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Examples of practice for online verbal reasoning test questions: useful practice for training contract applicants
In the article below, none of the exemplars have been written by or in collaboration with any testing provider. Candidates are advised to look at their learning materials carefully.
In some verbal reasoning tests, you are usually provided with a passage of information and required to evaluate a set of statements by selecting one of the following possible answers:
A – True (The statement follows logically from the information or opinions contained in the passage)
B – False (The statement is logically false from the information or opinions contained in the passage)
C – Cannot Say (Cannot determine whether the statement is true or false without further information)
This presentation is on the verbal reasoning test.
In the example below, you might give your answer to each question by clicking on either A, B or C. You will be told whether your answer is correct or not.
Example passage:
Over 60 years ago, evolutionary biologist Bernhard Rensch calculated that males are typically the larger sex in big-bodied species such as humans, whereas females outdo them in small-bodied species such as spiders. Now it turns out that many plants obey Rensch’s rule too. Most plants produce both male and female sex organs, but around 7 percent are dioecious, meaning individuals are purely male or female. Recent results provide that female stems also must be large enough to display the fruit and support the animals that spread the pollen or seeds. If metabolism, predators or climate promote the evolution of smaller plants, however, males can shrink because their gametes are smaller.
Examples of questions might be:
1. Over 80 years ago, Bernard Rensch calculated that males are typically the larger sex in big-bodied species.
CANNOT SAY – the passage says that Bernard Rensch calculated this over 60 years ago, but it is not possible to say from the passage whether he calculated this over 80 years ago.
2. Around 7% of plants are dioecious, but it is not necessary for female stems to be large enough to display the fruit.
FALSE – whilst the first part of the statement is true according to the passage, the second part of the statement is clearly false, making the entire statement false
Here are example questions with a business theme.
QUESTION
Business schools and venture capital firms have long organised entrepreneur-in-residence programs, tapping seasoned founders for a year or two to mentor students or evaluate potential investments. Now U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services are launching what it calls its own “Entrepreneurs in residence” initiative, to bring business leaders and academics into the agency to meet regularly with officials to improve the visa process. The goal is to “capture the full power of the laws that currently exist to attract talent to spur entrepreneurial growth, to maximize innovation – all for the benefit of our economy and the American worker“, according to agency director Alejandro Mayorkas. Specifics on the push Mayorkas announced today are still being hammered out. Names of the participants and mechanics on how the in-person meetings will work have not been announced yet, though the organiser expects to do so in the next week or so.
Venture capital firms have only recently been involved in organising entrepreneur-in-residence programs.
FALSE. The passage states that venture capital firms have ‘long organised’ such programs.
Names of the participants and information about how the in-person meetings will work will be announced within the next week.
CANNOT SAY. The passage provides that it is expected that this information will be provided within the next week, but it is not definitely the case that the information will be announced within the next week.
QUESTION
The number of so-called contingent workers has not been measured since 2005, when the Bureau of Labour Statistics last calculated the population. And now that the bureau has requested funding to resume the headcount, the Freelancers Union advocacy group is calling for changes in the way these workers are labeled and how their contribution to the U.S. economy is being measured. In a new policy paper, the Freelancers Union argues that the government is “ignoring a crucial, and growing, segment of the economy that is transforming the U.S. workforce.” The BLS’s ‘contingent work supplement’ was discontinued six years ago due to lack of funding. That year, contingent workers, which the BLS defines as labourers who consider their jobs temporary, made up about 4 percent of total employment.
‘Contingent workers’ are workers for work for an organisation on a non-permanent basis.
CANNOT SAY. This is in fact a valid definition of ‘contingent workers’, but this definition is not provided in the passage.
The BLS’ ‘contingent work supplement’ was discontinued a month ago due to lack of funding.
FALSE. This supplement was discontinued six years ago.
