Why The Heck Is SHL Test So Difficult?

tomleonhart on 15/05/2025 - 19:37

Recently I've applied for a job. I was told I'll have to sit an SHL General Ability test.

To my understanding this is a psychometric test. Thinking to myself that I am not that daft, I went and did some of their practice tests and to my surprise, these tests are absurdly difficult. It's so hard to a point that I thought to myself how on earth if anyone manage to pass these unless you're a genius.

I went as far as trying to ask chatGPT to answer some of their 4 unknown variables questions and chatGPT spat out 2x A4 worth of formula, to which i asked myself how am i supposed to do that in 90 seconds.

I still haven't sat the actual test yet but the practice test actually gave me a fright.

Have you had to sat these before? How did you go?

Education & Work

Comments

  • tenpercent on 15/05/2025 - 19:59
    +2

    Can you share the example question that required 2x A4 pages of working out? Was it multiple choice?

    • tomleonhart on 15/05/2025 - 20:03
      -1

      No it's a pie chart question.

      • tenpercent on 15/05/2025 - 20:04
        +1

        Can you share it?

        • tomleonhart on 15/05/2025 - 20:10

          Cant remember exactly the wording. But this is the moment after the test where I took the screenshot and ask chat GPT to solve it.

          https://streamable.com/t66ktk

          Recording this thinking to myself how am i supposed to answer that in 90 seconds.

          • SBOB on 15/05/2025 - 20:22
            +5

            @tomleonhart: i think you assuming ChatGPT is solving that problem via the simplest method might be your first mistake ;)

            eg likely similar to pie chart in other SHL example quizzes like this one
            https://tbo.jobtestprep.co.uk/jobtestprep/images/content_202…

            • tomleonhart on 15/05/2025 - 20:43

              @SBOB: the pie chart given in that document is easy since it has an absolute number. Sometime they don't even give you an absolute number.

              Like the one I struggled with below

              Vanilla
              "The serving of vanilla plus three times the serving of chocolate make up 8% more of the total services than do strawberry and mint combined"

              Chocolate
              "The serving of Vanilla make up 42% less of the total servings than does twice the servings of chocolate and strawberry combined"

              Strawberry
              "The Serving of vanilla make up 18% more of the total servings than does half the number of strawberry servings"

              Mint:
              Empty

              Now adjust the pie chart accordingly

              Reading the question alone took me a minute lol

              • 30year old Camry on 15/05/2025 - 21:32
                +7

                @tomleonhart: This is giving me an ice-cream headache.

              • freefall101 on 15/05/2025 - 21:59
                +5

                @tomleonhart: A lot of these tests are meant to show your reasoning skills more than anything else. Also depends if you have pen and paper, excel would make it easy. It has to total 100% overall, you can just start plugging numbers in from there. Once you know vanilla you know strawberry, once you know strawberry and vanilla you know chocolate, then you can figure out mint. So just plug in a number for strawberry.

                So if Vanilla is 20%, strawberry is 4%, chocolate is 27%… seems unlikely already with the three times chocolate bit.

                Vanilla is 50%, strawberry is 64%.. also wrong

                Vanilla is 25%, we're into fractions, screw that.

                Vanilla is 30%, Strawberry is 24%, Chocolate is 12%… welp, that works. I'd just slap in 24% for mint and move on if it's a timed quiz, otherwise I'd work through the Vanilla calc to make sure.

                but then, I'm a data analyst, studied a lot of maths and really had to think through that question because the wording is awful on it.

              • original15 on 15/05/2025 - 22:08
                +1

                @tomleonhart: Is this a legitimate sample question? It uses inconsistent language like servings and total services interchangeably which I wouldn’t expect from SHL etc or have you added to this to demonstrate complexity?

                Psychometrics are one of my areas of expertise and it’s rare for one to be as convoluted as this ice cream example. They could be similar

                • tomleonhart on 15/05/2025 - 22:32

                  @original15: Nah i typed that out from one of the practice question that I struggled with. Sooooo hard.

  • SBOB on 15/05/2025 - 19:59

    For examples, do you mean the ones here?
    https://www.shl.com/shldirect/en/example-questions/

    • tomleonhart on 15/05/2025 - 20:00

      yeah similar. You can sign up and do the practice test here.

      Any email and password will do.

      https://talentcentral.eu.shl.com/player/workflow/start

      • SBOB on 15/05/2025 - 20:02

        not that curious :)
        clicked few the couple of example numerical/reasoning ones in that first link i posted and didnt seem that difficult, but perhaps false sense of difficulty to make people sign up/do the full quiz
        Google does seem to agree they are difficult so at least you arent alone, but perhaps the job you are applying for is setting an incredibly high bar for its candidates

  • [Deactivated] on 15/05/2025 - 20:01
    -6

    Challenge your employers with whether 1/0=infinite or 1/0=undefined.
    If their answer is infinite kick their assess, if they say undefined again kick their assess.
    If they say both, then ask why. If they cannot explain again kick their assess and look for somewhere else.
    You can also challenge all the forum's know-all suckers here!

  • MS Paint on 15/05/2025 - 20:03

    Is the new job the same role but just a different employer?

    • tomleonhart on 15/05/2025 - 20:06

      yeah…

      • MS Paint on 15/05/2025 - 20:24

        How odd that they want these tests done. If you're competent at your current job surely that carries over?

        I would have thought hours in the seat would have more weight than passing these tests.

