Psychometric and aptitude tests
Graduate recruiters often use a wide range of selection tests, (aptitude / psychometric tests), to assess specific skills as part of their recruitment process and we can help you to prepare for these.
Guides to psychometric and aptitude tests
Career Discovery provides resources to help you prepare for psychometric and aptitude tests. Discover the tests typically used by graduate recruiters, gain expert tips on how to prepare for them, and access free sample questions so that you can practice before trying the real thing.
Our UCL guides include top tips and practice tests:
- Psychometric tests
- Graduates First - free practice tests
- Practice Aptitude Tests - free practice tests
- GMAT: Graduate Management Admission Test
You can also browse a broad range of informative articles from TARGETjobs. Search for key words such as psychometric tests, or aptitude tests to view a broad range of resources covering numerical reasoning tests, verbal reasoning tests, critical thinking tests, situational judgement tests, diagrammatic, logical or spatial reasoning tests, in-tray exercises, and personality questionnaires.
Paid aptitude tests provided
(don’t buy your own!)
Although many of the sites and resources suggested above will provide access to free sample tests / questions, some will also give the option of purchasing tests which give access to additional questions and more detailed feedback. At UCL Careers we partner with two major test providers to save you having to pay for these yourself. You simply need to register* via the links below to access any tests that are relevant to you.
Graduates First
The free tests you have access to include:
- 7 x verbal reasoning
- 7 x numerical reasoning
- 8 x logical reasoning
- 1 x in-tray exercise
- 2 x situational judgement
- 3 x game-based tests (cognitive memory / attention and BART)
- 1 x critical thinking (Watson Glaser)
- 1 x workstyle personality
- 3 x CAPP and 7 examples of the IBM ‘IPAT’ test
- 4 x coding tests (Python, C#, JavaScript and General Ability)
Note: To register to access the test materials for free, you will need a UCL email address. Recent Graduates should read the information about ‘Email for Life’ on the alumni relations website for details on accessing your UCL email account after graduation.
Practice Aptitude Tests
The free tests you have access to include:
- 5 x verbal reasoning
- 5 x numerical reasoning
- 5 x diagrammatic reasoning
- 5 x situational judgement
- 1 x mechanical reasoning
- 1 x emotional intelligence
- 1 x resilience
- 1 x ‘big five’
Note: To register to access the test materials for free, you will need a UCL email address. Recent Graduates should read the information about ‘Email for Life’ on the alumni relations website for details on accessing your UCL email account after graduation.
Aptitude test loan books
The IOE Library holds several psychometric and aptitude test books that you can borrow to work through sample test questions in your own time. Books available cover commonly used tests such as numerical/verbal reasoning plus a wide range of other professional level selection tests.
Visit the library catalogue to view titles available.
Prepare for tests with one-to-one support
If you have been invited to take any type of aptitude test, you can get one-to-one advice on what to expect and how to prepare or get individual feedback on your results from any of our online test suggested above through a careers conversation.
Use events to find out about tests
We organise a wide range of events where you can find out more about different tests used by recruiters, get tips on how to prepare for them or get hands-on experience in doing them.
- Career Essentials programme (Repeated throughout the year): A series of Careers Consultant led workshops aimed at all students and recent graduates which includes an interactive aptitude tests workshop.
- Sector-specific recruitment fairs (Autumn Term only): A chance to network with large numbers of major graduate recruiters from a specific sector to get insider tips on the types of test they use and how to prepare for them.
- Jobs Market (Summer Term only): A chance to network with large numbers of major graduate recruiters from a variety of different sectors who can tell you more about the different tests they use.
- Employer presentations (Autumn and Spring Terms): Talks by individual companies about their current vacancies which will usually include an overview of their recruitment process with tips on how to prepare for things like aptitude tests.
