SHL Test

[trainee4u]

I think I've done this test twice now - it's not that popular for law firms.

Have unfortunately gone down a bit of a rabbit hole and it seems that you can practise a lot and basically guarantee success. I'm not a huge fan of this type of test for that reason.

Practice tests are here:

Practice Tests and Assessments | SHL

SHL practice tests and example questions to help you prepare for an upcoming employment assessment.

www.shl.com

Note that the test should be the 'interactive' - there is an older multiple-choice, but they don't probably use it any more.

You should practise:

1) numerical interactive
2) deductive interactive
3) inductive interactive
4) general ability interactive

4 = 1+2+3, but with fewer questions of each type, some of which are reused from 1+2+3, but many unique questions (1,2,3 are just the same questions in different orders if you repeat)
Repeating 4 will give you access to multiple tests. You can use throwaway email to practise.

Going through the question types:

Numerical

The bar graphs
there will be two, or possibly three bar charts, e.g., year 1 and year 2 and possibly year 3.

Each bar is divided into a green and blue section.
You need to calculate

Green %
Total value of Green + Blue

for each of the 2 or 3 bar charts



Obviously the green and blue sections always add to 100%, while the total value of the bars will be somewhere between the top and bottom of the y-axis.
To solve the problem you simply need to find:

Total
'Green' %

for each bar and then drag the total up (be sure to use a mouse if you are on a laptop, for maximum speed), and then drag the % correctly accordingly.

What can go wrong on this question is basically:
1) reading comprehension - e.g., the number they give you might be the numerical value of the green section, but you misinterpret it as the total
2) arithmetic errors
3) equation errors, you need to divide year 2 by year 1 but you instead divided year 1 by year 2, say.
4) transposition errors - you confuse green with blue

I think the optimum way to work on this is basically Excel on a second computer or second monitor, so you have the test on one screen and Excel on the other. Also I think using an iPad to do the test might work quite well.

It's always just algebra, and usually quite simple, but not having good technique means you can easily make mistakes.

The scoresheet

This one you have to review multiple sets of data against a set of rules to determine the bonus (or similar problem) % that should be paid. These will be multiple choice options, either "yes"/"no", or a set of numerical values , e.g., "£0", "£50", "£100"

There are basically a few key features here:

1) they will make it a reading comprehension test by saying "per day" in one part and "per week" in another, or similar.
2) they will try and add some edge cases where you are very close to the given criterion. This makes accuracy important. Again using two monitors would help.
3) there are multiple criteria, could be "OR", or "AND". You can solve it sometimes a bit quicker by checking the AND condition, so if it fails that, then you don't need to proceed further.

As usual, mental arithmetic can be quicker, but can risk error.


The line graph

This one is actually often a scatter graph, but it's treated as a line graph by SHL. Bad SHL.
You just have to drag the nodes to the correct value.
I'd say quite simple but again there might be some reading comprehension shenanigans going on like giving you data three steps before the graph starts. Again, some risk of making calculation errors.

The pie chart

This is a pie chart representing four sections, blue, green, red, and orange. The solution is found by calculating the % for each. These % are always at least 5%, and hence no more than 85%.

You're also told the numerical value of whole pie, £100 million, say.

Then each coloured section has (one or no) algebraic equation, e.g., blue might read

"blue is equal to twice the sum of green + orange plus 40"

this is algebra again.

A colour coded spreadsheet in Excel reduces the risk of error


The ordering exercise

This has six people, each with algebraic rules

E.g.,

"John is equal to a quarter of Fred, plus 20"

Your task is to rank the six people, sometimes with 6 = largest, and sometimes with 1 = largest. Read carefully.

You need to drag the 6, 5,4,3,2,1 to each person.

There is usually a "Mary = 120" type of assignment, to help start you off.

To reduce the error you can pre-create a worksheet with the name of the six people (you'll need to fill this in) in column A add in the equations in column B, and add a =rank(b1:b6,0) and rank(b1:b6,1) in columns C and D, and use auto filter to sort.. Doing so reduces the risk of getting things in the wrong order substantially! Also note that names tend to be in alphabetical order, but not always ABCDEF, could be for example PQRSTU. Noticing this helps possibly to reduce the risk of error by processing the clue sin the right order.