QUESTION
Small business owners are suffering from an economy hurt by reduced consumer? spending and stagnant growth, according to a new survey by the National Small? Business Association, a Washington, D.C., trade group. More than one-third say they aren’t confident about the future of their business from a financial perspective. Eighty-eight percent anticipate a recession or flat economy in the next year, an increase from 78 percent six months ago. Forty-five percent expect no growth opportunities in the coming year, up from 40 percent in December. Given the ongoing economic difficulties the U.S. has faced the past three years, small business owners overwhelmingly cited economic uncertainty as the most significant challenge to the future growth and survival of their business, according to the report.
Small business owners are suffering from lack of bank loans.
CANNOT SAY. Consumer spending and stagnant growth are cited as causes of hurt for small business owners, but one cannot exclude the possibility of small business owners suffering from lack of bank loans.
Six months ago 10 percent anticipated a recession or flat economy in the next year.
FALSE. Six months ago 78 percent anticipated a recession or flat economy in the next year.
To access lots of free materials, including factsheets and videos on psychometric tests, please go to the ‘Legal Recruit’ website.
@Legal_Recruit is also on Twitter here.
To take a free online trial, look at the second half of this page.
LegalAware four-part series on psychometric tests: Factsheet 4 – Online tests for individuals with reading disability or visual impairments
This is the fourth (and final) factsheet in a four-part series looking at psychometric testing.
It’s really important to realise that if you have a reading disability or visual impairment, the test administrators, designers and corporate law firm are obliged to enter into both the letter and spirit of helping you. Once you have all the ‘reasonable adjustments’ successfully implemented (if and only if, rather), it is perfectly possible for you to ‘train’ to become good at these tests.
Reading difficulty (dyslexia)
Dyslexia can be a legally recognised disability depending on its severity. Therefore, when applicants or candidates are being assessed, the qualified test user should have due regard to the employment provisions of the Disability Discrimination Act (1995) or Equality Act (2010); this makes it unlawful for an employer to treat a disabled person less favourably than a non-disabled person without good reason.
Discrimination is outlawed in a wide range of employment activities including selection, promotion and training. Employers have a duty to make “reasonable adjustments” to selection processes and working conditions so that disabled persons are not placed at a substantial disadvantage
The definition of the British Dyslexia Association mentions the impact dyslexia can have on other functions as well as literacy.
The BDA defines dyslexia as:
‘A combination of abilities and difficulties which affect the learning process in one or more of reading, spelling and writing. Accompanying weaknesses may be identified in areas of speed processing, short-term memory, sequencing, auditory and/or visual perception, spoken language and motor skills. It is particularly related to mastering and using written language, which may include alphabetic, numeric and musical notation.’
In selection for a training contract, an individual with dyslexia is likely to encounter difficulty with tests of verbal reasoning, spelling and functional literacy. The law requires that accommodations are made for disabled people including those with dyslexia to ensure that selection procedures do not disadvantage them. The employer is concerned with eliciting accurate information on abilities to use in making decisions.
The standardised nature of these tests is one of the main contributors to their effectiveness and objectivity. Arbitrary modifications to the test or administration procedure are likely to invalidate the results and render standard norm groups and score interpretations meaningless.
A common modification for individuals with dyslexia is to adjust the timing of the test. However, the amount of extra time required will depend on the way the dyslexia manifests itself, its severity, the test(s) being used and their relationship to the job requirements. Only a relevant professional can determine what is appropriate.
Whether adjustments have been made to standard test procedures or not, careful administration can help ensure that individuals with dyslexia have a fair opportunity to demonstrate their skills.
As with many disabilities, stress may exacerbate the impact of dyslexia. Therefore, a calm and understanding approach on the part of the administrator is important.
People with dyslexia may have difficulty with test instructions. This can be due to reading difficulties, or to a difficulty with short term memory and/or sequencing which is common with dyslexia.
Useful contacts
The British Dyslexia Association
Contact details here
National Helpline
For all dyslexia related enquiries.
