Assessment Tests: how to ace them

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Acing assessment tests

R.V. Vincelli - [email protected]

April 23, 2016

Many corporate employers require candidates to pass some form of test toassess their basic verbal interpretation, ability to understand tabular data andskills in logic as well as spatial thinking. Different companies partner with dif-

ferent test providers, and the choice may vary across different branches, so it isimportant to know what flavor of test you will have to face, in advance. In orderto pass a test you have to reach some threshold score in some combination of the parts composing the test - such threshold is set internally but you usuallymust do better than some percentage of the applying or ideal population foryour job, ie to fall into some predetermined percentile. Honestly, there are ex-ceptions. When filling in a technical position with an experienced professional,hiring managers may relax the thresholds. On the contrary, expect them to bemore strict on the grad hiring rounds. Finally, it depends on the industry aswell - for example assessment tests in banking and insurance are firms tend tobe harder than in, say, tax and accountancy.

This document is intended to be a small cookbook to help you pass these tests,in particular the logic and math parts, which are in any case similar amongmost of the test providers. A really good website to get started on the topic isGraduate Wings.

People think these tests - first and foremost logic puzzles - are also able toevaluate raw IQ. I disagree with this because you can actually study and learntechniques to do better, and you can train on a pretty large number of exercisesoffline that you are likely to encounter again during the real thing. This IQthing would be truth if you were faced new exercises at every test and you weresupposed to do them without any previous nonelementary piece of knowledge,which is hard to implement of course.

What’s the best way to prepare for these tests? It really depends on yourtime constraints IMHO - how soon will you have to sit the test. In any case youshould do a lot of exercises, where “a lot” is really many many - this shapes yourtechniques and gets you to know the many different kind of exercises around.But if you have really tight time bounds, then you may want to try to abstracta little and cook up some general rules covering as many cases as possible, tocompensate for the amount of exercises you won’t do - this was my approachand it paid, even if I had a lot of luck indeed. Anyway I am not incrediblyintelligent and I prepared the whole SHL thing in a few days - zero to nothing.

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1 Verbal test

In the standard form you will be presented quite a long text and a single andprecise, question to be answered in a True/False/Cannot say fashion. The sametext will usually appear in a few questions, so for two or three questions youwill work on the same text.

To boost you changes to make it:

• when training, improve your vocabolary in the target language first

• first read the question, then the text

• read carefully but quick - you already know what you are looking for sinceyou have just read the question

• don’t be dragged by previous knowledge or even common sense - answerthe question objectively by looking at the text only

2 Math test

The math test, also known as numerical test, is one to stress your skills in datainterpretation, being able to figure out quantitative facts by quickly inspectinggraphs and tables. It is not a test focused on your math skills, as it actuallyrequires highschool - if not lower - knowledge level. In my opinion the realchallenge is to deal with time, the fact that you may not review your answers,and that you really need to be razorsharp when jotting on paper and working

with your calculator. Again, your mileage may vary with respect to all of theseconstraints, it depends on the test provider.

A few practical hints:

• time is gold, keep everything close at hand, your scrapaper, calculator andmouse if you sit the test at a computer

• if you may use, or need, a calculator, better get one with a memory func-tion, and you should really practice on how to be quick hopping on thosekeys; a big plus if the calculator is user-friendly (eg. scientific mode, bigkeys, 000s and percentage keys; an app on your tablet is great too)

• start by reading the answer, even take half a minute for that, and onlythen inspect the data: this way you know what you are looking for; asee-saw technique is winning in general, swing back and forth betweenquestion and data until you get all to pieces to close in

• don’t get intimidated by the graphs: if you can’t get it after say 20 seconds,then treat yourself with some more time!

• don’t marry a question: if you can’t get reasonable understanding aftersay a minute, just skip it and move to the next - of course you may dothis only a few times otherwise your score might deteriorate fast

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• divorce from a question: if the question may not be answered, well this

can definitely be the case if None of the above or Cannot say are listed asanswers

• approximation: if at the end of a laborious calculation your result is notlisted, just pick the closest one - it is likely that you mistyped some digitsor left behind some terms

And always answer - a guess is better than a skip, the more educated the guessthe better. This applies to the logic tests too of course.

We will now go through the main tools you need during the numerical test.

Increasing a number by a percentage.

Say we have a number X = 77 to increase by 1% this is multiplying the numberby 1+.01 = 1.01, so 771.01 = 77.77. Dually for decreasing: 77(1−0.01) = 76.23.

Percentage increase.If the price of X goes down from 40 to 30 how much did it decrease?% = [(valuenew/valueold) − 1]100The new-old ratio is known as CPI - consumer price index . In our example:% = [(30/40) − 1]100 = (1.3 − 1)100 = 33.3%A percentage button may be handy for this calculation.

Reverse percentage.I give you the current price and the percent change, find the new price. It in-creased by 10% : 1 + .1 = 1.01; decreased by 9% : 1 − .09 = .91. Then take the

given price and the scores: pricetarget =

pricenewscore

Currency tables!

