More employers add an aptitude test to their recruitment process every year, especially for management, analytical and customer-facing roles. Before you add one to yours, it is worth being clear about what an aptitude test measures, when it helps and when it does not.
What is an aptitude test?
An aptitude test measures how a candidate handles a kind of information or problem: figures, written passages, patterns, workplace situations. It does not test knowledge of your industry or your software. The questions are usually not difficult in themselves; the test is timed, every candidate sees the same questions and the result shows how accurately and quickly they work under the same conditions.
Why use an aptitude test before interviews?
Most employers use the test after the CV sift and before the interview. At that point it does two things. It shortens the interview list to the candidates who can do the work, and it gives you something concrete to ask about: a candidate who scored well on numerical reasoning but struggled with verbal reasoning deserves a different conversation from one who did the reverse.
Benefits of aptitude tests for interviews
Objectivity and fairness
Everyone answers the same questions and is scored the same way. That reduces the influence of unconscious bias at the first stage, where it does the most damage, and gives candidates without the usual background a way to show what they can do.
Lower cost
Interviews are expensive in hours. A short test before interview means you interview five people rather than fifteen, and spend the hours on the candidates most likely to be hired.
Seeing beyond the CV
A CV shows where someone has been. An aptitude test shows how they think, which matters more when the work is new, the tools are changing or candidates come from different sectors.
Can aptitude tests predict employee success?
Decades of selection research place general ability tests among the stronger predictors of job performance, alongside structured interviews and work samples, and well above unstructured interviews, years of experience and education. The exact strength is debated and the prediction is never perfect, so the research supports using a test as part of a structured process rather than as the decision itself. Our article on whether psychometric testing predicts performance goes through the evidence.
Aptitude test examples
Numerical reasoning tests
Candidates interpret tables and charts, work with percentages and ratios and draw conclusions from figures. Use a numerical reasoning test for finance, analysis, sales and operations roles.
Verbal reasoning tests
Candidates read a passage and decide whether statements follow from it. Use a verbal reasoning test for roles that depend on written instructions, contracts or customer correspondence.
Logical reasoning tests
Candidates work out the rule in a sequence of shapes and choose what comes next. Use a logical reasoning test for analytical, technical and graduate roles where people have to make sense of unfamiliar problems.
Situational judgement tests
Candidates read a workplace situation and choose the most and least effective responses. Use a situational judgement test for customer-facing, team and supervisory roles.
How to use them well
Choose one to three tests that match the work, run them before the interview, set a sensible threshold rather than chasing the top score, and use the results to shape your interview questions. On Test Candidates every test is available from the first day, candidates sit them in their browser and you see a result for each test the moment they finish. Your first candidate results are free.
