get you the edge over other candidates applying to the Civil Service.
To gain even more insight on how to succeed in your Civil Service numerical test, check out our video below!
If you are looking for even more Civil Service numerical reasoning questions with answers, worked-solutions and professional score reports including personalised tips based on your performance – then we at GF have you covered.
You may be invited to take a Civil Service situational judgement test as part of your application process. Find out more below!
What is the Civil Service judgement test?
The Civil Service judgement test is a situational judgement test (SJT) used to assess your judgement and decision-making skills in realistic work situations, as well as your behaviour in a Civil Service work environment.
The test is divided into two sections:
Let’s go into details about what to expect in each section.
What is the Civil Service work style questionnaire?
This section of the Civil Service judgement test is similar to what are often referred to as Civil Service work style questionnaires or Civil Service personality tests.
This section consists of work related statements, to which you have to respond with the extent to which you agree or disagree with these statements.
5 Top Tips to pass the Civil Service work style questionnaire
Below are some key tips to consider for your Civil Service personality questionnaire
For insights into what Civil Service are looking for in this first section, don’t miss this video!
Register for GF’s work personality package today to gain first-hand insights into a work personality-style test and how employers such as the Civil Service use these in recruitment.
What is the Civil Service behaviours assessment?
In this section, your judgement and decision-making skills are measured, as you’ll be presented with real-life workplace scenarios.
What will the Civil Service behavioural assessment involve?
You will be given scenarios, which will be the potential course of actions, and are expected to provide an effectiveness rating from ‘counterproductive’ to ‘effective’.
Good to know: Depending on the role you apply for, the Civil Service work based scenarios for the behaviour assessment will be presented in form of videos, texts or a mix of both.
Top 5 tips to ace your Civil Service situational judgement test
Find key tips to help you pass the Civil Service judgement test below:
For more tips on how to ace your Civil Service situational judgement test, check out this less than 1 minute video.
Start your Civil Service-style situational judgement test preparation, sign-up for GF’s situational judgement test package today to access real questions, live test reports, and progress charts!
Did you know? Just like the Civil Service judgement test, the Civil Service work-based scenarios test assesses your behaviours, skills and attributes in a work environment.
Now, let us have a look into what to expect for the Civil Service management test.
What is the Civil Service management test?
The Civil Service management judgement test is an online situational judgement test that assesses your ability to demonstrate judgement and decision-making in the day-to-day management of others. The test is untimed, however most people take about 2-4 minutes per scenario.
The Civil Service management test measures the behaviours specific for roles requiring line management success, which are; collaborative, decisive, empathetic, confident and agile. The test involves 15 scenarios each with four actions presented as texts or short videos.
What is the Civil Service work strengths test?
The Civil Service work strengths test is an untimed online test of your strengths that assesses you through personality questionnaires and situational judgement-like tests. You may get one of two different versions of the test depending on the job level you applied for.
What happens in a Civil Service work strengths test?
The Civil Service work strengths test includes three parts:
What is the Civil Service customer service skills test?
The Civil Service customer service skills test assesses your customer handling skills. It measures your problem-solving skills and traits like comprehension and empathy, which shows how you are able to manage difficult customers, make decisions and your attention to details.
What happens in a Civil Service customer service skills test?
The test involves three parts:
Get the practice essentials for your Civil Service error checking test preparation and practice a variety of number checking tests, word checking tests and spelling & grammar tests similar to the Civil Service assessments.
What is the Civil Service casework skills test?
The Civil Service casework skills test assesses your abilities and skills in relation to roles in caseworking. It measures your ability to process information and analyse situations, make decisions, attention to details, and ability to work under pressure.
What happens in a Civil Service casework skills test?
The test is made up of three parts:
Practice with the essentials to enhance your preparation for your Civil Service tests and practice over 1,900+ unique assessment questions and fast track your results with worked solutions, progress tracking and reports on a variety of assessment tools.
Once you have successfully passed the Civil Service online tests, you will be invited to the Civil Service video interview.
What is the Civil Service video interview?
