Free aptitude test preparation resources for students and careers advisers
Updated 4 November 2026
Supporting students or staff who have received an online assessment invitation? This page explains the common test formats, what to check before an assessment and where to find practice. You are welcome to link to it or print it.
ACE-Test is an optional iPhone and iPad practice app. Its free features need no account, and its questions are original practice material, not official employer assessments.
Common test formats
- Numerical reasoning: reading tables and charts and working with percentages, ratios and change.
- Verbal reasoning: deciding whether a statement is true, false or cannot be said from a short passage.
- Abstract or inductive reasoning: finding the rule in a sequence or grid of shapes.
- Logical or deductive reasoning: drawing only the conclusions that must follow from given facts.
- Critical thinking: judging assumptions, inferences and arguments.
- Situational judgement: rating responses to workplace scenarios against the employer's values.
- Personality and work-style questionnaires: untimed, with no right answers.
What candidates should check before starting
- The deadline, the time zone and whether the test can be paused.
- Whether a calculator and rough paper are allowed.
- The employer's rules on outside help and AI tools.
- Any practice test linked from the invitation, which is the best way to see the real screens.
- Reasonable adjustments: candidates with a disability or health condition that affects timed tests should ask the employer as early as possible, before starting.
Where to find free practice
- Practice tests linked from the employer's invitation or the test publisher's candidate pages.
- Your university careers service, which may offer licensed practice tests or workshops.
- ACE-Test's free features (below), as an optional extra.
Printable checklist
- Read the invitation: deadline, time zone, test types, rules on calculators and outside help.
- Ask about reasonable adjustments now if you need them.
- Take any practice test the employer links to.
- Practise the named formats a little every day, against the clock.
- The night before: review mistakes, do not start new topics, sleep.
- On the day: quiet room, charged device, read the instructions, do not get stuck on one question.
