Game-based and Gamified Assessments Practice. Full 2023 Guide.

Reading time: 13 minutes

Summary

What are game-based and gamified assessments? How can you prepare for employer game assessments? Find out answers to these top questions in this complete guide.

Read on as we explain what game-based and gamified assessments are; why employers use game assessments and crucial tips to help you ace your next game-based assessment.

Practice game assessments with GF and nail your applications the first time. Below are the games you will get, and what they assess, when you take your gamified test practice with GF.

Not sure if you should practice preparing for game-based assessments? Many large employers are leveraging game assessments in recruitment (Institute of Student Employers, 2018). A recent study also found that game-based assessments created a more positive outlook for the organisation (Georgiou & Nikolaou, 2020).

GF Games	Skills Practiced
Cognition-A™	Attention
Cognition-M™	Memory
BART	Risk-Taking
i-EQ™	Emotions
MTA-Tray™	Organising, Attention, and Multi-Tasking
MathBubbles™	Mental Arithmetic
Flanker Task	Attention
PassCode™	Attention and Resilience

In this text, we are going to cover all you need to know about game-based psychometric tests and online gamified assessments in the following sections:

Contents

1. What are Game-based and Gamified Assessments?
   • Key Differences and Similarities between Game-based and Gamified Assessments
2. Key Differences Between Traditional Psychometric Tests and Game Assessments
3. Types of Game-Based and Gamified Assessments
4. Game Assessment Providers
5. How to Prepare for Game-Based and Gamified Assessments
6. Companies That Use Game-based/Gamified Assessments
   • Why do Employers Use Game Assessments to Hire?
7. Game-based and Gamified Assessment FAQs

Without further ado, let’s dive in!

What are Game-based and Gamified Assessments?

The words Game-based and gamified are often used interchangeably with each other when referring to game assessments. However, while both words are used to refer to the same thing, they have distinct meanings. What’s the difference?

What is a Game-based Assessment?

Game-based assessments refer to assessments that are completely game-like in their process and structure. Candidates engage in interactive and engaging gameplay, tackling challenges, puzzles, and scenarios designed to measure specific skills, knowledge, or competencies.

For example, game-based assessments for testing cognitive abilities might include puzzles, quizzes, or memory challenges within the gameplay. The data collected from the player’s gameplay can then be analysed to provide valuable insights into their strengths and weaknesses.

What is a Gamified Assessment?

Gamified assessments, on the other hand, are not exactly game-like but instead, incorporate game elements into traditional assessments. These game elements may include point systems, badges, leaderboards, progress bars, rewards, and challenges.

Although we just clarified that game-based and gamified assessments do not exactly mean the same thing, it is important to note that they still share some similarities despite their differences.

So what are the key differences and similarities between game-based and online gamified assessments? Let’s find out!

Key Differences and Similarities between Game-based and Gamified Assessments

Let’s explore the key differences and similarities between game-based and gamified assessments to understand how they compare and contrast in their evaluation methods.

Some of the key differences between game-based and gamified assessments are:

Game-based Assessments	Gamified Assessments
Game-like in nature	Add game elements to traditional assessments
Rebuild assessments as games	Makes traditional assessments more engaging and enjoyable
Evaluate candidates through gameplay and style of play	Use traditional evaluation with game elements for tracking
More complex and interactive.	Simpler, but uses basic game elements
Generates higher engagement	Achieves moderate engagement with game elements

Some of the key similarities between game-based and gamified assessments are:

• Both aim to increase participant engagement and motivation during the assessment.
• Both provide real-time feedback on performance.
• Both can be customised to suit specific contexts and assess different skills or knowledge areas.
• Both collect data on participants’ actions and decisions to evaluate their abilities.
• Both represent innovative alternatives to traditional assessment methods.

To summarise: 

Game-based assessments are more game-like and involve gameplay elements. Gamified assessments add game elements to traditional tests to increase engagement with candidates. 

How are these game assessments different from traditional tests? Keep reading to find out!

Back to Contents

Key Differences Between Traditional Psychometric Tests and Game Assessments

As game assessments aim to replace traditional psychometric tests in recruitment processes, it is crucial to note their differences and what each assesses. Understanding these differences will help in crafting an actionable approach to acing game assessments.

What is the difference between traditional and game assessments?

Game assessments involve interactive and immersive elements to evaluate skills and behavioural traits during the assessment, while traditional assessments simply use standard testing metrics usually based on whether you get right or wrong answers.

5 key ways game assessments differ to traditional assessments

Below are more key differences between traditional tests and game assessments:

1. Nature and Format
   • Traditional Psychometric Tests: Usually presented in a standardised, question-and-answer format.
   • Game Assessments: Take the form of interactive and immersive games.

2. Engagement and Motivation
   • Traditional Psychometric Tests: Often seen as passive, leading to lower participant engagement.
   • Game Assessments: Designed to be engaging and enjoyable.

