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Brand new free practice psychometric test worked examples for training contract applications
Pro bono publico is an important strand of many lawyers’ output.
That is why our student society based at BPP is distributing for free this book containing 150 worked examples of psychometric test questions. These questions test verbal reasoning using short passages, and require respondents to decide whether given statements are true or false, or they simply cannot say from the information given. These worked examples are all totally original, and the intellectual property of ‘Legal Recruit’.
These questions are carefully designed to test common competences in verbal reasoning questions. The passages are across a broad range of subjects, ranging from biology to transport. The passages are all of roughly the same length (120 – 140 words).
We should like to stress, as usual, that this product is produced by students at BPP, but otherwise nothing to do with BPP. It is certainly not provided in any capacity by BPP, and students should use the material supplied entirely voluntarily. We have nothing to do with the official Careers Service of any of the teaching sites of BPP Law School. This document (below) is not endorsed by anyone at BPP.
We do not have any test providers in mind when we provide these worked examples, as we hope that the skills you develop in answering them can be transferred to whatever test you do for real. However, it’s advisable to phone up the graduate recruitment team (or email them), to enquire about where (if anywhere) a similar test appears in their application process for a training contract. It could be required at roughly the time of submission of the online application form, or could feature during the ‘assessment day’ (if relevant).
Terms and conditions Please do not distribute this material without permission or acknowledgement, and any sale of this material for commercial gain is strictly prohibited. You may tweet me on @legalaware if you wish to use this material in a specific context, but otherwise the worked examples are provided for personal use. I would be especially interested if you disagree with any of the answers, and I’ll happily consider your argument (and amend the manuscript if necessary.)
Scenarios are based on real news stories which are freely available at the time of writing, but any misrepresentation or similar is completely unintentional. We should be happy to amend any material, if alerted accordingly.
Anyway, on a positive note, I hope that you enjoy using these resources in addition to your usual GDL, LPC, LLB(Hons) or LLM learning materials, and that you approach training contract applications for City firms with due confidence.
To download the free 87-page document containing brand new 150 worked examples, please click here. By clicking, you are deemed to have agreed to the terms and conditions provided above.
Enjoy!
Images of samples from this new book
Practice for online verbal reasoning questions from 'Legal Recruit': biology
Biology is a subject area in the brand new innovative, independent, platform for practising online verbal reasoning assessments called ‘Legal Recruit‘.
Hope you enjoy these questions.
1 Every day, we are bombarded with scientific and medical claims that are not based on good evidence: in advertising material, product websites, advice columns, campaign statements, celebrity health fads and policy announcements. Even where there is some regulation, in advertising or trading standards, such claims keep reappearing. “Sense About Science”, along with over 5,000 scientists, scientific bodies, research publishers and policy makers, don’t want people to continue getting away with making claims without supporting evidence. They want things to change, so that anyone making a claim expects to be challenged, and is made to stand by their words. The only way to do this is to get more people asking for evidence.
Q1 Campaign statements are never based on good evidence.
CANNOT SAY. ‘Campaign statements’ are given as examples of scientific and medical claims which are not based on good evidence.
Q2 “Sense About Science” wants people to continue getting away making claims without supporting evidence.
FALSE. The passage states the precise opposite.
2 We hear about bacteria for lots of different reasons, and it’s unusual for many of them to be ‘good’. Indeed, the last time most people probably remember seeing bacteria make headlines was the contamination of salad vegetables with a deadly Escherichia coli strain relatively recently. However, as any microbiologist will tell you, bacteria are an extremely diverse group of organisms, with equally diverse properties which make some of them indispensable for many aspects of our lives; including food production, digestion and water treatment. For example, Geobacter sulfurreducens is just one of many bacterial superheroes. In this case, its superpower is ‘bioremediation’; the use of its metabolism to remove pollutants from the environment.
Q3 There is a very narrow range of strains in the bacteria class.
FALSE. Bacteria are stated to be an extremely diverse group of organisms.
Q4 Bacteria are never used for water treatment.
FALSE. Bacteria are said to play an ‘indispensible’ role in many functions, including water treatment.
3 While some birds only migrate locally in response to extreme weather conditions, others undertake seasonal long-distance migration between land masses and sometimes hemispheres. The most impressive avian migrator is, by far, the Arctic tern (Sterna paradisaea). Weighing an average of 100g, with a average wingspan of 75 – 85 cm, the birds sometimes nest just once every three years, as so much of their 30 year life span is spent in flight. The bird has the longest seasonal movement than any other animal, and the birds move so consistently with the seasons that they only ever see long days; they experience more sunlight per year than any other creature.
Q5 80 cm is a reasonable estimate wingspan of the African tern.
CANNOT SAY. The information given only refers to the Artic tern.
