Prepare for EPSO Situational Judgement Tests

The EPSO situational judgement test (SJT) is a 20 question test which you have to complete in 30 minutes. In this test, you are presented with a number of different situations that you could expect in your actual place of work. Following this, you have four different ways of dealing with the issue. It is your task to select two of them, one which you are most likely to do and another which you are least likely to do in the situation. 30 minutes is more than enough time to complete this test. The timing is simply there so that you cannot spend forever trying to work out the perfect answers for the different situations presented.

Important Note: You take this EU test in your second language.

The EPSO SJT assesses you against five key competencies. This used to be eight but has changed in recent years. These five are:

• Analysis and problem solving
• Delivering quality and results
• Prioritising and organising
• Resilience
• Working with others

These competencies are used particularly in the assessment of those applying to the EPSO AST competitions. However, for higher level positions in the AD group you are also assessed on the following:

• Learning and development
• Leadership

In the EPSO competitions in order to be considered for a place at the EPSO assessment centre you need to get 24 marks out of a possible 40. For each question, you can receive a possible two points, one each for the most and least desirable options. As well as this, if the answer choice that you have chosen is nonaligned, not necessarily the wrong choice but not the right one you will receive half a point. The test is split into five different scoring groups that are aligned to the five competencies and you can receive a maximum of 10 for each of the five.

This is a question that has been raised on countless occasions. The answer is absolutely. In fact, for example, just as you can increase your numerical skills by taking practice tests and understanding the questions you are up against, so too can you do so with the EPSO SJT. It was once thought that it is impossible to prepare for a situational judgement test but this has been proven to not be the case. Learning how to respond to different scenarios is a skill that can be taught and developed. We can prove this simply from a life situation: Have you ever run into the road? Did you do it as a child? Probably. But as you grew older you were taught and understood that this is dangerous. You learnt how to respond to a situation in the correct manner. So you see we do learn and adapt to situations. We do it all the time. So in answer to the question can you prepare for a situational judgement test the answer is an unequivocal yes.

The best way to succeed in this EPSO test is to know what you are being tested on. The reason for this is because if you know what you are going to be tested on you will be able to prepare yourself both mentally and physically.

A further aspect to this test relates not only to this test but to all the EPSO concours tests is that you take all the tests in one sitting, over a two hour period. Taking a host of different tests that extend you is draining and unless you are fully prepared you won't be able to do yourself justice. For this reason we here at JobTestPrep have developed practice materials giving you the skills and confidence to perform at your highest level. If you've got any questions feel free to contact us, we aim to answer any question within 24 hours.