3. Performance Measurement
   • Traditional Psychometric Tests: merits on selected responses, percentile scores, or personality profiles.
   • Game Assessments: Captures performance based on in-game actions and gameplay.

4. Scoring and Feedback
   • Traditional Psychometric Tests: provides straightforward scores and limited feedback on performance.
   • Game Assessments: Offers dynamic scoring, real-time feedback, and detailed performance insights.

5. Candidate Experience
   • Traditional Psychometric Tests: May feel formal and detached.
   • Game Assessments: Offers a more interactive and enjoyable experience.

To enhance a candidate’s experience, game assessments may also introduce a storyline or characters or an environment. For example, the SkyRise City Arctic Shores game-based assessment uses a fascinating environment to immerse you in the experience.

The Nautics game by Talent Litmus is another good game assessment test that employs a beautiful, complex environment to help keep you engaged.

What are the various types of game assessments? Keep reading as we cover the most commonly used game assessments you should prepare for.

Back to Contents

Types of Game-Based and Gamified Assessments

The various types of game-based and gamified assessments each focus on specific attributes or behaviours. The game assessment you’ll take will likely depend on the skills or behaviours that your employer is looking for. Some of the most common types of game assessments used by employers include:

1. Interactive Gamified Assessments
2. Single Game Assessments
3. Job-Simulation Game-Based Assessments
4. Behavioral Gamified Assessments
5. Emotional Intelligence Game-Based Assessments

Let’s delve into what each of these game assessment types is all about, starting with interactive games.

1. Interactive Gamified Assessments

What are interactive gamified assessments?

Interactive gamified assessments are traditional psychometric tests, where you will perform actions like moving or circling answers instead of just clicking. While they enhance the user experience, they still primarily focus on measuring skills not behaviours. 

What are examples of interactive gamified assessments?

Gamified numerical, logical, situational judgement and personality tests are the most common interactive assessments and they are offered by popular game assessment providers such as Pymetrics, SHL and AON Cut-e.

Which roles are assessed using interactive gamified assessments?

Interactive gamified assessments are employed for a variety of roles, such as digital, tech, marketing, advertising, and business development roles.

2. Single Game Assessments

What are single game assessments?

Single game assessments assess specific competencies like numerical, memory, or logical skills through short, interactive tasks presented in a game layout. Instead of typical questions, they offer generic instructions and use standard game tactics to measure abilities and competencies.

Arctic Shores and Pymetrics provide a series of single assessment games that help employers learn a lot from candidates’ gameplay and as these games vary significantly, there is no single way to approach them.

Which roles are assessed using single game assessments?

What is an example of a single game assessment?

A good example of a single game assessment is the BART (Balloon Analogue Risk Task) game, also known as the Balloon game commonly used by PwC.

Watch this video below to discover more about the Balloon game-based assessment and why employers use them.

Practice with our Balloon game designed to emulate the experience of the games used in the recruitment process by major employers such as the PwC balloon game.

How to ace single game assessments

3. Job-Simulation Game-based Assessments

What are job simulation game based assessments?

Job-simulation game-based assessments immerse you in a virtual work environment tailored to the specific company you have applied to. This type of game assessment measures your work preferences and judgement through situational judgement tests and work personality questionnaires.

The dynamic and engaging nature of job-simulation game-based assessments offers a unique perspective on your capabilities, making them a valuable resource for identifying the most suitable candidates for specific positions.

Which roles are assessed using job simulation game assessments?

Job simulation game assessments are commonly used for roles that require practical decision-making and problem-solving skills, such as management, operations, engineering, technical, healthcare, and project management roles.

4. Behavioural Gamified Assessments

What are behavioural gamified assessments?

Behavioural gamified assessments measure behavioural preferences. In most cases, these assessments are suited to assess tolerance for risk and decision-making competencies. They are often used for roles requiring patience and specific competencies such as teaching, healthcare, and counselling roles.

Behavioural games typically focus on one or two required competencies and attributes. For example, our PassCode game-based assessment emulates the experience of game assessments which measure your resilience and attention.

5. Emotional Intelligence Game-Based Assessments

What are emotional intelligence game based assessments?

Emotional Intelligence game-based assessments are interactive tests designed to measure your ability to understand and manage emotions. These assessments utilise game-like elements and scenarios to gauge how well a person recognizes emotions, empathises with others, and handles emotional situations.

Check out our video below which goes into detail explaining Emotion Intelligence game-based assessments, how they measure candidates and why employers use them:

What roles are assessed using emotional intelligence game assessments?

How to ace emotional intelligence game based assessments

At GF, we provide a practice emotions game-based assessment called i-EQ. It is a practice tool to help develop and improve your confidence in emotional recognition.

Now, who are the common providers of these various types of game assessments? Read on further to find out the top game assessment providers that major employers work with.

Back to Contents

Game Assessment Providers

Who provides game assessments for recruitment?

