Assessment Center Written Exercises Preparation – 2024

As a part of the assessment center exercises, some employers may require a written exercise. Many different kinds of employers use the written exercise, particularly if the candidate must write reports or communicate via writing on a frequent basis. The three most common industries that use written assessments are law firms, consultancies, and property firms. Some of the companies use the subject of the exercise later on in the interview process.

What Are Written Exercises?

Written exercises check logical, clear, and appropriate communication in a professional environment. They also check spelling and grammar. This is done by scoring the written exercise for clarity of ideas and writing structure. Assessors look for a job-seeker or graduate’s ability to identify the most important points in the presented information and then communicate the processes and events in a straightforward way.

What Is on a Written Exercise?

The exercises could be given in a drafting letters and reports style or as a part of the larger in-tray exercises often included in the assessment center exercises. These exercises give applicants only a short time frame to process large quantities of information. The goal is to see if the candidate taking the exam is able to analyze the importance of the information provided, assess problem areas, find solutions, and express themselves in a clear manner.

Usually, applicants are given forty to sixty minutes to complete the exercise depending on subject matter. Although the test doesn’t ask applicants to answer questions involving specific knowledge of special industry issues or work procedures, the tests do tend to be more difficult for those in graduate and professional positions.

Topics for the exercise could include questions requiring applicants to report on the pros and cons of a situation based on provided material, summarize facts in a case file by listing strengths and weaknesses, or write a letter of complaint to a local council for an elderly resident. The particular topic will depend on the job area and the competencies that the employer is screening for in this last portion of the hiring process. Usually, the topic is related either to the industry sector or job tasks required of the candidate.

One more thing worth noting about the exam is that those who had additional time in school and university exams due to dyslexia or other learning difficulties may be given extra time. If this is something you, as the candidate, feel would be helpful to you, let recruiters know. They want to make the assessment day opportunity even for assessing all candidates so that no one is at a disadvantage due to the nature of the assessment.

How to Prepare for Written Exercises?

To begin preparing and practicing for your written exercise, first review the information the employer sent you about the assessment center. Sometimes, there will be correspondence in a case study pack or other useful information that can aid you in choosing format or structure for the written exercise.

Applicants who take a written assessment may also be required to do other similar assessments such as case studies or in-tray exercises. These two are extremely common, and sometimes the written exercise may be wrapped into one of these two or both of them in order to save some time in the assessment center. Even if a graduate or job-seeker does not need to take a specific writing exercise, it is wise to prepare for one anyway since it may aid individuals in completing in-tray exercises and case studies as well.

Written Exercises Tips

Once that is complete, work through the following list of things to do when taking a written exercise and practice using them on sample writing exercises as part of your assessment center preparation.

• Read the instructions or brief, then highlight what you need to do and the essential points given.
• Get to your point quickly. Assessors do not want to search for your points, and you are not writing an academic paper.
• Complexity will hinder you rather than making you look good in front of the assessors. As such, avoid unnecessarily complex sentences or large vocabulary words.
• Give yourself sufficient time at the end of the exercise to review the question and double-check your work to be sure you answered the question entirely and comprehensively.
• If you have a word limit, do not go over it. It bothers assessors and makes you look bad.
• Expect that your task is likely to be somewhat difficult if you are in a graduate or professional position and be prepared accordingly.
• The test will be completed under exam conditions, so you should not expect talking or discussion to be allowed.
• Assessors will look for the ability to connect and smooth things over even in a negative situation.
• You should be in the habit of note-taking and planning prior to writing because it may be required by some assessment centers.

Conclusion

Written exercises can be more difficult to prepare for since there is no set topic or format. The topics vary and need a differing approach depending on what has been requested. However, the values of clear, logical thinking and concise, appropriate conveyance of that thinking will always be assessed no matter what the exercise’s topic. Practice and preparation for a written exercise should focus more on being able to communicate a strong message in a logical and clear way than it should on any specific subject matter or format. Reviewing formats may help, but in the end, the format is less of a concern than a candidate’s ability to work with any subject matter to communicate well with others. Particularly, candidates should be practicing ways to get a few clear points across and reviewing their grammar and spelling. These areas will be heavily examined since they affect communication most heavily. If you follow the tips above and prepare accordingly for this vital part of the recruitment process, you will be well on your way to success with your written exercises. Best of luck to you!