        • tomleonhart on 15/05/2025 - 20:45

          Well this is just the first step. The other stuff is to followed.

        • original15 on 15/05/2025 - 22:00

          How can one employer be sure of competence with a different company?

          • MS Paint on 16/05/2025 - 05:07

            @original15: If you need a licence that has very regular and strict competency checks then the new employer has no reason to challenge that.

            • original15 on 16/05/2025 - 09:07

              @MS Paint: You appear to know a little more about the role than I, but from an employer perspective they’re looking at $100 or $200 to do some basic checks on intellect, problem solving and maybe style. From a risk of bad hire perspective, it makes sense for a lot of roles given the cost of a bad hiring decision.

              • MS Paint on 16/05/2025 - 09:57
                +1

                @original15: OP did an AMA that they are an airline pilot. The role is competency/skill based and checked against strict criteria on a very regular basis to maintain their license. I don't see why a new employer would have any reason to disagree with their competency history and how answering a few complex questions would make any difference. All I can think of is that there are a lot of applicants and it's just a way to filter out the braniacs to put them at the top of the interview list.

                • Protractor on 16/05/2025 - 09:59

                  @MS Paint: Or to verify existing information as claimed at initial employment. Maybe AI is weeding the garden?

                  • MS Paint on 16/05/2025 - 10:01

                    @Protractor: There would be thousands of pilots that are excellent at flying aircraft that would fail this test.

                    • Protractor on 16/05/2025 - 10:05

                      @MS Paint: Not disputing that part. I'm throwing in reasons why a company would expect existing employees to do it. It appears (on the surface) to be a categorising process. The motives for that aren't known, but it could be eg; prioritising maintaining preferred employees in 'staff adjustments' ,a baseline cognitive marker or updating their compliance requirements for regulations?
                      Even the new leader of the Libs can even fly a plane, so there's that.

                • original15 on 16/05/2025 - 12:15

                  @MS Paint: Putting the brainiacs at the top of the list to save time reviewing lots, sounds like a plan to me.
                  While on the job performance is a great predictor of future job success, as it’s moving from one company to another they can’t truly be sure of performance, just that the applicant has the required license. But if planes cockpits or roles are getting more complex also good to determine if applicant has what it takes to quickly get up to speed. Additionally if lots of applicants it’s a good way to sort who is motivated to jump through an extra step. I sure hate it in previous roles where a new hire hasn’t been up to scratch, makes it harder for the rest of us. I’d much rather employers use this as some form of minimum standard or entry gate

  • Gdsamp on 15/05/2025 - 20:03
    +4

    HR Department 'justifying' their role

  • dust on 15/05/2025 - 20:20
    +3

    They're meant to be difficult and most people aren't supposed to be able to finish the whole thing.

  • Protractor on 15/05/2025 - 20:47

    Then the system is working as expected. Not everyone passes.Or finishes.Do you have a plan B?

    • tomleonhart on 15/05/2025 - 20:51

      stay in my current job I supposed. Just didn't expect it to be that hard.

  • jv on 15/05/2025 - 21:55
    +2

    Two pints of beer before the test and they are very easy…

  • Davo1111 on 15/05/2025 - 21:57

    they start off easy and get harder. its by design.

    • original15 on 15/05/2025 - 22:11

      Some assessments are adaptive, while this is intended to shorten the time commitment and but not compromise accuracy, if you keep getting Qs right then it will get harder and harder, but if you get one wrong get easier until you get one right again..but still the participant always feels like they’re being stretched and mentally exhausted

  • DingoBilly on 15/05/2025 - 22:00

    Questions seem pretty basic.

    I'm sure it's standardised and some are meant to be hard. I wouldn't worry too much about it.

  • pegaxs on 15/05/2025 - 22:19

    Expected test time 50 mins? I would have clicked off right then and there and found another employer that isn’t that lazy to just sublet their selection process to a random test generator.

    • tomleonhart on 15/05/2025 - 22:31

      24 questions, 36 minutes. so 90 seconds a question, then you get the question like the ice cream above.

      • original15 on 15/05/2025 - 23:38

        Is it broken into sub tests? Verbal numerical inductive ?

        • tomleonhart on 16/05/2025 - 15:43
          +1

          just took the test. They're all randomised but seem like they include all 3.

          • original15 on 16/05/2025 - 16:04

            @tomleonhart: How was the difficulty level?

            • tomleonhart on 16/05/2025 - 16:07
              +1

              @original15: not too bad. I only had to guess 2 questions since time was running out. Still, was pretty tough.

              • original15 on 16/05/2025 - 17:47
                +1

                @tomleonhart: That doesn’t sound too bad tbh, most are intended to be a struggle w time so 2/30 ain’t bad
                Good luck w it

  • cashless on 15/05/2025 - 23:43

    Back to school for you OP
    https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/885622

    Amazing how many OzBargainers got that wrong

  • GordonD on 16/05/2025 - 09:56

    What the heck is an "SHL" test?

  • Muppet Detector on 16/05/2025 - 14:50

    https://connecttesting.com.au/simpsons-myers-briggs-test/

    Warm up with this one.

  • miwahni on 17/05/2025 - 00:17
    +1

    Could be they're looking at how you approach the test as much as how you answer it. In a timed test, if I came across a question like that I'd leave it, move on, and come back to it when I'd finished the rest. That way I've only missed one question (assuming I can't work it out) instead of taking up half the test time working on it and missing out on answering half the remaining questions.

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