Pre-employment tests have come a long way since they first entered mainstream use in the early 2000s.
With how many there are in the market, it has become the norm for professionals and graduates to spend as much time as they can in order to prepare for any possible assessment that might get thrown their way in the application process.
Considering the fact that each industry may contain multiple tests created by various course providers, it is not uncommon for people to get overwhelmed because they don’t know which one to study first.
Fortunately, if you’re hoping to start or improve your career by taking a chance at PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), you do not have to look further because the company uses its in-house pre-employment test, allowing you to start preparing immediately.
Of course, this doesn’t mean that it will be a walk in the park since you and other applicants will have to ace PwC game-based assessment expectations with flying colors or else you won’t even get very far in the hiring process.
This is because the PwC assessment has been designed to serve the needs of the company, making it unique to the point that a majority of its sections cannot be seen anywhere else.
That being said, let’s take a look at a number of things that you can do to turn the PwC game-based assessments into a bearable, if not fun, experience instead of a horrifying one.
1. Get into the mindset of the role that you want
One of the many things that the company would want to confirm in a candidate, apart from their credentials, is if they know what they are signing up for.
In short, the PwC exam is also designed to see if you understand the duties and responsibilities of the job that you are trying to get.
To do this, you will be presented with a number of scenarios that contain a problem that is regularly seen or encountered by those in the position that you are applying for and it will be your job to select which of the provided courses of actions is the best or worst one to take to resolve it.
In order for you to succeed, you must act in a way that is expected of you if you were given the job in the first place.
This means that you will need to read up on the job description carefully so that you can gather enough information on what kind of employee you are supposed to be and what actions you should take.
2. Practice your numerical and logical reasoning skills!
With it being a consultancy firm, there is a bit of emphasis on proving your ability to do simple to complex calculations as well as your ability to solve problems that require a lot of steps or thinking out of the box.
This is done through the numerical reasoning and logical reasoning sections of the PwC assessments.
For the numerical reasoning test, this is a timed exam where you can expect questions revolving around ratios, percentages, proportions, and other mathematical topics under secondary education.
Unlike conventional numerical reasoning tests, however, the questions will all utilize a graphic of some sort such as charts, graphs, tables, statistical data, and even financial statements or sheets.
This means that it is very likely that you will lose a lot of time trying to get the necessary information from the graph than the actual calculation, so you’ll have to look through the data fast but not so carelessly that you’ll get the incorrect one.
For the logical reasoning test, you will be presented with a set of images or figures, and you will have to figure out what kind of pattern they follow so that you can select which of the choices fits the missing figure.
Unlike the rest of the tests in the PwC test, these two sections are what applicants have the most difficulty with due to having to deal with the constraints of the time limit and the pressure of the competition.
This is where online practice tests, especially those designed for PwC’s pre-employment tests, come in handy because you’ll have most, if not all, of the subjects covered and get a lot of tips and hints on how to tackle them.
3. Don’t worry too much about the game-based assessment
What makes the PwC hiring process unique from other companies is because it utilizes a number of game-based assessments, meaning you will have to play a number of ‘games’ that may seem nonsensical or unrelated to the company but are actually linked to a particular competency or work-related skill.
Some of the PwC game-based assessments are simple such as being that of a memory game where you have to find two identical pairs, flipping switches on generators that can provide a certain amount of power to meet a power requirement, and figuring which emotion is shown for each faces in a set.
Others, however, are a little more difficult and may require a bit of luck like in their team selling game where you have to try and undercut your opponent, and its moving numbers game where you need to click on certain characters or shapes depending on where a shape occurs as well as what kind of number is shown.
Although it may be tempting to only focus on the last two games, it is actually better to try and get a perfect score on the ‘easy’ ones instead of just getting a decent one for everything.
Why is this so? Well, it’s very simple: you are proving that they don’t have to worry about you asking for help or panicking when being given an easy task or facing a minor problem.
As long as you did decently on the harder ones, perhaps even got an above-than-normal score, then you still have a clear shot at landing that job because those games ARE meant to try and make you fail with how complex or confusing they are.
In order to prepare for the PwC game-based assessment, it would be a good idea to download a number of puzzle games in your mobile phone to test three things: your memory, your reaction times, and your spatial or problem-solving skills.
This is because although they are not exactly the same games, you are still training yourself by honing the skills needed to solve them.