Tel: 0845 251 9002
Email: helpline@bdadyslexia.org.uk
Our Helpline, staffed by volunteers, is open from 10:00a.m. until 4:00p.m. Monday to Friday, and open late on Tuesday and Wednesday from 5:00 – 7:00p.m.
Specialist Teacher and Accreditation Enquiries
Tel: 0845 251 9003
Email: accreditation@bdadyslexia.org.uk
Office and Administrative Enquiries
Tel: 0845 251 9003
Fax: 0845 251 9005.
Postal Address:
Unit 8 Bracknell Beeches, Old Bracknell Lane, Bracknell, RG12 7BW.
- Admin and customer services: admin@bdadyslexia.org.uk
- Helpline: helpline@bdadyslexia.org.uk
- Accreditation: accreditation@bdadyslexia.org.uk
- Conferences: conference@bdadyslexia.org.uk
- Quality Mark: qualitymark@bdadyslexia.org.uk
- Training: training@bdadyslexia.org.uk
Equality and Human Rights Commission
Our Helpline
England: 0845 604 6610
Textphone: 0845 604 6620
Email: englandhelpline@equalityhumanrights.com
Scotland: 0845 604 5510
Textphone: 0845 604 5520
Email: scotlandhelpline@equalityhumanrights.com
Wales: 0845 604 8810
Textphone: 0845 604 8820
Email: waleshelpline@equalityhumanrights.com
Visual impairments and the law
A person who is registered or certified blind or partially sighted is automatically regarded as disabled under the Disability Discrimination Act (1995). However, even without registration, it is likely that a person with significantly limited vision which is not easily corrected using glasses or contact lenses will be considered disabled under the provisions of the Act.
The DDA makes it unlawful for an employer to treat a disabled person less favourably than a non-disabled person and those who provide services must make them accessible to clients with disabilities. When tests are being used in connection with employment (e.g. in making selection decisions) employers have a duty to make reasonable adjustments so that disabled persons are not placed at a substantial disadvantage.
Disabled individuals have the right to expect the same quality of service, including accuracy of diagnostics and assessment as other users of the service.
About visual impairments
Visual impairment covers a wide range of conditions.
Even a person who is registered blind may have some residual vision, e.g. the ability to discern light from dark or even quite good acuity within a severely limited field of vision.
Partial sight also covers many different types of conditions. These can range from very blurred vision to loss of some areas of the field of vision. For some people the act of focusing can be difficult, this can mean that reading difficult, as it is necessary to constantly refocus on the next portion of text.
A visual impairment may occur alone or in combination with other conditions.
Some people are born with visual impairments or have lived with the disability for a long time and have been taught or developed their own strategies for coping with both the practical difficulties of living and dealing with information usually presented in text form. For those with more residual vision, texts are typically accessed using large print and/or various magnification and lighting aids. Aids can include powerful spectacle lenses, free-standing magnifiers placed on top of a text, often with an integral light source.
Impact on testing
Any task where materials are presented visually, whether on paper, computer screen or as objects to be manipulated, will cause difficulty for a visually impaired person. This will include the vast majority of psychometric tests.
In order to assess a person with a visual disability, it is likely to be necessary to
- make adjustments to standardised test administration procedures, use alternate
- forms of materials, or both. However, such changes to a test cannot be made without affecting its reliability and validity.
The standardised nature of psychometric tests is one of the main contributors to their effectiveness and objectivity, and arbitrary modifications to the test or administration procedure are likely to invalidate the results and render standard norm groups and score interpretations meaningless. Some test takers may want to bring along some special equipment or ask for specific lighting conditions.
Practical advice during the testing session
Whether adjustments have been made to standard test procedures or not, careful administration can help ensure that the test results for someone with a visual impairment remain valid.
- A calm and understanding approach on the part of the administrator is important.
- If test administration times are greatly extended consider whether breaks are needed to prevent you / the candidate from becoming overtired.
- Make a note any adjustments made, or any other non-standard occurrences.
