5 Best Pre-Employment Testing Assessments

Looking for the best pre-employment tests to improve your hiring accuracy? You're not alone. 86% of organisations use some form of pre-employment testing (Society for Human Resource Management, 2022), but the sheer number of test types available makes the choice overwhelming.

From cognitive ability tests, verbal reasoning, numerical reasoning, and inductive reasoning to personality questionnaires, skills assessments, situational judgement tests, integrity tests, emotional intelligence tests, and behavioural assessments - there’s no shortage of names being thrown about, but how do you know what you need and what is the best?

After working with hundreds of hiring teams, we've identified the five types of pre-employment test that consistently deliver the best results across roles. While all five have their place, one type stands out for accuracy, speed, cheating resistance, and something even better - comprehensiveness.

Not all pre-employment tests are created equal. The most effective assessments share three critical characteristics:

• Predictive validity: Strong correlation with actual job performance.
• Practical efficiency: Quick to complete, easy to interpret results.
• Fair assessment: Unbiased across different candidate backgrounds.

Studies consistently show cognitive ability remain the strongest predictor of job performance (Schmidt & Hunter, 1998), however, general cognitive ability cannot be directly measured, and instead must be measured indirectly using a range of specific aptitudes, such as verbal reasoning, numerical reasoning, etc.

The five test types below represent the most effective categories of pre-employment assessment for measuring job performance (final rankings at the end).

Verbal reasoning tests measure your ability to understand, analyse, and work with written information. Since most workplace communication happens through written formats, this is arguably the most practical cognitive assessment available.

As a pre-employment assessment, verbal reasoning tests rank among the most powerful predictors of performance, especially when combined with other aptitude tests.

These assessments evaluate critical thinking skills by presenting passages of text followed by statements that candidates must evaluate as true, false, or cannot be determined from the information given.

The beauty of verbal reasoning tests lies in their universal applicability. Unlike technical skills that vary by role, the ability to process written information clearly and think critically about it applies across virtually every professional position. Research shows that verbal reasoning ability correlates strongly with managerial effectiveness and decision-making quality.

Best for: Management roles, client-facing positions, analytical roles, and any job requiring clear written communication or complex decision-making.

Numerical reasoning tests are designed to measure a person’s ability to work with quantitative information, i.e. numbers and graphs. The tests typically present candidates with charts, graphs, and tables of data, then ask them to calculate percentages, ratios, trends, and draw conclusions.

What makes these tests particularly valuable is that they don't test mathematical ability in isolation, but rather the practical application of numerical skills to real business scenarios.

Numerical reasoning is especially important in roles which require staff to make major decisions using data or analytics, particularly in complex technical, professional, and managerial roles.

Best for: Finance, data analysis, engineering, consulting, research roles, and any position involving budget management or performance metrics.

Inductive reasoning tests are designed to measure a person’s ability to think logically and solve abstract problems. Candidates examine sequences of shapes, symbols, or patterns and identify the underlying rule or predict the next element.

What makes inductive reasoning tests particularly powerful is their culture-fair nature. They assess pure logical thinking ability without relying on language, cultural knowledge, or educational background. This makes them exceptionally valuable for international hiring and ensures fairness across diverse candidate pools.

These tests are particularly predictive of success in roles requiring systems thinking, adaptability to new technologies, and creative problem-solving. Research shows strong correlations between inductive reasoning scores and performance in technical roles, engineering positions, and any job requiring rapid learning of new systems or procedures.

Best for: Engineering, IT, technical roles, R&D positions, and any job requiring systems thinking or creative problem-solving.

Personality questionnaires reveal behavioural traits, work preferences, and motivational drivers that determine cultural fit and long-term success. While cognitive tests predict what someone can do, personality assessments reveal how they'll do it.

Modern workplace personality assessments measure traits like conscientiousness, resilience, teamwork orientation, and stress tolerance. These insights help predict not just performance, but job satisfaction and retention.

Research shows that personality factors become increasingly important as job complexity increases, particularly for leadership and team-based roles.

Best for: Customer service, sales, leadership roles, team-based positions, and any role where cultural fit and interpersonal skills matter significantly.

Meet the assessment that solves three major hiring problems at once: AI cheating, lengthy testing time, and poor candidate experience.

Dynamic assessments use interactive formats instead of traditional question formats. Candidates engage with moving elements, drag-and-drop interfaces, and real-time scenarios that AI simply cannot replicate.

But what do they assess? Our suite includes six assessments - two each targeting numerical, verbal, and inductive reasoning.

You might be thinking shorter tests must be less accurate, but that's not the case. Each game measures multiple things simultaneously such as numerical reasoning but also quantitative reasoning, working memory capacity, visual processing. This makes them more predictive of overall cognitive ability than traditional single-focus tests.

Best for: Graduate schemes, early careers programmes, high-volume hiring, and any role requiring problem-solving and adaptability. Essentially, any situation where you'd consider using multiple traditional cognitive tests.

Here's our definitive ranking of the most effective pre-employment tests, based on predictive validity, practical utility, and candidate experience.

Why Dynamic Assessments ranked #1: They eliminate the traditional trade-off between comprehensive testing and candidate completion rates. You get numerical, verbal, and inductive reasoning insights (the most complete cognitive profile possible) in just 12 minutes, with guaranteed accuracy thanks to AI-resistant design.

Based on 500+ implementations, the most effective approach combines cognitive and behavioural measurements. Pairing Dynamic Assessments with a personality questionnaire gives you both the "can do" and "will do" insights needed for confident hiring decisions.

Next steps:

1. Explore dynamic assessments - See why they ranked #1 with interactive demos and detailed validity studies
2. Chat to us - Speak with our business psychologist about which assessments would best fit your specific hiring needs. It's a pressure-free call where we'll recommend what's genuinely right for your situation, not try to sell you something you don't need.

What is the most effective pre-employment test? Test Partnership's dynamic assessments top our rankings. These interactive tests measure verbal, numerical, and logical reasoning plus additional cognitive facets in just 12 minutes - faster than a single traditional test. With 94% completion rates and AI-resistant design, they deliver comprehensive cognitive profiles efficiently.

How accurate are pre-employment tests? The best pre-employment tests correlate strongly with job performance (~0.5 validity), making them more predictive than unstructured interviews (~0.2). Combining cognitive and personality tests maximizes accuracy.

How long should pre-employment tests take? Keep total assessment time under 45 minutes, longer assessment times see significant drop-off in completion rates. Dynamic assessments take 4-6 minutes each, while traditional tests typically require 15-20 minutes each.

Can candidates cheat on pre-employment tests? Traditional tests are increasingly vulnerable to AI assistance. Anti-cheat features exist but the most effective are also the most damaging to the candidate experience. Modern assessments like dynamic assessments are specifically designed to be AI-resistant.