Personally, I feel all tests except WGT are BS. Not like any applicant answers all questions with complete honesty
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TCLA Vacation Scheme Applications Discussion Thread 2025-26
- Thread starter Ram Sabaratnam
- Start date
Hi!
The main advice I was given in relation to this is to ask questions that you can't find from the firm's website or promotional materials - this could be topics such as:
- Training and Development: how trainees are supported day-to-day, how feedback is given, or what tends to differentiate trainees who really excel at the firm
- Firm Culture: collaboration between teams, the level of responsibility given to trainees, or how people are supported during busy periods
- Forward-Looking: what challenges and opportunities the firm is anticipating in the next few years and how trainees might be exposed to those.
I also found it helps to ask a few more personal questions to the interviewers, even if you don't know who they will be before the actual interview. This could be things such as "What have you personally enjoyed most about working at the firm?" or "What draw you to the firm?".
I'd also remain flexible - if you prepare questions in advance but have questions come to mind during the actual interview, it's better to tailor them slightly to the interviewer. This will show genuine engagement with them, and show a real interest!
Best of luck!
Hello!
I was in a similar(ish) situation last cycle with my Reed Smith AC, as the only available dates I could see were during a vacation scheme I was on. I would definitely email the firm to explain that you are unavailable on that AC date, and politely ask if there are any other available dates - some firms release them in batches, so you may be able to wait to book an AC in a later batch
I mean any sort of critical thinking, numerical reasoning, deductive reasoning, error checking tests etc are pretty objective.Personally, I feel all tests except WGT are BS. Not like any applicant answers all questions with complete honesty
If I were running a recruitment process for example, I'd have an application form with 0 questions.
Automatically allocated test (based on grade requirements) with WG+ deductive reasoning + numerical reasoning.
Automatic timed long answer question test based on passing benchmark - I'd have 4 questions randomly allocated from a question bank of 40 questions (10 questions per type). I'd publish all questions online so that nobody would have an unfair advantage from communicating with people who took the test.
Then AC.
Of course, no process can be completely objective, but I still think SJTs are a non-evidence based way to thin out applicants. (Of course, you could argue that people who practice and research SJTs deserve to do better on average, and to an extent I agree)
Haven’t even heard back post critical thinking
I got the morgan lewis TI today but i think other people got it last week so they are prob just sending out in batches so dw yet! I'm also waiting on PW summer
WGT is ironically not a test of critical thinking lol. I actually think if you critically think too hard the answers become unclear but someone who thinks in a surface level manner will just select the right choice, although they admittedly are the winners here. On the job, I bet it becomes far less clear.
Any insight into the Bakers VI?? PLSS GUYS I'VE BEEN TERRIBLE AT VIs SO FAR
30s prep, 90s answer
3 questions
Very commercial focus (less so "give us a random story", moreso "what do businesses care about and why")
There are very clear strategies to different WG tests. I recently took a philosophy argument refresher course (I studied PPE at uni), with a lot of deep thinking etc, and now WG feels much clearer to me (and has at least improved in practice tests).
I think if you've studied the nature of argument in philosophy, then you avoid many of the "over-thinking traps" and thinking critically helps. It's when you are thinking without strategy/understanding the specific logical process that WG is testing for that it becomes more difficult. If you haven't studied philosophy, or critical thinking at University, I would be happy to recommend a few books that helped me out. If not though, practice tests & random youtube tutorials tend to help a lot.
I score above the 95th percentile every time I do it, it is antithetical to actual critical thinking to have a set of ridiculous rules that don't apply to real multifaceted issues. It is testing your ability to follow a process. I would also add to this that my final year project in a highly theoretical science subject was just recently published, not to brag but because I find the idea that taking a philosophy class and reading books will unlock some form of critical thinking truly present in a ridiculously (and scientifically) flawed test to be simply wrong.
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I congratulate you for that. I'm sure you are very smart (I'm saying that unironically - I appreciate it sounds sarcastic).
At the same time, there are transferable skills. Of course, in real life for application understanding and following strong meaning is more important than following weak/literal meaning. But identifying specific arguments alone is a skill that the majority of the population lack, even before identifying argument strength. Im sure from a science background, you might be good at it. But the majority of people are not currently good, and it's part of the reason that people get away with bad arguments all the time in the real world. Of course, the WG tests generally don't present arguments in the best way, but it is still testing for something. "Pancakes and waffles" or so the twitter saying goes.
Reading a block of text and identifying what it is saying in the text is also a skill. Again, in real life identifying strong meaning is just as important as identifying literal meaning - but the majority of people, when presented with a news article or scientific article often misinterprete it, or extrapolate false information that isn't in it. That's what that skill is testing.
Deductive reasoning is again a skill that many people lack. Again, in practice it's not the same as WG - it's much more complicated. But the theory is, if you can't learn it to the extent of doing it on a WG, probably it's not something you'd be good at on a large scale. I see the value in the way it's tested...
But feel free to agree to disagree on this. I will always die on the hill that they are much more objective than SJTs.
Edit: I admit it's flawed. But it's a much more objective test than SJT. For me though, the more objective test I've taken so far I think is the Osborne Clarke verbal and deductive reasoning tests, even if it was more about handling time pressure than anything.
how do you submit the Cleary application? I received the email and says the link will expire by the EOD. I still have to polish my cover letter. Can I generate another link on the website or what?? I'm so confused
WBD online test invite, needed it as have been ghosted by all of the other firms i have applied to.
Yeah you can generate another I've generated like three haha
Thanks so much Abbie!Hello!
I was in a similar(ish) situation last cycle with my Reed Smith AC, as the only available dates I could see were during a vacation scheme I was on. I would definitely email the firm to explain that you are unavailable on that AC date, and politely ask if there are any other available dates - some firms release them in batches, so you may be able to wait to book an AC in a later batch
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