- If further advice is required in interpreting the results, make sure you consultant the recruiter from your corporate law firm, who may wish to contact the test publisher or consult with a Chartered Psychologist with expertise in visual impairment.
The new @Legal_Recruit verbal reasoning practice assessment for law students
The @Legal_Recruit system (which will be available here) is a very attractive easy-to-use cloud-based service which will allow @Legal_Recruit learners to complete sample tests, under real assessment conditions.
It will be available on Monday 3 October 2011 for the first time.
Current law students, who are doing the GDL, LPC, LLB(Hons) or LLM, especially those who are seeking training contracts or vacation placements for 2013/4/5 being made available in the next academic year may find this new service/product useful. It will be available on the internet via a secure website, and will cost £7.50 for unrestricted lifetime use. All Legal Recruit learners will have their own secure website username and password, and be invited to participate in the development of the huge bank of validated questions. These questions are set in a fair way, with due attention to equality, diversity and culture.
This product has been built because it is felt by many that law students, the staff of their colleagues/universities (including their academics and their career services) and corporate law recruiting managers that the pivotal importance of the verbal reasoning test is grossly underestimated. This is not sensible, given the intense effort needed to complete any qualification in law. However, if your performance in a verbal reasoning test, and you fail to meet the cut-off score, it is possible that you will not be invited for interview, despite having a II.1 or above. This is clearly a tragedy.
Such practice will be ideal for any law students needing to complete a SHL Direct assessment for their real training contract/vacation placement application. Candidates are strongly advised to look, as a top priority, the practice tests in the practice area of the SHL website. There you can take a full-length verbal reasoning test which has been made available from the main SHL Direct website and it’s well worth looking at the example questions. You’ll also most likely enjoy looking at the advice given about verbal reasoning tests on leading corporate law recruitment sites, such as Eversheds and Clifford Chance. Obviously, Legal_Recruit does not actively endorse any of the entities above, or vice versa.
There will be very clear instructions in the @Legal_Recruit practice assessments which are akin to the current SHL verbal reasoning instructions. In the practice test, you are allowed to go backwards, although in the real assessment you will not be given this option. You must complete the practice examples before you do the test, and you are told not to press any function keys or do any background jobs such as printing during the test itself.
The word count per passage will ideally vary from 70 to 150, with a mean length of 107. Passages will avoid as far as possible the use of semi-colons, and be of no shorter than 8-10 words. They will be written in plain English, with no spelling or grammar errors. The passages will therefore avoid American spelling or American English. The mean number of words in a sentence will be about 15-20.
Assessments will consist of 30 questions, containing 15 passages (2 questions per passage). The 15 passages will be selected at random by the Legal_Recruit system from a huge database consisting of an equal number of questions in the following 16 subject areas.
- Biology
- Business
- Economics
- Education
- Engineering
- Environment
- Geography
- Geology
- Health and Safety
- Human resources
- Medicine
- Modern Languages
- Physics
- Technology
- Transport
@Legal_Recruit follows the leading twitter accounts in the world which daily produce news stories, which make excellent narratives for the verbal reasoning assessment that Legal_Recruit will be offering.
Legal_Recruit learners will be able to choose a maximum time permitted from 19 to 39 minutes; this is to that it’s easy to do the assessments with reasonable adjustments for learners who will benefit from them to allow them to perform on a ‘level-playing field’.
It’s interesting that there is no subject bias at all in the exemplars. Interestingly the passages appears to avoid contentious branding, politics, or subjects which are generally controversial.
It is essential for our system to work for our questions to be carefully set in keeping with the real verbal reasoning tests which our Legal_Recruit learners will face in their real assessments set by SHL for their training contract/vacation placements. If you would like to participate for free, and receive immediate feedback, in our sample assessments, please direct message @legalaware or @legal_recruit, and if there are any problems in me following you, please do let me know immediately, and I will remedy. We benefit from obtaining a huge bank of normative data, which indicates to us that all the questions are of the same (correct) standard, and from being able to give you an accurate indication of where you sit on the normal distribution curve.