In the Civil Service video interview, you are typically given a set amount of time to answer a series of pre-recorded questions. There is an allotted time for each response and you may be given one or two attempts before submitting each answer.
How long is the Civil Service video interview?
The Civil Service video interview consists of 9 questions which are a mix of behavioural and competency-based questions and takes about 25 minutes.
The video interview may also include Civil Service strength based questions, which will focus on 8 key strengths. These are:
Discover more about the Civil Service video interview with our quick 1 minute video below!
6 Top tips to ace the Civil Service video interview
Check out the following 6 tips which will help you ace your Civil Service interview:
Take a quick look at our quick video below for even more tips to ace your Civil Service video interview:
Prepare for your Civil Service strengths and competency-based interview questions with our 60 unique video interview sets used across top industries on our practice video interviewing platform.
The next step of the Civil Service recruitment process is the Civil Service assessment centre.
Keep reading to find out how to ace these assessments.
What is the Civil Service assessment centre?
The Civil Service assessment centre is a two-day event wherein you will be assessed on your behaviours. It is used to assess your skills such as, decision making, problem solving, written skills, and other personal traits in a real-life work environment.
What will the Civil Service assessment centre involve?
The exercises that you might come across at a Civil Service assessment centre are:
Let us discuss these Civil Service assessment centre exercises in detail. Starting with Civil Service in-tray exercises.
What is the Civil Service in-tray exercise?
The Civil Service in-tray exercise is an assessment of a real work scenario used in the selection process for certain job roles in the Civil Service.
Good to know: The exercise is designed to provide the Civil Service with an understanding of your work style and how you handle tasks.
What happens in the Civil Service in-tray exercise?
During the Civil Service in-tray exercise, you will be asked to treat the in-tray exercise as a role-playing scenario. You will be provided with several documents, such as emails, letters, memos and reports, to review and respond to within a specified time frame.
How to ace the Civil Service in-tray exercise
We offer practice in-tray exercises on our website to help you prepare for the recruitment process. Get a head start on your Civil Service in-tray exercise preparation with GF.
Keep reading to find out about the next assessment, the Civil Service group exercise.
What is the Civil Service group exercise?
The Civil Service group exercise contains group interactions and team tasks, which assesses your ability to collaborate and make decisions with others. While this assessment progresses, you will be evaluated individually, but also as a part of the team.
6 Top Tips to Pass the Civil Service Group Exercise
The above-mentioned tips will make the employers notice you, show them your team player skills and help them make a better decision.
Don’t forget to also check out our video on Civil Service group exercises below!
What is the Civil Service written assessment?
Civil Service written exercises are one section of the Civil Service assessment centre that you may be asked to take. They assess your writing skills, spelling, grammar, comprehension, as well as your ability to problem solve on your feet, all in a given time frame.
Top 5 tips to Ace Your Civil Service Written Exercises
Get ahead for your Civil Service written exercise with our practice written exercises designed in-house by our team to help you develop your confidence levels and discover how you can go further with full example assessor marking guides.
After the written exercises, you may be expected to prepare a Civil Service presentation. Let’s know about this in detail.
What is the Civil Service presentation?
At the end of the Civil Service assessment centre, you may be required to prepare a presentation on a particular topic. You are required to compile all the information that you have in a short presentation effectively.
Discussing the main points in any presentation should be your main focus. The presented points should carry some weight and should be convincing.
Top 5 tips to ace the Civil Service presentation exercises
Below are our 5 top tips that can help you ace the Civil Service presentation exercises in your assessment centre:
After you have aced the assessment centre, you will be invited for the Civil Service panel interviews, which is the final stage of recruitment process.
What is the Civil Service panel interview?
During the Civil Service panel interview, candidates will be expected to respond to several strength-based, behavioural and knowledge-based questions asked by the managers and officials from within the Civil Service of the job that you’ve applied to.
Good to know: By thoroughly preparing and showcasing your knowledge, you can increase your chances of impressing the interviewer and demonstrating that you are a strong fit for the position.