Q6 It is rare for the Artic Tern to be exposed to sunlight, compared to other creatures.
FALSE. The passage states that the Artic Tern ‘experience more sunlight per year than any other creature’.
4 There’s actually 47 known species of ‘leafcutter ants’, endemic to South and Central America, which live in colonies of up to ten million individuals organised into a complex social structure. The leaf cutting ants don’t actually eat the leaves they harvest – this is part of an elaborate process of cultivating a mutualistic fungus, which in turn provides the ants with the nutrients on which they feed. Efficiency of fungal cultivation is dependent on roles played by distinct ‘castes’ of ants, based mostly on size. Large workers forage for leaves and defend the colony, while smaller workers farm the fungus and tend to the nest. There’s even a designated waste removal team.
Q7 There are currently over 50 species of ‘leafcutter ants’.
CANNOT SAY. The passage states that there are 47 ‘known species’ of ‘leafcutter ants’, but it is not known how many unknown species of ‘leafcutter ants’ there currently are.
Q8 Only the caste of ants determines the efficiency of fungal cultivation done by ants.
FALSE. The passage states that distinct ‘castes’ of ants determine the efficiency of fungal cultivation done by ants.
5 Obesity is a growing problem worldwide, but proper protein consumption can help keep it at bay. Researchers have found that, when subjects were fed a 10% protein diet, they consumed 12% more energy over four days than they did on a 15% protein diet. Moreover, 70% of the increased energy intake on the lower protein diet was attributed to snacking. When the protein content was further increased to 25%, however, the researchers observed no change in behaviour relative to the 15% protein diet. It had previously been suggested that protein content plays an important role in determining overall energy intake, and thus affects obesity, but until this study, experimental verification had been lacking.
Q9 Obesity is only a problem in the U.S.
FALSE. Obesity is said to be a ‘growing problem worldwide’.
Q10 Protein content plays an important role in determining overall energy intake.
CANNOT SAY. No definite conclusion can be drawn from this study. Despite the findings of this study, the statement could still be true.
6 The anti-obesity properties of resveratrol have been demonstrated for the first time in a primate. Researchers recently studied the compound, generated naturally by plants to ward off pathogens, which has received much interest as a dietary supplement for its supposed life-extending effects. A team of researchers from Paris have decided to investigate the effect of dietary supplementation with resveratrol on the weight, metabolism and energy intake of six mouse lemurs. The physiological benefits of resveratrol are currently under intensive investigation, with recent work suggesting that it could be a good candidate for the development of obesity therapies. The team found that lemurs eating a diet supplemented with the compound decreased their energy intake by 13% and increased their resting metabolic rate by 29%.
Q11 Based on research in the rat, resveratrol could be a good candidate for the development of anti-obesity therapies.
CANNOT SAY. The research described used a sample of lemurs (primates).
Q12 In this study, lemurs eating a diet supplemented with the compound increased their energy intake by an average of 13%.
TRUE. This is a finding from this study.
Online verbal reasoning tests for training contract and vacation scheme placements: introducing Legal Recruit
A few months ago, I got to know the online verbal reasoning test very well. SHL are the one of gold standards in offering the tests, and do so to the best of my constructive knowledge for the vast majority of prestigious corporate law firms here in London. Other test providers, such as Kenexa, are well known, and of course Pearson Assessment are the masterminds behind the Watson-Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal Test (I know because I have physically sat them in two Head Offices of corporate law firms in the City).
Verbal reasoning tests intrigue me greatly, as my Finals at Cambridge were in neuroscience, and actually I did my Ph.D. there in cognitive neuropsychological assessment. The focus of my Ph.D. was in the skills centred around planning and decision-making, thought to be a function of the frontal lobes, but of course we had to be well versed in other neurocognitive domains such as attention, language, memory and perception. At first I was ambivalent about virtually all the corporate law firms subject future employees to an online verbal reasoning test for about 20 minutes, when you would have thought that a II.1 would be sufficient information for a legal recruiter. Legal recruiters often state that verbal reasoning skills are essential for lawyers, and I used to shrug my shoulders mentally. Actually, I now feel that this is very true. In my Master of Law in commercial law from the College of Law, we were given a lot of practice in drafting various commercial legal documents, such as intellectual property licenses, due diligence reports and even peremptory orders in international arbitration for the High Court. I believe it’s essential for law trainees to be good at basic inferences; they do need to be able to tell whether a statement is true or false from information presented to them, and to be confident enough to say when there is insufficient information to make a conclusion. Knowing the limitations of your own knowledge must be a key skill for any professional.
