Most apprenticeship applications include at least one online test, and practice is the most reliable way to get better at them. These tests are written around your role, checked before you see them, and graded question by question.
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The five test types
Numerical reasoning
Percentages, data tables, rates and multi-step problems. Expect data tables and charts with several questions on each. The maths rarely goes beyond GCSE level; the difficulty is speed and reading the data carefully. Most real tests let you use a calculator.
Timed by default, at about 75 seconds a question.
Verbal reasoning
Short workplace passages: what follows, what doesn't, and what can't be told. The hard part is telling "false" apart from "cannot say". Answer from the passage alone, not from what you happen to know is true.
Timed by default, at about 60 seconds a question.
Logical reasoning
Series, syllogisms and rule-based puzzles. Real tests are often diagrammatic, with shapes in place of words, but the reasoning is the same: find the rule, then apply it. Common patterns such as rotation, alternation and counting get much quicker to spot with practice.
Timed by default, at about 60 seconds a question.
Situational judgement
Workplace scenarios: pick the most and least effective response. Scored against the employer's view of effective behaviour, so the best response usually deals with the problem directly and involves the right people. One of the most common tests in apprenticeship applications.
Untimed by default, as most employers run it. You can switch the timer on.
Coding
Trace code, spot bugs and reason about logic. Multiple choice. Set by some technology employers. This version tests reading and reasoning about code in multiple choice form; some real assessments will also ask you to write code.
Timed by default, at about 90 seconds a question.
How the tests are made
- Written around the role. Scenarios, passages and data are drawn from the listing, so a finance role gets different material from an engineering one.
- A suggested type. It suggests the test this employer is most likely to set. You can pick a different one.
- Checked before you see them. A second, independent pass works out every answer, and any question where it disagrees with the answer key is dropped. That is why a test occasionally comes back a question or two short.
- Your choice of length and timing. 10 or 20 questions, timed or untimed.
- Graded with explanations. You see every answer with an explanation and your score by topic, followed by short feedback that takes your background into account.
- Nothing is saved. A test is gone once you close it.
Getting the most out of practice
- Take your first test of each type untimed, to learn the format without the pressure.
- Read every explanation, including for questions you got right. A lucky guess teaches you nothing.
- Use your score by topic to decide what to practise next.
- Then practise timed. Speed is the part that improves most with repetition.
- If the employer's invitation names its test provider or links to a practice test, do that too.
- For the real thing, sit it somewhere quiet, on a laptop, with a reliable connection.
What it can't tell you
These are practice tests, not the employer's own. They won't match its exact question style or difficulty, and there is no pass mark or percentile here, because employers set their own and don't publish them. Use your scores to see where you are improving, not to predict whether you will pass.
The guide to getting a degree apprenticeship covers where tests sit in the wider process, and what happens after you apply covers when to expect the invitation.