How to prepare

At an assessment centre employers want to be able to see you acting naturally, as you would at work. That means that you will not be able to prepare in advance for many of the exercises you are likely to be involved in. You will get preparation time on the day for the exercises, as well as all the information you need. For other exercises there are things you can do. If you know that you are going to be involved with a numerical reasoning ability test and you haven’t done any maths for a while, it may be a good idea to refresh yourself with how to complete basic calculations; if it’s a verbal reasoning test it may be worth reading different types of texts and interpreting the information.

Many of the interviews conducted at assessment centres are now competency-based. This means assessors are looking for specific examples of situations you have been in, and how you behaved. They are called ‘competency-based’ because questions are linked to competencies, which describe different behaviours, for example team working or communication. As a general rule you will have information about the areas an employer will be looking before you attend the assessment event. It is worth thinking about times when you have demonstrated the behaviours that fall under the competency areas and that you think are relevant for the role. If team working is relevant, it would be good to have some different examples showing how you behave in a team. Examples may include how you interact with others when things are going well, when there is disagreement in the team or when the team is working to a tight deadline.