Therefore, a few months ago, I decided to put my experience of online verbal reasoning tests into action. I am visually impaired, and generally I felt that law firms varied a lot in their basic competence in being allowed to make reasonable adjustments for me, which they are obliged to do under law. For example, on my site http://www.legal-recruit.org, which I launched today, you can also alter the text size, or ask for extra time in doing a test (which learners with dyslexia should be able to action with the help of the Learning Support Officer of their law school and the Graduate Recruitment Team of their chosen corporate). I have done a lot of background reading in the cognitive skills tested in the verbal reasoning test and the situational judgement tests, and reported my findings on my specialist blog http://www.legalrecruit.org). You can even try a practice online verbal reasoning test for fee, and you’ll obtain a free, confidential, detailed report providing you with item-by-item breakdown (as well as your total performance metric.)
On the front page, you can access information about the tests, including factsheets, examples of verbal reasoning tests of the ‘True’, ‘False’ or ‘Cannot Say’ variety, educational videos, and books on verbal reasoning and situational judgment tests.
I have produced factsheets explaining the rationale behind the tests in general, some guidance for the online verbal reasoning test, some guidance about the competences sought by corporate law firms in their situational judgement tests, and what reasonable adjustments you can rightly ask for if you a visual impairment or reading difficulty.
The aim of this website is to make sure that you are familiar with the test format of the online verbal reasoning test. You should of course check the format of the test you need to do with your legal recruiter, and to make sure you understand how the test operates. With help from the books (free sample material is provided on the home page), you can understand how correct answers are arrived at.
I’ve tried to describe this information succinctly in a series of factsheets. However, if you prefer visual material, also for free, we’ve produced some videos for you to understand verbal reasoning tests, situational judgement tests, and reasonable adjustments. As they’re also on YouTube, you can watch these on an iPad.
I hope this makes your journey into the online verbal reasoning test enjoyable! I’ve had great fun working on this venture, which came out of an idea in my student society, but which is otherwise totally independent. Please do let me know how you get on either by commenting here, or emailing enquiries@legal-recruit.org
Two 'Legal Recruit' books on online tests for law students, pub date 1 Nov 2011
It is important to note that, whilst ‘Legal Recruit’ is an important key initiative from the BPP Legal Awareness Society to encourage a business culture in law, ‘Legal Recruit’ is absolutely nothing to do with BPP media, nor indeed represents any official teaching or guidance from BPP.
Book 1 – Practical verbal reasoning questions for law students (111 pages)
This book has carefully designed verbal reasoning questions, of the ‘True’, ‘False’, or ‘Cannot Say’ variety. Two questions follow each of the passages together with full explanations, and reading passages cover a variety of subjects, including biology, business, economics, education, engineering, environment, geography, geology, health and safety, human relations, medicine, modern languages, physics, technology, and transport. Readers of this title will benefit from the general explanation as to how to do these tests, and from the worked examples, such that they feel much more comfortable when they come to do such tests for real for training contract or vacation placement applications. The book will also be also of interest for applicants to corporates who use these tests for recruitment purposes. This title has a publication date of 1 November 2011, and is only available to download for £7.50 from the Legal Recruit website.
Book 2 – Practical situational judgements questions for law students (77 pages)
This book has carefully-designed questions in six competences commonly assessed in situational judgement tests. Situational judgement tests are used by some law firms to ascertain the suitability of a law student for a training contract. These competences are problem solving, proactive attitude, commitment to excellence, communication and negotiation, teamwork, and attention-to-detail and leadership. The book will also be also of interest for applicants to corporates who use these tests for recruitment purposes. Getting focused on these competences will help law students to understand the relevance of these skills to recruitment and their general professional life. This title has a publication date of 1 November 2011, and is only available to download for £7.50 from the Legal Recruit website.
Gazelles
This is a typical question, one of 300, which I am writing for my practice verbal reasoning platform.
12 Young, fast-growing businesses are more likely to have their loan applications rejected in Britain than in any other leading country in Europe, according to European Union figures. So-called “gazelles” — small, dynamic enterprises that are only a handful of years old — had a harder time clinching bank loans than in other top Western European nations last year, Eurostat numbers showed. The British rejection rate was 35.6 percent last year, up from 6.8 percent in 2007, according to data released this month. Among the larger EU nations, the only countries that came close were Denmark and the Netherlands, where failure rates on loan applications were 32 percent and 29 percent, respectively. The number of rejections among small British information and communications technology companies was particularly high, at 38.4 percent.
‘Gazelles’ sometimes turn into ‘large antelopes’, in business terms – these are large, incumbent companies with much inertia.
CANNOT SAY. No reference is given to the term ‘large antelopes’ in this passage.
The Netherlands have the third highest rejection rate in the whole of Europe for successfully obtaining bank loans in Europe.
CANNOT SAY. Whilst this is possible from the passage, it cannot be stated as a fact, particularly since the passage strictly speaking refers to countries in Western Europe.