The various types of game-based psychometric test and gamified assessments we highlighted above are provided to employers by several recognised assessment providers. Some top game assessment providers are;

• Assess Candidates
• Pymetrics
• Arctic Shores
• AON Cut-e
• HireVue
• SHL
• Criteria Corp (formerly Revelian)
• Talegent
• The Talent Games
• SOVA
• Talent Litmus

So how do you prepare and ace game-based and gamified assessments? Well, that is what we get into in the next section. Find out below!

Back to Contents

How to Prepare for Game-Based and Gamified Assessments

Below we highlight our 7 top tips that we found to be super useful to prepare for your upcoming game assessments.

1. Play similar games or practice interactive challenges to get accustomed to the mechanics commonly used in these assessments. Gamified test practice will help improve your performance for the real test.

2. Uncover the key insights from practice games/sessions to identify areas for improvement and adjust your approach accordingly. Ensure to go through the feedback you get from the practice games.

3. Pay attention to the scoring system and objectives of the games to better understand what is expected of you during the assessment. While it is a test, some game assessments will also have winning and losing elements.

4. Identify the competencies and skills the game assessments aim to measure and focus on honing those skills through practice or self-study. Research the role you are applying for and the game assessment you are likely to take.

5. Develop your adaptability and flexibility to handle unexpected challenges effectively because game-based and gamified assessments often feature dynamic scenarios.

6. Use the best device for the game as recommended by the game assessment provider and employer. Your reaction speed may be greater on a desktop computer with a mouse than on a phone or tablet.

7. Read the instructions carefully. Game-based psychometric tests and gamified assessments may have dynamic instructions and objectives, so read them carefully before and during the game test to understand what is required.

For even more game-based assessment tips on how to ace your upcoming game assessments, watch our short video below.

Game-based and gamified assessments are becoming increasingly adopted by global employers. In the next section, we highlight companies using game assessments and some reasons for using them in recruitment processes.

Back to Contents

Companies That Use Game-based/Gamified Assessments

Some examples of multinational companies that have switched to using game-based/gamified assessments during their hiring process include:

Accenture	Tesco
EY	Shell
PwC	ANZ
KPMG	Deloitte
HSBC	Unilever
Boston Consulting Group (BCG)	AstraZeneca
P&G	Siemens

To access detailed employer guides for over 100 of the world’s major companies, visit our step-by-step employer guides offering insights to help you prepare and stand out from your fellow candidates.

These major employers use game assessments because they offer several benefits compared to traditional tests. Below we identify some of the key reasons why employers use game assessments to hire.

Why do Employers use game assessments to hire?

Companies use game-based assessments for various reasons, as these innovative assessment methods offer several advantages over traditional assessment approaches. Some of the key reasons why companies use game-based assessments include;

1. Enhanced Candidate Experience and Engagement: Game-based assessments engage candidates through interactive experiences, using gaming elements to capture and sustain their interest throughout.

2. Behavioural Assessment: Game-based assessments accurately measure vital behavioral traits like decision-making, problem-solving, and teamwork, which are crucial for predicting job performance and cultural fit.

3. Data-Driven Decision Making: Game assessments generate rich and objective data on candidates’ performance, facilitating data-driven hiring decisions and reducing bias in the hiring process.

4. Realistic Job Simulations: Game-based assessments can simulate job scenarios with storylines and environments related to the role, offering practical insights into candidates’ on-the-job capabilities.

5. Personalization and Adaptability: Game-based assessments are customisable to evaluate role-specific skills and offer personalised evaluations. They can be adapted to more unique employer specifications.

6. Predictive Validity: Research suggests that well-designed game-based assessments can have high predictive validity, accurately forecasting job performance and potential long-term success in the role.

7. No Gaming Experience Needed: These assessments are user-friendly and don’t demand prior gaming experience. Each game is easy to play by just following the instructions.

And with that, we’ve covered all you’ll need to know for your next gamified assessment. 

But wait!

Before you ace your next game-based assessment, check out our FAQ section below to find even more answers to frequently asked questions concerning game assessments.

Back to Contents

Game-based and Gamified Assessment FAQs

How to pass Arctic Shores, PwC, Shell, and other Game-based Assessments?

To pass PwC, Shell, and other Game-based Assessments, familiarise yourself with various game-based assessment elements and practice similar games to improve your skills. This helps you become more comfortable with the interactive nature of these assessments.

What is a game-based interview?

A game-based interview is another term for a game-based assessment. They are hiring assessments built as games to assess candidates’ skills in a quick and engaging experience.

Are game-based assessments reliable?

The reliability of game assessments depend on the goals of the employer, such as the skills or behaviours they aim to assess and the effectiveness of the game in measuring these desired traits. 

Are game assessments used only in specific industries?

Game assessments are versatile and can be used across various industries to evaluate different skills and competencies.

What are the benefits of game-based psychometric tests for candidates?

• Enhanced engagement during the assessment.
• Enjoyable experience throughout the evaluation process.
• Absence of bias in the recruitment process.
• Level playing field to showcase creativity and innovation.
• Constructive candidate feedback for personal improvement.