How To Crack That Aptitude Test

Applications are a lengthy process and amount to more than a CV. After all, resumes are tight and streamlined, and can’t truly sell the full magnitude of your personality or skillset. It’s a teasing taste, a peek behind the curtain. There’s so much more to pursuing a role than these quick fire claims, and rhetoric can only propel you so far.

Sooner or later, your potential employer will want to see the proof in the pudding, and that’s where the aptitude test comes in. While you won’t find any answers to specific aptitude questions here, a few tips on tackling them in the general sense should suffice!

Verbal and numerical reasoning

In a rollicking twist, there are a huge number of job applicants out there who shamelessly lie on their resumes to secure a role they’ve never even earned! Whether it’s fabricating a past role or stretching grades from schooling days, CVs and cover letters can be embellished beyond reason.

Cue the verbal and numerical reasoning tests, designed to put people through the motions and suss out the fibbers. Brought in with a time limit, candidates must bolster their brains to employ the skills they learnt in high school. Ultimately, it’s a measure of competency, making sure the minimum standard is reached!

Consequently, it’s a good idea to whip out the old text books from your schooling days if you haven’t dabbled in those worlds for a while. Run through a quick refresher in ratios and percentages, and practice punctuation and pronunciation. After all, education has more of a point than simply gaining a grade!

Situational judgement

Some people need structure in order to process everything around them. Whether it’s a chaotic calendar, a neat notepad or an iPhone notification to put the bins out, the candidate who is too dependent on planning can find themselves stuck in a rut pretty fast when random problems occur.

Nevertheless, the situational judgement test is put out there to break a chunk off the dependency mould, an analysis to make sure candidates are adaptable and flexible under pressure. Pitching random work-based scenarios for the applicant to tackle, only those who remain level headed and panic-free have a chance of claiming victory.

To adjust your temperament to the high stakes situations, it is vital you have a true understanding of the company you are applying for. Everything from what they do to who they are has to be known inside and out so you can truly deal with the chaos that comes your way. Ultimately, you won’t know exactly what’s coming, but you can try and prepare for a few things that may by clueing yourself in on the business goals.

Move on quick!

In every paper, a question is lurking somewhere designed to throw you under a bus. They’re little devils masquerading as insightful queries, and can take the time of answering several of the easier tasks.

However, when it comes to the aptitude test you are really are up against the clock. In the end, it doesn’t matter if you have an extra an hour or an extra day, if you don’t know the answer you don’t know answer!

If the conundrum is really that simple, move on with haste and at least leave something behind that shows your train of thought. After all, some tests require you to explain your thinking afterwards at interview, leaving some wiggle room in explaining your approach to the employer.

Ultimately, there are some employability tests you can’t even pass or fail, gauging personalities and personal approaches to a problem. Sometimes the route to the answer yields more to an employer than the answer itself!

Practice with past examples

When faced with a test, it can be stressful thinking about just what it might contain. Are you in for a sickening shock? Do you need to prepare? How hard might it be?

Thankfully, these questions are all answerable before the day looms into view. There are free practice aptitude tests out there on the web, meaning that you can pit yourself in the situation repeatedly until you get things right. You can even review your own performance history or compare it against others working the same tests, making a handy research tool too!

Remember, this test can either seal the deal or be the deal breaker, and if practice makes perfect then you should strive for nothing less. It might seem intimidating at first to engage once again with numeracy, especially if you’ve hopped off the back of an unrelated degree. However, sometimes rewards lie in repetition, so get practicing!

Inspiring Interns is an internship and graduate jobs agency.