Deductive

Task scheduling drag and drop

This one you have to optimise task scheduling by dragging meetings/activities into white free time slots. There are varying levels of difficulty of this question, but basically it will say something like "the X meeting must take place before the Y meeting and after the Z meeting" and "complete all the meetings as soon as possible".

You will need to hover over the grey time slots to see what's going on.

This task is basically quite simple but do make sure you check the existing bookings in the calendar, as they might be relevant.

Task scheduling "choose slots"

This one is similar to the last but instead of dragging you now click on time slots. There will be multiple calendars to refer to, but you only work on the bottom one.

Order the people

This is exactly the same ordering UI as the ordering in the maths section.

However, now it's a logic puzzle.

As before you get a clue (or sometimes no clue) for each person.

The structure here is:

Adam 123456
Bobb 123456
Charl 123456
Dave 123456
Eddy 123456
Fred 123456

For example if you're told that Dave is after Fred and before Eddy, then Dave cannot be 1 or 6, Fred cannot be
I think this is best done on paper, but with the numbers pre-written.

The Calendar

The calendar is going to require you to schedule things, but they'll only ask you to select say the first and last days of "the HR training".

The calendar runs Sunday - Monday, but the first could be any day of the week.
So if you create a calendar in Excel entering '1' into A2, and then B2 = A2+1, A3 = G2+1, etc., all you need to do is replace one of the cells A2:G2 with the number 1 and it will renumber automatically.

Also the calendar probably only has 30 days?

There will be a contrived set of rules like "each task takes 4 consecutive weekdays", along with maybe the "office is closed on Friday the 6th and 20th".
This will tend to result in there being only one arrangement of meeting days; i.e., the first meeting will run 2-5, second 9-12, third 13;16-18, etc.

Once you've identified the constraints on the meeting days in general (e.g., "weekdays", "not the 6th"), you can colour code the meeting options.

After that there will be clues like "HR training can't take place on the 13th", "X is before or after Y", which will allow you to put each meeting in place.



The Room Allocation

This one is dragging people into rooms. There's not too much to say about this one - as usual reading comprehension to check all the points, and hopefully there will be an easy solution.

Note that this one wouldn't benefit from Excel - if you wanted to solve this you can make a copy of the map provided on paper, and then list the remaining people to be allocated as well as the possible allocations to each room.

Inductive

This one is quite unusual.

The arrows

You are given a number of nodes and you must connect them all in order. There will be connections already made, with a solid line, as well as a dotted line. The dotted line is correct, but you must draw it yourself.

The trick here is to write the nodes down vertically. Let's say you have

Cab2
kXY9
Qrs6

and you then have two remaining nodes to join

Ztu5
aJK5

In this case you can see that the middle two letters alternate in case, as does the first one. As such, aJK5 is the correct next node, followed then by Ztu5.

There is deliberate 'noise' in the questions. It might not be possible to calculate node 4 from 3. However you don't need to! You know that nodes 4, 5, and 6 are (whatever they tell you they are), you just don't know the order. Try and spot patterns - sometimes instead of there being a pattern like alternating lowercase you might have a symbol in the node such as &, which performs an operation (+1, say), to relate to the next node.

The green and white and purple shape

Here you are given a geometric shape divided into triangles and are shown a pattern involving green, purple and white colours in some of the triangles, with images 1, 2,3, and 4, and you need to colour in image 5.

