TL;DR: A situational judgement test (SJT) gives you a realistic workplace scenario and asks you to judge possible responses. Your answers are compared with how experienced people in the role judge them. You cannot memorise answers, but you can learn what experienced managers value: owning problems, staying within your authority, communicating early and keeping people informed.
Situational judgement tests are one of the most common parts of graduate online assessments, and one of the least understood. Many candidates assume there is no way to prepare because "there is no right answer". That is only half true. There is no single correct response in the everyday sense, but SJTs are scored against a key, and the key reflects consistent principles you can learn.
What a Situational Judgement Test Is
Australian careers guides such as GradConnection list situational judgement questions alongside numerical, verbal and abstract reasoning as a standard part of graduate psychometric testing: a way for employers to see how you would respond to realistic work scenarios, how sound your decision-making is and how well you work with people.
A typical item has three parts:
- A scenario: a short description of a situation in your first year in the job, often involving a deadline, a colleague, a customer or a mistake.
- A question: for example, "How effective is each response?"
- Possible responses: usually four or five actions you could take.
The Response Formats
SJTs ask for your judgement in a few different ways. Read the instructions carefully, because they change what is being measured.
- Rate each response. You rate every option on a scale such as counterproductive, ineffective, fairly effective or very effective.
- Most and least effective. You pick the best and the worst option from the list.
- Rank the responses. You order all the options from most to least effective.
- "Would do" versus "should do". Some tests ask what you would do; others what you should do.
That last distinction matters. A 2007 meta-analysis by McDaniel and colleagues in Personnel Psychology found that SJTs asking what you should do (knowledge instructions) relate more strongly to cognitive ability, while those asking what you would do (behavioural tendency instructions) relate more strongly to personality.
How SJTs Are Scored
The scoring key is usually built from the judgements of experienced people: subject matter experts, high performers in the role, or a consensus of expert raters. Your answers are compared with that key.
How close you need to be depends on the format:
- In most and least effective formats, you gain marks for matching the key's choices.
- In rating formats, some scoring methods give partial credit for ratings close to the key, so rating a response as "fairly effective" when the key says "very effective" can cost less than rating it counterproductive.
- In ranking formats, you are typically rewarded for how close your order is to the key's order.
The research behind this is substantial. McDaniel and colleagues' 2001 meta-analysis in the Journal of Applied Psychology estimated an operational validity of 0.34 between SJT scores and job performance, and the 2007 analysis reported that SJTs add a small amount of predictive power on top of cognitive ability and personality measures. That is why employers keep using them.
What Consistently Scores Well
Every employer's key is different, but the same principles appear again and again in how experienced managers judge workplace behaviour:
- Own the problem. Responses that take responsibility and act score better than ones that wait, deflect or blame.
- Stay within your authority. Acting outside your role, skipping approval or change control, or breaking privacy or safety rules is usually rated ineffective or counterproductive, however good the intention. This matters even more in banking, health, law and government.
- Raise issues early and openly. Hiding a mistake, or hoping nobody notices, is one of the most heavily penalised behaviours.
- Talk to the person first. In conflicts with a colleague, a private conversation usually beats going over their head or raising it in a group.
- Escalate through the right channel. When something is serious, involving your manager or the proper process is effective; going around them rarely is.
- Balance the task and the people. The best responses usually solve the problem and keep relationships intact.
How to Prepare
- Read the employer's values and capability statements. SJT keys are built around what the organisation values. If an employer talks about integrity, customer focus or collaboration, expect scenarios that test exactly those.
- Think like an experienced manager, not an idealist. Ask what a respected senior colleague would do, given the rules they work within.
- Separate effective from ineffective first. In rating formats, the costliest errors are rating a harmful response as effective, or dismissing the best one.
- Practise in your own field. A scenario about client confidentiality in a law firm tests different instincts from a site safety scenario on a construction project.
- Be consistent with the rest of your application. The Australian Government Graduate Program's assessment centre advice is to use real situations and outline your role. SJTs reward the same honesty.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Q: Is there a right answer in a situational judgement test?
A: Not in the everyday sense, but there is a scoring key based on how experienced people in the role judge each response. Your answers are compared with that key.
Q: How are situational judgement tests scored?
A: Usually by comparing your choices, ratings or rankings with an expert key. Some rating formats give partial credit for answers close to the key.
Q: Can you practise for a situational judgement test?
A: Yes. You cannot memorise answers, but practice teaches you the formats and the principles experienced managers value, such as owning problems, staying within your authority and raising issues early.
Q: What is the difference between "would do" and "should do" instructions?
A: "Should do" asks what the best response is, which research links more closely to cognitive ability. "Would do" asks what you would actually do, which links more closely to personality.
Q: Are situational judgement tests timed?
A: Many are timed, but usually less tightly than numerical or abstract tests. Check your invitation for the format.
Conclusion
Situational judgement tests reward sound, practical judgement, not perfect answers. Learn the formats, understand how scoring compares you with experienced people, and practise the principles that consistently score well, ideally with scenarios from the field you are applying for.
Practise in your own field. StrongHire Labs' Situational Judgement practice sets scenarios in eight fields, from technology and finance to health, law and government. You rate every response, earn partial credit for near misses, and see how each one is rated, and why.
