Situational Judgement Assessment

SCENARIO 1 OF 10 · TEAMWORKAnalyst in a project team

A colleague on your shared project has missed two deadlines, and your part depends on theirs. The client review is in a week.

Step 1: pick the MOST effective response.You can't change a pick once made.

What a situational judgement test measures, in short

A situational judgement test (SJT) measures how well you judge what's effective at work: handling people, priorities and ethical grey areas. You see a realistic scenario and choose or rate possible responses, which are scored against a key agreed by experienced professionals.

These 10 scenarios and their keys are our own, based on common competency frameworks. Real employers key their SJTs to their own values, so the "best" answer can differ between organisations. Use this to learn the reasoning, not to memorise answers.

By What's Your IQ · Reviewed 4 Oct 2026

Format: 10 scenarios, pick most and least effective of 4
Scoring: 1 point for each match with the key; 20 max
Competencies: Teamwork, integrity, customer focus, prioritising, resilience
Used in: Graduate schemes, civil service, medical and police selection

READ THE INSTRUCTIONS TWICE

Same scenario, four ways to be asked

Employers use different response formats, and each one is scored differently. Here's the hero scenario under each, with a typical answer and how it would score.

THE INSTRUCTIONChoose the MOST and LEAST effective response.

A TYPICAL ANSWER

Talk privately firstMostComplain to the teamLeast

HOW IT'S SCOREDOne point for each pick that matches the key, so 2 per scenario. Partial credit is common: getting the least right still scores.Often the least-effective option is easier to spot, so secure that point first.

"Should" vs "would"changes what's being measured"What should you do?" tests knowledge of effective behaviour and overlaps more with cognitive ability. "What would you do?" leans towards personality.²

1940sJudgement on paper. Early supervisory judgement tests asked managers to choose responses to workplace problems, and were used widely in wartime selection.¹

1990A "low-fidelity simulation". Motowidlo and colleagues revived the format as a cheap way to sample how candidates would handle real job situations.³

2001 · 2007They predict performance. Meta-analyses by McDaniel and colleagues found SJTs predict job performance, and that the instruction wording shapes what they measure.^1,2

TodayEverywhere in early-career hiring. Graduate schemes, civil service fast streams, police and medical school admissions all use SJTs, often keyed to the employer's own values.

McDaniel, M. A., Morgeson, F. P., Finnegan, E. B., Campion, M. A., & Braverman, E. P. (2001). Use of situational judgment tests to predict job performance: A clarification of the literature. Journal of Applied Psychology, 86(4), 730–740.
McDaniel, M. A., Hartman, N. S., Whetzel, D. L., & Grubb, W. L. (2007). Situational judgment tests, response instructions, and validity: A meta-analysis. Personnel Psychology, 60(1), 63–91.
Motowidlo, S. J., Dunnette, M. D., & Carter, G. W. (1990). An alternative selection procedure: The low-fidelity simulation. Journal of Applied Psychology, 75(6), 640–647.

The rest of the selection process

Reasoning testsSJTs usually come alongside timed numerical and verbal reasoning. Practise those too.

Career aptitude testBefore applying, check which kinds of work fit your interests.

Emotional intelligence testMany SJT scenarios hinge on reading and managing emotions, yours and other people's.

There's no right answer. There is a best one.

What a situational judgement test measures, in short

Same scenario, four ways to be asked

The rest of the selection process

Judgement is half of it. Reasoning is the other half.