I find currency questions quite challenging as they can come in many differentforms, especially the tables.Example 1:

Other currencies To target currency From target currencyUSD 10.5USD 0.5PNDEUR 1.6EUR 8.1PNDYEN 10YEN 11PND

For every currency you read how many units of it you need to get a single unitof sterling, and how many units of sterling you need to get one unit of it. Sofor example:

• in order to get 1PND you need 10.5$

• 11PND is worth 1YEN

Tables will usually have a mixture of weak and strong currencies, or westerncurrencies alone. More often than not the Sterling will be the strongest. Usuallythe rates are realistic, but if the author is really evil they will just be random, to

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really make sure that you got the mechanism right, like in the table above. So

basically you’ll be able to clearly understand the flows by looking for the smallvalues in corrspondence of the Sterling. In general if with 1 unit of X you canget 1.40 units of Y then we say that that the XY conversion rate is 1.40.If 1U SD = 0.7EU R then how much is 100EU R in Dollars? This is a verytypical question and can be solved with a simple proportion:1U SD0.7EU R

= XUSD100EU R

so the answer is about 142.857$. This is a template: one hand of the equationis the conversion equation and the other hand is for the unknown, occurring atthe numerator so it’s easier - you just have a division - for a proportion:xα

= γ β

we get:x = γ

βα

Let’s consider:EU R → GBP : 0.6Y EN → GBP : 0.01 am I able to convert EUR into YEN? Yes! Define theequations as above - of course a symmetric rate is the implicit assumption.

Strength and weaknesses. If for example: 1U SD = 0.75EU R then we saythat the Dollar is weaker than the Euro - one unit of Dollar is not enough forone unit of Euro.

Avoid repetitive operations!. That is: leave conversions at the end. Itis an overkill to use a conversions app maybe but the important point is not tolose time around pounds and kilos. Example:

X Y

Gas price (EUR/liter) 1.03 1.0Usage (kilometer/liter) 15.1 20.2Distance (meter) 18000 20000

How much have I spent altogether if I used both cars X and Y? I calculatethe number of liters used leaving the conversion at the end: 18000

15.1 + 20000

20.2 =

1192.0523 + 990.1 = 3172.2513and this must be now divided by 1000 as one meter is one kilometer of course.A common variation could be to ask for the amount of gas consumed in gallons.

Natality rate. The number of newborns and deaths is usually expressed every1K inhabitants. So if the population amounts to Y just divide it by 1000 andmultiply it for the natality or mortality rate X - this gives absolute the numberof newborns or deaths per year. A common question is to estimate the differencein people given the total population and some rates, for example:60MIL/1000(ratebirth − ratedeath − ratemigrant)If this number is positive then the population is growing every year, decreasingotherwise. A common question is to compute the years needed for the popu-lation to reach some amount of people assuming fixed rates - can you work itout??Don’t forget: the population density is the number of people over the area.

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Common economical indexes. Although not very common in standard nu-

merical quizzes here is a list of them.• profit margin ratio = net income

net sales

• ROI = net incomeinvestment

• ROE = net incomeshareholder equality

• capitalization rate = net incomecosts

• DE = debitequity

• ROA = net incometotal assets

• EBIT = sales − expenses + other income

• net income = revenues − expenses

The VAT is just a percentage on the prices - of course leave it at the end, sumthe costs without it and calculate it on the total (distributivity FTW).

Graph interpretation.

• what’s the best/worst year - look at the data column by column, don’tcalculate anything only do so if you are really doubtful between two periods

• watch out for the difference proportional and absolute growths - look atthe steepness for the former, numerical values for the latter

• depreciation graphs, if you are asked to rebase you just have to multiplythe value of the years following the rebase year for 100

B where B is the

rebasing year value

Shoes and pens. One kind of table I find particularly ugly is that for largequantity orders: some item may be ordered only in intervals of quantities andthe more you order the less the order price. So for example:

1. 100 pieces for 20$

2. 200 10$

3. 300 5$

Make sure that actually the price is for the batch and not the item (foully trick).

3 Logic - inductive reasoning

Picking the next figure in the sequence, pointing out the odd one out, fit themissing puzzle piece: the original logic/inductive reasoning exercise falls intoone of these three categories. This kind of testing is sometimes referred to asspatial reasoning too. Enough with the criticism in their strength in assessingIQ skills (see intro above), a string of mind-bending MENSA-ready puzzles isdefinitely really hard to cope with during the test. But not impossible, of course.It is all about patterns and similarities, and the more of these you come to learn

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the larger the number of tools you have to approach and crack the puzzle. After

many exercises it is also not unlikely to encounter even the very same puzzlewhen sitting the real test.One cool thing about learning how to decode all sorts of puzzles is that it israther low-level thinking, in the sense that you will find asking yourself simplequestions, and verifying properties which are indeed rather simple. This givesintuition, at least abstract intuition, on how simple computational learners ac-tually work, which is a hot topic these days. I sincerely apologize for resortingto pen & paper as graphical support, I have searched around but could not findany specific LATEXmodule, and it is indeed unfeasible to use primitives - feel freeto email me suggestions on this.

