Hearing Back from Law Firms, Assessment Centres & Interview Tips - 2019 - 2020
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Jessica Booker
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Firms do not operate on a % pass mark for SJTs and WG, VRTs and the like.
They work on percentiles.
Percentiles mean absolutely zilch to a candidate, so it’s often not worthwhile detailing what the benchmark will be. The percentile doesn’t mean anything unless you know the norm group you are being assessed against.
However, in today’s processes, it’s benchmarks can be set part way through the recruitment process. The norm group could easily be other applicants, but you need to wait for a significant number of people to complete the assessment to have enough data to have a reliable norm group. Some organisations will also have a “hold” group where a range of percentiles are held. So first cut off might be high (say 60th percentile) but they hold those with a percentile score of 45-59 while they work out whether they have a strong enough pipeline, and whether the assessment doesn’t have any adverse impact against certain groups of applicants.
TLDR - what the pass mark is is often completely irrelevant to you as an individual candidate, so don’t worry about it.
They work on percentiles.
Percentiles mean absolutely zilch to a candidate, so it’s often not worthwhile detailing what the benchmark will be. The percentile doesn’t mean anything unless you know the norm group you are being assessed against.
However, in today’s processes, it’s benchmarks can be set part way through the recruitment process. The norm group could easily be other applicants, but you need to wait for a significant number of people to complete the assessment to have enough data to have a reliable norm group. Some organisations will also have a “hold” group where a range of percentiles are held. So first cut off might be high (say 60th percentile) but they hold those with a percentile score of 45-59 while they work out whether they have a strong enough pipeline, and whether the assessment doesn’t have any adverse impact against certain groups of applicants.
TLDR - what the pass mark is is often completely irrelevant to you as an individual candidate, so don’t worry about it.
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I’m pretty confident firms are highly secretive about bench mark passing so I doubt this would be in the public domain (I could be wrong of course) it’s best not to focus and worry on the benchmark though I know it can be useful and reassuring when you do practice tests. Just try your best and make sure you have practiced enough and feel confident with the demands of the questions.I know that’s relatively unhelpful so I apologise but you can only do your best and don’t put too much pressure on yourself
Thank you both, useful to know. Focused on just doing well but was a litte curious as to how it works.
First two rejections of this cycle came today from HSF and DLA Piper for me. Hope you guys have better luck
Curious if anyone has heard back from Travers Smith for the Winter Vac Scheme?
Nope not heard anything
Hi, I was invited to interview about an hour ago and applied on 6th October. Best of luck.Curious if anyone has heard back from Travers Smith for the Winter Vac Scheme?
dw lad, just keep goingFirst two rejections of this cycle came today from HSF and DLA Piper for me. Hope you guys have better luck
First two rejections of this cycle came today from HSF and DLA Piper for me. Hope you guys have better luck
Keep going Daniel, I'm sure you'll be getting interviews/ ACs shortly!
First two rejections of this cycle came today from HSF and DLA Piper for me. Hope you guys have better luck
Ah bad luck, hopefully you’ll start getting good news soon? Do you mind me checking when you applied to DLA Piper as I’m waiting to hear from them!
Hi guys, I just received an invite for HSF's assessment centre! Would anyone have any tips on how to prepare? Thank you so much!
Hey guys! I interviewed at Jones day about a month ago now for the winter vac scheme and still haven’t heard anything ? Im assuming this is bad news for me. I was just wondering if anyone has ever had any good news after this long with no response or has anyone been completely ignored after interview (ie no rejection just no response at all?) thanks !
Hi! Can I ask, did you get an email to say if you’d passed the benchmark or just nothing at all since doing the test? I just did mine and it’s been my first one this cycle and I’m nervous about how I’ve done!
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