How to ace a Civil Service interview
Here are 5 key tips to consider before your interview:
Take a break and watch this video below to find out examples of questions to ask during your Civil Service interview:
How to answer Civil Service interview questions?
When answering Civil Service job interview questions, remember to use the STAR+R technique, i.e., the situation, the task at hand, the actions you took, the result of your actions and reflect on what you’ve learned from the experience.
Question: Describe a situation where you had to work collaboratively as part of a team.
Tip to answer: Remember, when using the STAR+R method, focus on providing specific examples, emphasising your actions and problem-solving skills, and highlighting the positive outcomes or results of your efforts.
Good answer:
Question 2: Tell me about a time when you had to take initiative to solve a problem at work.
Tip to answer: Choose an example of a situation you encountered that properly demonstrates your ability to be flexible and logical while solving problems.
Prepare for your Civil Service panel interview with our practice competency-based interview question example:
Ace your next Civil Service interview with our video interview practice tool – featuring strength-based, competency- based and public sector industry interview sets to boost your interview technique with practice.
Once you have passed the assessments, you will be kept in touch with. You can also request for feedback or access test feedback on your account on Civil Service jobs.
Well done for making it this far! With this you are now fully prepared for your Civil Service application, good luck!
Before you go, let’s check out some of the current and upcoming graduate schemes you can apply for within the Civil Service.
The UK government offers internships, graduate programs and apprenticeships to train and educate young minds.
Students have the option to learn more about the Civil Service and earn at the same time through different Civil Service graduate schemes. This include:
What are these programmes? Let’s find out.
Civil Service fast stream is an accelerated leadership development programme that enables talented graduates who possess certain skills and knowledge to get into the Civil Service early.
Unlike other graduate schemes, you have a huge range of options to choose from (15 schemes to be exact), regardless of the degree background you have.
Each scheme lasts from 2 to 4 years, many of which lead to a professional qualification at completion. Check out the schemes below:
Civil Service fast stream requirements
Application deadlines: The Civil Service fast stream applications are currently closed. You can follow up on the official website to know when it is open for application entry.
An apprenticeship puts you in a paid position whilst allowing you to study for professional accreditation. Once you complete your apprenticeship you will have all the relevant knowledge to progress in your chosen field.
Civil Service fast track requirements
The Civil Service summer diversity internship programme is a two-month paid internship programme, with a pay of £300 to £350 per week. Being a part of this programme can give your career a head-start in the Civil Service.
The SDIP provides eligibility for the fast pass, which is a quicker route to fast stream selection. If you intern in the SDIP, and apply for the Civil Service the next year you’ll walk past the initial online assessment stages.
The application form for the Civil Service summer diversity internship programme releases in November every year. So apply early around this time!
Early diversity internship programme is a one-week internship programme offered by the government, for the first-year graduates. Similar to the SDIP, the EDIP is a 5-day paid placement within a government department that will give you insight and understanding of how that department works.
It is also a great way to gain experience before applying for the Summer diversity internship programme.
Civil Service early diversity eligibility criteria
So, here’s all the information that you need to get into Civil Service. Gain even more insights into the Civil Service recruitment process with our quick FAQs section below.
The Civil Service is open to you if you are a national of the UK or own dual nationality including the UK. Also, a large number of the job roles are open to Commonwealth citizens and nationals of any of the member states of the European Economic Area (EEA).
The Civil Service Online Tests are not timed. However, depending on a candidate, they usually spend about 15 – 45 minutes on an assessment.
The timescale depends on a variety of factors, such as the number and type of schemes you have applied for.
The Civil Service roles are usually highly competitive, therefore a score of about 70% and above will be a good score to help you through to the next round of assessment.
Do you want to pass your Civil Service assessment tests first time? Take numerical, logical, verbal reasoning and situational judgement practice tests today with GF, the only aptitude practice test experts providing practice test solutions to over 100 UK universities and their students, and also across Asia and continental Europe.
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Correct answers to example questions:
Numerical Reasoning Test: C
Verbal Reasoning test: B
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