You may enjoy following up-to-date developments in online psychometric assessment on the @SHLGROUP twitter feed.
The BPP LegalAware Situational Judgement Test
This situational judgement test is not a product of BPP. It is an entirely original test made by members of the BPP student society, ‘the BPP Legal Awareness Society’ [link here], which is independent and separate from BPP.
Legal recruiters often use the ‘situational judgment test’ to determine whether you might be suitable for their culture, or not, despite (or in addition to) your formal qualifications. Often doing the test can be a useful learning exercise for both the candidate and the law firm, to help to decide whether a candidate is really suitable for that firm or not. Current advice is that candidates should do the test honestly and in peace (e.g. in a quiet room); that they should try not to second-guess what the employer wants, but answer the questions directly. It might be useful to be aware of the law firm’s core competencies, but often legal advisors say that a candidate’s “best asset” in such applications is their common sense.
Please have a go at answering these ten scenarios. We’ll be able to build up a bank of results of what most people would do in these circumstances. Whereas law firms will probably get their senior people to do the test to cultivate the results, our results are most likely to represent a mixed sample.
Create your free online surveys with SurveyMonkey, the world’s leading questionnaire tool.
Law careers: How to write a good training contract application form
I must admit that I am taking a temporary break from writing any applications for training contracts. However, I went to a workshop at the Holborn site at BPP last week, which I feel I really benefited from. Here are some points I gleaned about writing the application form, which I’ve already had quite a bit of practice in, before pressing this dreaded button close to July 31st!
The vast majority of this blogpost is based exactly on the contents of the presentation given by Eric Migliaccio from the BPP Careers Service at Holborn. The substantive points are reproduced with Eric’s permission, however please be aware that this presentation does not offer any official advice by BPP University College to BPP students, nor any other students who read this information. However, it is reproduced with the aim of being of genuine help to all candidates submitting training contracts to law firms, and candidates should use any of the information at their own risk. The presentation formed the basis of an interactive discussion, and some of the points discussed are not covered in this blogpost. Finally, please be aware that this blogpost is not endorsed by any of the parties mentioned, including BPP or any of the named law firms.
Before writing the form, we were advised to research and identify appropriate target firms accurately. This could be through a number of sources, like the Careers Service of your local law school, or through well-known established websites such as the Lex100, The Lawyer, or AllAboutLaw (all extremely highly recommended), and individual firms. The firm’s website and promotional material can be a good source information; however, it is important to research law firms further than their website. A special mention here is made to Lawyer2B, which offers exceptional breadth and depth of information, including law firms and the Bar, “law in practice“, careers, and a graduate trainee recruitment guide.
Furthermore, we were advised to formulate answers in our head to the following questions:
What does a lawyer actually do?
Why am I interested in becoming a lawyer?
How do my strengths, skills ane experiences march the requirements of the firm?
What evidence do I have to demonstrate that I have the necessary strengths or skills?
How can I convey that I am well rounded? Consider academic societieis, work experience, sporting activities, societies and travel.
For example, a question might be:
Please give an example of a time when you have studied or worked in circumstances that (for you) were unusual, or different.
The corresponding market criteria might suggest that – for a good answer – the candidate demonstrates adaptability, strong sense of attitudes e.g. through developing support networks, resilience, and confidence in new surroundings.
We then discussed other common questions.
Firms tend to have a very clear idea what sort of people are likely to succeed in their training contracts, to succeed ultimately in their organisation. Common competencies include:
- Team
- Communication
- Motivation
- Time management
- Commercial thinking
When preparing examples of competencies, it’s a good idea to have have a variety of examples ready from all areas of your life; structure your thoughts and responses. It’s really important to be prepared to substantiate your points.
Example: Give an example of a situation in which you worked with a group of people to achieve a specific objective. What did you learn from this experience?