Shapes are:

• a five-pointed star/pentagram consisting of one central pentagon with five equilateral triangle on each side (six shapes)
• a six-pointed star where the central hexagon is split into six triangles (12 shapes)
• the square of 4 shapes. Just a big square divided into four smaller squares.
• the square of 8 shapes: this is a larger square divided into four smaller squares, with a smaller large square also divided into four even smaller squares pasted on top. this results in four squares in the middle, and four L-shapes surrounding them
• the square of 16 shapes: this is the same as the previous, except that two diagonal lines are drawn from top left to bottom right and top right to bottom left. This divides each shape into 2, hence now right-angled triangles instead of squares
• the pie chart split into four equal quadrants.
• the equilateral triangle split into four equilateral triangles ('triforce')

These are quite easy once you work out the basic patterns - most of the shapes have an outer shape and an inner shape, and you can consider each colours to be 'moving' or 'iterating', possibly on an inside/outside basis. The outer shape might involve the white rotating round anticlockwise, while in the middle things might be iterating between green and purple, for example. There might be two or three rules to describe the whole pattern - it's rare that it's simply a case of 'rotate everything one position'.


The buttons

Here you are given 10-30 seconds (depending on how many buttons there are) to play with buttons which do things to an arrow.

This is incredibly easy once you realise what the attributes are:

• the arrow can be pointing in one of the 8 45-degree directions
• the arrow can be fat or thin
• the arrow can be empty (white), filled with a purple pattern, or solid green
• the border can be square or circle
• the border can be a solid line or dashed

The buttons will then:

• change the border to square or to circle
• change the border to solid or to dashed
• change the fill to empty, to pattern or to solid
• change the shape to fat or thin
• rotate the arrow clockwise 45,90,135,180,225,270 or 315

You will be given the starting position of the arrow and have 1,2,3,4 or 6 buttons, arranged in 1 row (if fewer than 4) or 2 rows (if more than 4).

As such, you can prepare for this by pre-drawing 2 rows of 3 buttons, and then test each button on and off to find out what they do, and write down the functions in each

 

[trainee4u]

So it turns out there's also a verbal reasoning test.

There are two options

"true", "false", and "cannot say".

They don't provide any guidance on this.

I worked through the questions till i got 30/30. Some of the conclusions are tough, or doubtful. Paraphrased write-up below:

Q1:
Report warns of global warming. If GHG continue at current rate, this will melt ice. Report says int'l agreement on reducing emissions is required

Statement: Reducing emissions will slow down global warning.
You might say "true", but they say "can't say"

Q3:
1 in 6 Britons hide cash at home.... While there are various reasons, 6% do it to hide from partners, 4% because they think it's safer

Statement: Most hide cash either because they don't trust bank, or to hide form partner.
This could be false, if the 6+4% is of those who hide cash. or it could be true, if it's of the total population (1 in 6 = 16.67%, so 10% is 'most'" Hence: can't say

Q5/6
A model of alarm has been redesigned because of complaints about accidental triggering. The new type is less sensitive, and rarely activates by accident. The manufacturer still sells some of the old models because the higher threshold means the new models might fail to register some break-ins.

Statement: Some people prefer to buy alarms that sometimes activate for no reason.

Honestly kinda BS, because there's no indication it's "no reason" - the reason is "accident". But I guess we have to read "no reason" as "no good reason", lol. Anyway this is true.

Statement: The new alarms offer better protection than the old.

You could argue that this is Can't Say, because we don't have any definition of "protection" (e.g., if the alarm goes off too often, people might ignore it), so again kinda BS. However, they say false

Q9/10
The computer industry started in the US. Companies were too small to cope with foreign sales, and all sold exclusively through European distributors, some of which were only interested in max profits in minimum time. Home computing in Europe was slow to grow as a result of the incompetent suppliers used by these distributors, none of which had any real interest in the future of computing.

Statement: Using European distributors eased the burden of foreign sales for US tech companies.

You could say false, due to the long-term growth, but I think the key is "burden of foreign sales", and nothing else. Hence, the answer could be "can't say", since we aren't told about any burden, or it could be true, on the basis that the distributors did all the work. Anyway they say true, so whatever.

Statement: The European distributors only wanted to maximise profits.

You could say "can't say" because of the "some of which" and the "in minimum time" in the passage, and the more restrictive version in the statement. However, they say it's false

Q11/12
Staff training has many goals. ... it can raise staff satisfaction by ensuring staff can improve skills. Lively debate accompanies the budgeting for staff training.

