Hire top talent with Verbal Reasoning Tests

What is a Verbal Reasoning test?

The Verbal Reasoning test is an objective, standardised way to assess verbal ability and gather data about a candidates verbal aptitude during the recruitment process. The Verbal Reasoning analysis is one of the nine tests available in the FinxS Reasoning Assessment Suite and predictive of a candidates verbal aptitude. The test measures a candidate’s ability to comprehend and reason using concepts expressed verbally or through written information. Such skills are in high demand and required for Journalists, Lawyers, Editors and Public Relations Specialists.

We’ve been supporting business for over 21 years to boost their hiring and selection processes. Our advanced aptitude testing platform, FinxS empowers recruitment managers to assess verbal ability and make more reliable hiring decisions, predict the performance of applicants and understand their working style.

Organisations with successful recruitment processes place emphasis on hiring employees with abilities and behavioural traits that correspond to job role requirements. These organisations understand that robust psychometric tests help select top talent, increase employee retention and avoid high turnover.

When administered correctly, reasoning tests can significantly enhance the probability of selecting the right candidate for a job.

The Verbal Reasoning test is most commonly used by recruiters during the employment process to assess verbal ability, predict the job performance of candidates, and quickly narrow down the talent pool. Skills such as logic, numerical reasoning or written comprehension are directly related to the high performance of specific tasks or functions in an organisation. Hiring personnel with high intellectual abilities guarantees better performance from the individual.

Make Secure Hiring Decisions

Robust reasoning tests help select top talent, increase employee retention and reduce turnover.

Benefits of a verbal reasoning test

Assess Speed vs Accuracy

The speed-accuracy balance provides additional insight into a candidate’s working style and predicts how they approach and overcome challenges. Abstract Reasoning tests analyse the accuracy and speed in which a candidate can interpret the relationship between a collection of objects.

Online Assessments

Simply send candidates a link and a unique access code to complete an online assessment via our cloud-based platform. You will receive an automated and comprehensive report straight to your nominated inbox within minutes of the candidate completing the test.

Benchmark Performance

The purpose of a benchmark comparison is to identify how a respondent compares against a selected population. Quantify the attributes of your top performers and create a baseline for confident hiring decisions. Create a benchmark to add a valuable comparison tool when hiring.

Are you looking to hire someone with exceptional verbal skills who is comfortable with written information? Organisations who utilise reasoning assessments during the selection and hiring process are 24% more likely to have a workforce who exceed performance expectations.

Candidates with a strong affinity for verbal reasoning are quick to grasp simple and more complex texts. They can find connections in the text and link these to the context. Candidates who score well in this area can draw on written material to make arguments and switch quickly between comprehension to problem solving.

If you need to hire an employee with great verbal skills a verbal reasoning aptitude test is a great way to assess their current skill level.

The FinxS Verbal Reasoning aptitude test measures verbal ability. The test provides insight and understanding of candidates’ working speed and accuracy to understand written information, conceptualise it and find causal relationships. It relates to a person’s ability to identify essential information in a text and understand how it relates to the problem.

Someone who demonstrates strong verbal reasoning might ask questions such as “What is the key information I should filter out from this bulk text?” or “If these are the premises, then this is the conclusion?”

Verbal reasoning assessments provide reliable insights into a candidate’s abilities, including:

  • How competent the candidate is with analysing large amounts of written or oral information under a considerable time pressure
  • Ability to comprehend and interpret verbal information
  • Ability to evaluate weak and robust arguments and identify counter arguments

The Verbal Reasoning section of the test consists of 20 questions to assess verbal ability. Candidates read a large text then need to determine if the concluding statement is true, false or undetermined.

Before the test begins, candidates are provided with a practice question so they understand what to expect during the verbal reasoning test. Verbal reasoning is the most difficult test in the FinxS Reasoning Analysis battery. The average score is 28 out of a possible 100. 

