Situational Judgement Tests

Updated: 24 August 2023

Take a free situational judgement test

Lots of employers use situational judgement tests during their recruitment stage, particularly at graduate level. Here we explain to candidates what they are, how they work and what to expect in your situational judgement test. Basically SJTs measure your behaviour and attitudes to work-related scenarios. With a bit of insider knowledge you will have nothing to fear.

Situational judgement test video tutorial

Watch part 1 of our situational judgement test video tutorial below for a walkthrough of a situational judgement test question:

What is a situational judgement test?

A situational judgement test (SJT) is a test used to assess someone's decision making and judgement. The candidate will be presented with a work-like situation and a number of possible actions/responses they could take. The candidate must then choose their most likely and least likely response if faced with this situation. There are technically no correct or incorrect answers - however, the employer will have their preferred answers. SJTs are always multiple-choice; no answers other than the options listed are allowed.

The following image shows an example of the format for one situational judgement style question:

The situations (or scenarios as they are sometimes called) are almost always reflective of a real-life aspect of the job. So for example, if you are applying for a job as a call centre operative, one of the questions on the SJT might be as follows.

A quick example sjt question

You are working in a call centre for a major UK telecommunications company. You have received a call from a customer who has been waiting in for an engineer who has failed to arrive within the scheduled time slot. The customer is upset and is talking in a raised voice. Of the following options indicate which would be the ‘most effective’ and which the ‘least effective’ action to take first of all:

Why employers use situational judgement tests

For employers, SJTs are a very cost effective, powerful and convenient way to select the potential strong performers from a large group of candidates. Employers will be more likely to use an SJT if they have a high volume of candidates applying for a role or position and if they recruit for this position on a regular basis. So the recruitment process for a graduate training scheme or internship programme is a likely place to find an SJT whereas assessments for more senior positions are less likely to include one.

Employers may use SJTs on their own as a sifting tool or sometimes they will include SJT questions in a realistic job simulation which might also include an in-tray exercise and ability measures such as numerical reasoning. Job simulations are usually presented online or computer-based. They can incorporate various different media such as video, animation and written text. Employers use these to try and create as realistic a situation as possible for the employer to test how the candidate will respond to the ‘real’ demands of the job.

For example, in a job simulation test for a sales manager role, as a candidate, you would log on to a specified website. You would then be told to imagine that you are the manager of a team of sales people and given access to an email inbox and folders of documents. You would be asked to make decisions about the documents and respond to the emails. Then you might be interrupted by a video of someone asking your advice on an issue and given four responses to choose from. This is the SJT part of the simulation.

It is useful to be aware of where you might come across SJT questions although the way that you approach them should be the same, regardless of the other elements of the process. We will talk about this below.

Master aptitude tests and become the #1 candidate

Get a completely free starter account

• Over 20 tests
• Track your progress

Try now for free

Different styles of situational judgement tests

Situational judgement tests can be presented in a variety of different ways and ask candidates for different ways to respond to the situations presented. Situational judgement tests can be:

You may be able to find a preview or screenshot of a company's sjt somewhere on their website. This will help you identify certain features about their sjt. We surveyed candidates across multiple sectors and asked what format their sjt was in, to better understand what was most common:

There are a variety of sjt formats, we will discuss the format and how to answer situational judgement questions:

1. Most and least effective

The situation is presented with four or five possible responses and you are asked to indicate which is ‘most’ and which is ‘least’ effective in your judgement.

You are a team leader in a customer contact centre. You just overheard an employee in your team telling a customer that they were “over-reacting” and that they needed to “get psychiatric help”. You are not sure what the customer’s call was about but now the call has finished and you have a chance to speak to the employee.

2. Rated responses

Here the situation is presented with the possible responses and you are asked to rate each response for effectiveness, in your judgement.

3. Ranked responses

The situation is presented with the possible responses and you are asked to place the responses in rank order as to how effective or appropriate they are. Here you will only be able to allocate each number once. So only one response can be ranked ‘1’, only one response ‘2’, only one ranked ‘3’ and only one ranked as ‘4’.

The numbers may be given explanatory labels e.g. 1 = most appropriate, 4 = least appropriate. OR 1 = most effective, 2 = next most effective, etc. Or they may be left simply as numbers for you to allocate the rank order.

4. Likely to perform

This is a variation on ‘most effective’ and ‘least effective’. You are given the possible actions or responses and asked to say which you are ‘most likely to do’ given the situation with which you have been presented and which you would be ‘least likely to do’.

The way of phrasing this question is subtly different from being asked to assign the ‘most’ and ‘least’ effective response. Being asked which one you are most likely to perform or to do will probably start you thinking about past behaviour. You might think “Well I know which is the most effective action but in the past I have actually done something different”.

And indeed, this is what the designers of this particular answer type are interested in. They are seeking to identify your tendencies, personality traits and past behaviour more than they want to know about your ability to evaluate the ‘best’ and ‘worst’ answer from a group of possible answers. Your ability to select the ‘most effective’ answer is probably based more on your intellect rather than on your personality.

In reality, how you are likely to perform and behave in a job is going to be a result of both intellect and personality. Therefore test designers and employers are really hoping to get a glimpse of both these elements when getting you to sit a situational judgement test.

What are situational judgement tests looking for?

It has been suggested that one of the best ways to be prepared for a selection test, including a situational judgement test, is to be aware of what the test is seeking to measure. In other words, what aspects of you, as a candidate is the test hoping to pick up on?