Statement: Some people responsible for allocating funds within companies support staff training.

This is true, I guess because otherwise you'd allocate it to zero, so this seems reasonably logical.

Statement: Employees who get the chance to improve their skills have higher job-satifaction.

This is CS, because of the "can raise", I guess

Q14

While avg miles/cyclist is down, the increase bike sales over the past 5 years has seen a corresponding increase in cycle accidents. 45% of injuries were u14, and 20% more aged 15-20.

Statement: Bike accidents more a function of avg distance travelled than the number of bikes on the road.

This is kinda woolly in that the kids aren't necessarily on the road, lol. But they say false again.

Q15/16

Chairman announced the rejection of a takeover bid, the decision of a majority of shareholders. He was relieved, despite evidence showing share prices are proportional to a company's size.

Statement: If the takeover had occurred, the company's share price would have gone down.

This is can't say, i guess because the "evidence" is a bit vague, or perhaps because the takeover means the company's shares get extinguished in any case. So kinda dumb again.

Statement: some shareholders supported the takeover.

True Again, dumb as we aren't told that any shareholders voted against it. I don't see how they justify this one. Obviously "majority" can be seen to imply there is a disagreement but in the context of company law this could easily mean "majority of eligible votes" with the rest abstaining.

Q18

Most studies show the body can't distinguish between sucrose and fructose.

Statement: some studies show the body treats sucrose and fructose differently.

True, which is slightly doubtful I think in that a study can prove something is true, false or be inconclusive. So I don't necessarily agree that this is true.

Q21
A mobile network for accidents and dangers would link cars travelling on the same road. It would mean drivers would find out about accidents in real time, and in relation to their location. Drivers would have detailed information about problematic areas.

Statement: A mobile network would allow drivers to ascertain the distance to an accident ahead.

There's nothing in the passage that truly justifies the verb "ascertain", but they say this is true.
E.g., if you've used Waze, you get similar notifications, which tend to be slightly off but they are "real time" and "in relation to your location". You wouldn't however justify ascertain. The passage doesn't tell you how this network gets its data either.

Q24
Wifi allows businesses to avoid expensive cabling, handy if you are renting office space. Thanks to wifi's popularity, laws have been reviewed, and there have been convictions for people using wifi without paying. These reviews of the law are crucial to presenting Wifi as secure, which is essential for retaining business support

Statement: Companies that own office space may still want to use wired internet to avoid lawsuits against them.

False

I think the logic here is:
* if people can use wifi without paying then it will be perceived as insecure
* businesses won't use things that are perceived as insecure

and there's nothing in the article that says businesses steal wifi and get sued - it seems to be individuals stealing it, and thus individuals rather than businesses who suffer lawsuits, so it is false.

Q25/26
A report has urged wealthy countries to consider bird species around the world.
It says action is needed to save around 500 species of land bird at risk due to human activity.
Wealthy countries currently know little about dangers to species around the world, tending to concentrate on preserving local species.


Statement: Rich countries know little about the need to preserve species.

You can go with can't say because there's no definition of "little", but apparently it's false, lol

Statement: The report's main focus is species found in 3rd world countries.

Again you could say can't say because there's no indication of where, no definition of third world, and the 500 species could easily be mostly in the third world. I don't fully get the reasoning behind the false here but I guess because we are told it's "around the world" we have to rule out "third world" even though they aren't inconsistent with each other.

Q27
Due to increased incidence of plagiarism from the internet, a new form of the traditional supervised assessment is making a comeback. This new form allows students to conduct independent research online and participate in educational trips, but final conclusions must be presented at school in supervised conditions.

Statement: "The students' use of the internet will be uninhibited by the new assessment mechanism."

This is a ridiculous question because uninhibited is an adjective. Are they trying to say "will not be inhibited by"? If so idk how they get to "false", as we're literally told that's to address internet plagiarism and that they will present at school, supervised.

 

[Cici5]

thanks so much for this guidance!!!