Verbal Reasoning Test Example

Instructions:

Read the below text first. The text is followed by either a statement or question. Choose the correct choice from the list of choices.

Description:

Paradoxically, in order to understand others, we must first have a good knowledge of ourselves. We often do not have this self-knowledge, or the opportunity to develop it. In organisations, status and power barriers prevent people from expressing their true feelings about each other. There are also cultural constraints which inhibit the public expression of emotions. Even when information about our attitudes, values and behaviour is available in some form, psychological defence mechanisms may interfere with our ability to use it effectively.

Answer:

Managers in organisations do not always get true feedback from their subordinates.

  • True
  • False
  • Impossible to say from the text
 

Practising sample questions is the most valuable thing a candidate can do to prepare for a verbal reasoning test. The more texts they read, the quicker they will become in determining intended messages and conclusions from written information.

Candidates often struggle under the time pressure of the test. Simulate a practice situation where they time themselves while completing a set of questions to become comfortable with significant time constraints.

Predict job performance with Verbal Reasoning Tests

Verbal reasoning test questions

Candidates complete the verbal reasoning test under timed conditions. They have a maximum of fifteen minutes to complete up to 20 questions. Candidates read a written text and after reading the passage are asked to determine whether the concluding statement is true, false or not possible to interpret.

For example, “Paradoxically, to understand others, we must first have a good understanding of ourselves. We often do not have this self-knowledge, or the opportunity to develop it. In an organisation, status and power barriers prevent people from expressing their true feelings about each other. There are also cultural constraints which inhibit the public expression of emotions. Even when information about our attitudes, values and behaviour is available in some form, psychological defence mechanisms may interfere with our ability to use it effectively.

From reading the above passage, is this statement, true, false or not possible to know. ‘Managers in organisations do not always get true feedback from their subordinates.’

Verbal reasoning test answers

You, the recruiter, will receive a report automatically from our cloud-based platform within minutes of the candidate completing the questionnaire. The report details the candidate’s answers and provides an analysis of the implication of the score on the candidate’s working style. The report records how long the candidate took and how many questions they answered in the given time frame. The breakdown of scores allows for analysis of the candidate’s speed and accuracy. Candidates may be able to process a great deal of information but cannot follow it to reach a logical conclusion.

Next steps

Verbal Reasoning tests are a precise and reliable way to measure verbal ability, assess verbal aptitude, and predict the performance of job applicants. Interviews, resumes and reference checks are often ineffective predictors of job performance as recruiters judge candidates based on subjective, rather than job-related abilities. Reasoning tests help hiring managers to draw more objective conclusions about an applicants working style and current capability.

These abilities are difficult to assess based solely on resumes and interviews. Cognitive Aptitude tests can be used in most occupational contexts as they test only the abilities that are vital to job performance in a wide variety of fields. So, it’s no surprise that aptitude is the single most accurate predictor of job performance.

Please do not use the FinxS Reasoning results as the sole criterion to make decisions about a candidate. Always consider many other factors, such as behavioural preferences, skills, attitudes, motivation, knowledge, education and experience that are not measured by this assessment.

Discover our Range of Aptitude Assessments

Abstract Logical Reasoning
Measure a candidate's planning, organising and delegating skills.
Word Association
Measure the ability to make links between concepts and draw logical conclusions.
Spatial Reasoning
Measure an individual's ability to perceive and understand the spatial relationships between objects or shapes.
Visual Memory
Assess a candidate's ability to remember and process relevant information.
Numerical Reasoning
Test your candidates to see if they can solve number problems by solving patterns and trends.
Verbal Reasoning
Evaluate a candidate's capacity to analyse complex information and accurately comprehend written content.
Mathematic Logical Reasoning
Measure a candidate's capacity to solve numerical problems.
Understanding Logical Processes
Evaluate how systematic a person's thinking process is.
Understanding Social Context
Measure a candidate's ability to read social situations.

Start assessing your candidates today