We will assume that the exercise is sequence completion - so SHL - but whatwe say here largely generalizes to similar styles like odd-1-out. Any puzzle is

a sequence of arrangements of elements and every element has a property , ormore, which changes over the sequence. The properties may not be independentone of eachother. A common list of feature elements:

Figure 1: Puzzle example; the feature is a line and the property is the numberof lines, which is always four, so A is the answer.

• line

• points and dots

• arrows

• shapes (squares, triangles, circles)

• stars

And how does a feature usually change along a sequence? They can:

• rotate

• reflect

• in, decrease in shape

• change color

• evolve (eg the number of edges increases)

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and a few more, combinations possible too.

The following pro-tips can be your strength when dealing with all this geo-metrical madness:

• focus on one feature at the time

• you must find some pattern, there must be one at least, and usually thereare no more than four

• symmetry of the tileset and artistic effects play no role in the game, so donot even try (see below)

• look at the figure for a few seconds and assimilate the details

•

count the items with no rush - it is really easy to take a wrong count andthat can get you a wrong answer too

• if you have a theory for a schema, then this must hold for every tile, noexception

• get familiar with the language and the base cases: for example, a circle isusually assumed to have one edge only

• particular elements have designated meanings, eg an arrow may point tothe position of the next object

• SHL does not have overly-complicated exercise layouts, so no Sudoku stuff,but tackle overcomplicated exercises too while training

We will go through a number of (badly) sketeched graphics exemplifying themost common situations.

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Figure 2: Rotation; the triangle rotates 90 degrees clockwise as the sequencegoes on.

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Figure 3: Partitioning; the square is partitioned into two, four, eight, sixteenparts, so the fifth figure would have to show thrirtytwo parts.

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Figure 4: Reflection; vertical and horizontal reflections alternate - the fifth tilewould then be exactly the same as the first.

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Figure 5: Just a rotation but the element is interesting, a texture patch.

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Figure 6: Superimposition; the square rotates clockwise whereas the circle an-ticlockwise, thus the square will periodically hide the circle.

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Figure 7: A simple combination on the texture and superimposition schemas.

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Figure 8: Indicator; the arrow can just be an element but I have seen it usedas an indicator too - here it points to the corner where the circle will appear inthe next figure.

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Figure 9: Period. Of course a trigger may be higher than one, meaning thatsome feature might change every n tiles as well. Here the stars is a fixed one,appearing in every other two tiles.

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Figure 10: Count indicators. Zeroth tile: just the indicator, value two. First tile:two elements at the corner where the indicator on the zeroth tile was (triangles),plus a new indicator (square). Second tile: again predicted elements (star) and

indicator. (bars).

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Figure 12: Non-correlations. It is not true that a sunny day implies a smileyface and clouds an unhappy one - just like in real life - so always try to finda pattern and stick to it. In this example we are tempted to choose the rainyface to complete some face-weather evolution, but that is not a thing, insteadwe should look at the indicator feature to predict the forecast.

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Figure 13: Count count count. We stress that you should count elements with-out rushing, possibly double checking. In this figure the number of connectionsin the right half of the tile is determined by the number of circles in the corner.

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Figure 14: Edge sums; in this example, the sum of the number of edges isconstant to eight, remember that a circle has one edge.

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Figure 15: Concentric figures; a very simple schema where the small figure willbe the next large figure.

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Figure 16: Wang tiles; complete the sequence by picking the tile whose left edgeis compatible with the right edge of the last one.

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Figure 17: Rows and columns; in this puzzle-like sequence columns shift to theright; the black figures rotate clockwise while the symbols reflect vertically.

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Figure 18: Dimensions matter (in sequences); both the triangle and the circleget larger and larger.

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Figure 19: Binary sums. Let a black line be binary 1, then two superimposedblack lines cancel out as 1 + 1 gives 0 in binary arithmetic. In the figure then,the third tile is constructed by looking at the first and second, the fourth to

second and third and so on, coming soon to periodicity.

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Figure 20: Summing objects. We apply the same principle as above to the setsof circles. In the upper left subtile new black circles are generated, and we startwith a white circle in the upper right. Circles always move clockwise but whiteones rest for a round. We see it only once as the rule is: if there are white circlesalone, show them, otherwise sum them all with the blacks.

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Ok! And since it is really important to practise a lot we know, here is a

comprehensive list - just hit in Google the filenames in case you have problemsdownloading from the page.

Good luck!!

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http://studentbounty.com/studyguides/online-tests-shl-exam-paper/http://studentbounty.com/studyguides/online-tests-shl-exam-paper/

Assessment Tests: how to ace them

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