Teamwork skills competency-based question
Demonstrate ability to work with others towards achieving a goal
Skills – co-operation, initiative, ability to motivate/encouraging others, achievement-focused and ability to compensate
Examples: university clubs and societies, sports teams, voluntary work, employment-related, organising an event, leadership/captaincy/student representative role.
Why do you wish to become a commercial solicitor?
Interest in commerce/business/finance: Understanding of business issues gained through various contexts, such as part-time work, university programme, or electives at law school; time spent in industry.
Helping businesses to achieve commercial objectives; client contact; matches own skills/strengths (that suit the environment), high pressure corporate environment.
Why do you wish to work at this law firm?
Give specific reasons – avoid being too value/general.
Research the firm: look at the firm’s website, brochure and the press: http://www.rollonfriday.com/, http://thelawyer.com/, http://www.lex100.com, http://chambersandpartners.com/, and http://www.legal500.com. It’s particularly useful to highlight the vision of the firm (very often a global vision in an international market), the firms’ values and other aspects of firm’s wider organisational culture. Firms are not expecting you to know everything about law and business, but these websites will help you identify how everything fits together, such as what deals are current and topical. What deals are the firm currently working on? What could you expect from your role as a trainee? Keep an eye out for recent news of relevance – not just about the firm you’re applying to, but also their clients, main competitors and the areas in which they work. Very often firms are too small as to guarantee you a particular seat such as intellectual property; you will therefore have to be flexible about which practice seats you’re assigned to in due course.
Often interesting press releases appear on Twitter (often re-tweeted by LegalAware). Professional legal services firms are making increasing use of Twitter in marketing themselves as law firms and in marketing their actual work especially, and lawyers are increasingly learning to use networks such as LinkedIn wisely (see, for example, the post by @vicmoffatt here). Some firms are on LinkedIn. Bear in mind the graduate recruitment websites can be different to the main corporate websites, and both are worth a careful look.
Also, representations of the firms often appear as channels on YouTube. For example, LegalAware has its own LegalAware YouTube channel which it is hoping to populate with videos focused on interesting business/legal topics, such as cloud computing, or core competencies, such as teamwork.
Use contacts/speakers at presentations to back up what you say
Aspects to consider: practice areas, recent deals, cases or clients, training programme, the firm’s culture
Other common questions include: academic awards and prizes, positions of responsibility, important achievement, a difficult challenge, or solving a problem with a creative solution. You could use a technique such as ‘STAR’, Situation 10%, Task 10%, Action 70%, Result 10%. Other common questions include: persuading people of your viewpoint, commercial issue, work experience, additional information, extra-curricular activities, “how did you hear about us?” The Linklaters Graduate Recruitment Team give a very helpful account of the use of STAR in their assessment process here.
General tips
- Telephone the firm’s recruitment department, if you have any questions
- Double-check for any spelling/grammatical errors
- Avoid Americanisms, e.g. “organize”
- Remember your answers can be under the limits
- Be specific – avoid vague/general statements
- Avoid cutting and pasting
- Answer the question – are there two parts to it?
- Don’t try to be funny – avoid exclamation marks
- Avoid casual language, abbreviations and e-mail/text talk
- Focus on skills/qualities demonstrated
- Provide all information requested – don’t miss anything out
- Check that all your sentences read well
- Remember to keep a copy of the final version
Tips for success
- Decide on your criteria, and make a list of firms that you are applying to
- Find out their deadlines and recruitment process
- Start your research
- Draft your applications one-by-one
- Proofread your application – at least twice
- Use the Careers Service
- Submit well before the deadline
Possible useful words
- The firm: leading, foremost, strong reputation, global, friendly, approachable, quality of work, high-profile clients
- Achievements: initiated, implemented, succeeded, overcame, developed, devised, launched, established, accomplished, proposed, coordinated, attained
- Strengths: committed, motivated, initiative, attention-to-detail, proactive, commercially aware
- Skills: communication, time management, prioritisation, organisation, interpersonal, analytical, teamworking
Best of luck from all of us!
