Exam day

Exam day: what to have on the desk, and what actually moves the score

One of our team sat the interactive assessment for a senior role after more than ten years without an exam, and it was harder than expected. Not because the questions were hard. Because the clock was. Everything below is what we wish we had known the week before, combined with what candidates from this year's Commission sittings have reported. It is candidate experience, not official guidance.

Have these on the desk before you start

• A calculator, and not on the screen you are testing on. Candidates report a phone used as a calculator and a physical calculator are both allowed. One with real buttons is quicker under pressure than tapping a screen.
• Scrap paper and a pen. You will be writing constantly. Have more paper than you think you need.
• Three or four highlighter colours. The calendar and schedule items become far easier when each person or constraint has its own colour. This was the single most useful thing on our desk.
• Pre-drawn grids. For the schedule, bar-chart and calendar items we kept drawing the same grids over and over. Draw them once in advance, print several copies, and fill them in. It saves a surprising amount of the 90 seconds a question gives you.
• A mouse, not a touchpad. Reported by candidates and matches our experience: dragging a point to an exact value on a touchpad costs time you do not have.
• A browser that is not Edge. Several candidates reported trouble with it. Close everything else. Switching tabs or apps is reported as not allowed, as are screenshots and any outside help.

What the clock actually does to you

Twenty-four questions in thirty-six minutes is about ninety seconds each, on one overall timer, not one per section. Once you know how each item type works, almost nobody finds the questions themselves the problem. The time limit is what kills. Two consequences:

• Do not get stuck. If a question feels off after a minute, commit to your best answer and move on. The test is reported as adaptive, so the hard question in front of you is partly a consequence of doing well on the ones before it. Treat it as a good sign, not a wall.
• Use the practice items. Candidates report a few practice questions before scoring begins. Use them to settle your hands, your calculator and your grids, not to warm up your maths.

The week before: the only preparation that moves the score

Two phases, in this order, and the second matters far more than the first.

1. Learn each item type, once. Watch worked examples until dragging a line to a value, resizing bars, placing people in rooms and completing a pattern each feel mechanical. This takes an evening, not a week. A word of warning: some widely shared example videos use questions far harder than the real thing. Do not let them scare you.
2. Then only practise against the clock. Full length, timed, forward-only, on an interface that behaves like the real one. Untimed practice on multiple-choice questions trains a reflex the assessment never asks for. This is what this site is for, and the first full test is free.

Unofficial, and written from candidate experience. Your invitation and the instructions on the day take precedence over anything here. EU Cognitive Prep is not affiliated with the European Commission, the European Personnel Selection Office (EPSO), any other EU institution, body or agency, or SHL Group.