Competencies are bundles of skills, abilities and personality traits which contribute to good job performance. The relevant competencies will vary according to the job or job-type being considered. Therefore graduate training schemes, managerial roles, customer service jobs and sales positions may all have slightly different sets of competencies.

1. Graduate level competencies

Graduate competencies will reflect the range of skills, abilities and styles that are effective at a graduate entry level role in an organisation. They are unlikely to include managerial competencies such as ‘directing others’ and ‘strategic thinking’. They will probably include some, or all, of the following:

2. Managerial level competencies

Management level competencies will incorporate most, if not all of the graduate ones but will also include elements of ‘directing or leading others’ and ‘strategic thinking’. Management competencies can be grouped into the following areas:

3. Individual contributor competencies

Individual contributer competencies can be grouped into the following areas:

As most SJTs are designed to gather information about a list of competencies such as those outlined above, you will find that different questions on an SJT will link to different competencies from the list to be assessed. It can help you to approach the test with this in mind and make an educated guess as to which competency each question is designed to measure; when doing this you should remember that some questions may have elements of more than one competency.

How are situational judgement tests scored?

Once you have completed the test your answers are scored, usually automatically by computer, and then your result is given to the potential employer.

As mentioned above, the scoring is done by comparing your answers with the ‘best fit’ answers suggested by the job experts during the design of the test. Once the test has been automatically marked, the number of answers that you rate or rank ‘correctly’ in the test can be compared to the results of a group of previous test-takers. This is called a ‘norm’ group.

Therefore, employers might be given the following:

Employers may use this information as a straightforward pass-fail hurdle to reach the next stage of the assessment process; they will do this if they are happy that the SJT is going to put sufficient numbers of candidates through to the next stage and that it is going to select the best candidates for the job from the pool of candidates available.

In addition to this employers should, by law, make sure that the test is testing only things which are job-relevant. The SJT must not test for skills, abilities which are irrelevant and which may discriminate against certain groups of people. An example of this would be, if detailed knowledge of a certain technical area would enhance a candidate’s test score, when this knowledge was not needed in the job and when more people of an older age, or who were women perhaps, would be likely to have this technical knowledge.

Are situational judgement tests timed?

How long do you get for your SJT? Almost all SJTs do not have a time limit. You will be instructed to answer the questions honestly, which usually means promptly. Often the first answer that comes into your head is the one which most reflects your true response, so you will probably be told to go with your first instinct. However you can take as long as is allocated to you in your assessment day.

Although there is no time 'limit' as such, publishers of SJTs will have guidelines for the typical length of time people take to complete their situational judgement test however if you take longer than that it doesn't matter. For example:

Talentlens publish a series of graduate SJTs called IRIS which do not have a time limit. PSI are another large publisher and their graduate ‘Dilemmas’ SJT has no time limit but they advise it takes candidates on average 30 minutes to complete the 20 scenarios each containing 4 questions. SHL have an SJT of 24 questions and again no time limit but they recommend around 20 minutes for completion.

A growing number of SJTs now are bespoke to the recruiting organisation, or even to the specific role. A bespoke approach is the most effective for implementing SJTs due to the situation-specific nature of the assessment. If a company does find an off the shelf situational judgement test, it will be selected after carefully considering if it is relevant to the role. For bespoke tests, companies still use a test publisher to help them design it due to their consulting experience and business psychology knowledge. Indeed many test publishers offer only a bespoke service when it comes to SJTs, including Saville Assessment, Criterion Partnership and Kenexa.

What you should do to perform well in situational judgement tests

No particular training or knowledge is required to take this type of test. However, as mentioned above, if practice tests are available on the employing organisation’s website, or elsewhere, it is well worth taking full advantage of these.

When you sit down to take the test, look closely at the detail of both the situation, the possible answers, what you are being asked to comment on and also whether you are being asked for your judgement or information about your most likely response. It is important that you read each scenario thoroughly and each possible response before beginning to rate or rank the responses.

Bear in mind that you can only choose from the available options and are being asked to evaluate the ‘best’ or ‘worst’ of these not any other possible options. When being asked to rank those options, they may all be weak or they may all be quite strong but your job is to put them in some relative order.

Another important point is that, as with ability tests, you are expected to use only the information provided in the question; do not make assumptions about the situation or scenario, even if it is similar to one that you have come across yourself in the past.

And finally, as mentioned above, if you have been given information about the competencies assessed then keep this in the back of your mind as you progress through the test. If you haven’t been given this information then make your best guess as to the competencies that are typical of the role for which you are applying. By identifying the competency or competencies that the question is addressing you can more easily get into the correct ‘mindset’ to judge the options effectively.

If you would like some extra information, check out our situational judgement test tips.

The best way to prepare for aptitude tests

Don't take our word for it - listen to all our happy members.

Try now for free

View all Google reviews

Situational judgement test FAQs

• What is the pass mark for situational judgement tests?

  The pass mark for an SJT will vary especially as SJTs are quite different to other aptitude tests where there is only one correct answer. SJTs are marked based on answers matching the desired competencies and answer options having varying degrees of 'correct-ness', whereby you could select the second best option for every question and still perform well as you consistently nearly matched the desired competencies and behaviours. Moreover, the competencies desired will vary between employer; one employer may value teamwork very highly, whereby another company may not.

• Can you fail a situational judgement test?

  Yes, you can fail a situational judgement test if your answers do not match the options that the employer set as their preferred answers.

• Is a situational judgement test easy?

  Situational judgement tests are easy to overcomplicate. You could make a case for each answer options being the best choice, but you have to take into account the most important factors: the core competencies of the business and the role you are in. Basing your answers off these should help you find the answer which the employers deem the most appropriate.