EPSO Tests: What the Pass Marks and the AD5 Weighting Actually Do
EPSO verbal needs 10 of 20, while numerical and abstract share one 10 of 20 bar. What each mark does in AD5 2026, and how to pace all five tests.
The European Personnel Selection Office runs one battery of reasoning tests in front of every EU institution job, and most candidates prepare for it as if it were one test with one pass mark. It is not. There are two different pass rules, only one of the three tests ever ranks you, and in the AD5 2026 graduate competition the tests after the reasoning section carry more of the final ranking than the reasoning section does.
Three tests, two pass rules
The AD5 2026 notice, the AST 3 notice from 2025 and the February 2026 contract staff call all print the same three reasoning tests at the same lengths: verbal reasoning, 20 questions in 35 minutes; numerical reasoning, 10 in 20; abstract reasoning, 10 in 10. They also print the same two pass rules.
Verbal reasoning stands alone. You need at least 10 out of 20, and a 9 ends your application whatever else you score. Numerical and abstract are pooled: EPSO adds the two scores and needs at least 10 out of 20 between them. That changes how you should think about them. A candidate who scores 7 on numerical needs only 3 on abstract, and a candidate who struggles with the one-minute abstract clock can buy room with a strong numerical score. Nobody is asked to pass both.
What the marks do in the AD5 2026 competition
AD5 2026 is one of the few EPSO procedures where reasoning scores rank candidates rather than simply gating them, and it is the one most of our readers are sitting. EPSO's own assessment page sets out the weights. After Part 1 and Part 2, candidates who pass every test are ranked on verbal reasoning (40%), EU knowledge (30%) and digital skills (30%). The highest-ranked go on to have their written essay, the EUFTE, marked, and the final ranking uses verbal (35%), EU knowledge (25%), digital skills (25%) and the essay (15%).
Two consequences follow. Numerical and abstract never enter the ranking: clear the combined bar and they have done their job. And verbal is worth more than any other single test in Part 1, which matters because the competition drew 174,727 applications for 1,490 reserve-list places. In a field that size the pass mark is a floor, not a target.
On timing, EPSO has said that Part 1, the reasoning tests, is planned to start in November 2026 in weekly waves, with an invitation naming your testing week about three weeks ahead and the exact date and time visible on the testing platform at least two weeks ahead. Part 2 follows later; EPSO had not announced its dates when this was written.
In AST and contract staff procedures, it is pass or fail
Assistant and contract staff procedures use the same reasoning tests purely as a gate. Pass both rules and the reasoning tests are finished with you; the ranking comes from the field-related test. For contract staff, a pass is valid for ten years for the same and lower function groups, and a fail bars you from retaking at that level for four months. That makes the first sitting worth preparing for properly rather than treating as a trial run.
How to pace each test
The five tests run at very different speeds, and the clock per question is the most useful number to carry into each one:
Verbal gives you time to read every passage once; the danger is reading it three times. Numerical gives you time to calculate, and you should, because the five options sit a few tenths apart and "None of the above" is often option E and sometimes the answer. Abstract is the tightest reasoning clock EPSO sets, and digital skills is the fastest test of all.
The platform: TAO, and what it lets you do
Since 2026 EPSO runs its tests on TAO, from Open Assessment Technologies, with Proctorio recording the session. Within a test you can move freely between questions, bookmark any question, open an Overview that shows every question as unseen, seen or answered, and strike options out with an answer eliminator. The numerical test has an on-screen calculator, and EPSO tells candidates to press the equals sign rather than Enter to get a result.
Two warnings appear when you hand a test in: one if any question is blank, then a choice between reviewing your answers and submitting. Submitting is final and finishing early earns nothing, so spare minutes belong to the questions you bookmarked. There is no paper: notes, pens and physical calculators are banned from the desk.
The language rule most guides get wrong
The reasoning tests are sat in your Language 1, the language you declared at C1 on your application. EU knowledge, digital skills and the essay are sat in your Language 2. For AD5 2026, Language 2 can be any other official EU language. A French or Dutch candidate who chose English as Language 2 therefore sits the knowledge tests in English, and should prepare the vocabulary in English, while reasoning in their own language on Part 1.
What practice can and cannot cover
The five multiple-choice tests have right answers and fixed formats, so they can be practised faithfully, and our EPSO practice tests run all five at the real counts and clocks with the TAO tools described above. The written parts cannot: the EUFTE, the written tests in specialist competitions and the short-text questionnaire for secretaries are marked by assessors against published criteria. For the wider context of recruitment tests across Germany, France and the EU institutions, including your rights as a candidate, see assessments in Germany, France and the wider EU.