TMA Test Tips: The Talentenanalyse, the CAPA and What a 5 Means

TMA is a Dutch publisher in Utrecht, and "de TMA" is one of the most common assessments in Dutch hiring outside the big graduate schemes. An invitation to it can mean two very different things, and candidates regularly prepare for the wrong one. This is what each part is, how it is scored, and what actually moves the result.

The Talentenanalyse: no right answers, and it knows if you steer

The Talentenanalyse is a questionnaire of 312 statements. You keep choosing the statement that fits you best, and the answers place you on 22 drives in six groups: emotional balance, motives, social, influencing, leadership and organisational. Each drive has a named talent at both ends. Orde & structuur runs from Creatief to Accuraat; Dominantie runs from Coöperatief to Sturend. The "44 talents" in TMA's marketing are those 44 names at the ends of the 22 drives, not extra scales.

There is no pass mark. TMA says in its own handbook that a drive is neither good nor bad to have in large or small measure, and employers compare your profile with the role. The reports built from one sitting, a drives report, a competency match, a candidate report, are all the same questionnaire, so if you are told you will get one of them, this is the test.

It is untimed and TMA puts it at about an hour. Two design choices make steering it a bad idea. The statements in each choice are matched for how good they sound, so there is rarely an obvious better answer. And some items come back later, which feeds a consistency score out of 10 on the report. A partner who runs the test treats below 6 as unreliable.

Then prepare for the conversation, because there always is one. TMA's expert report gives the interviewer questions aimed at your most pronounced drives, some of which double as a check on your CV. Having a real example ready for each of the drives you expect to come out strongly is not gaming the test; it is what the conversation is for.

The Capaciteitenanalyse: five subtests, five different paces

The capacity battery, often shortened to CAPA, is up to five subtests. Your employer may send one, several or all five, and TMA says they are always used alongside a Talentenanalyse. The item counts below are TMA's own; the clocks come from PRiMAN, a TMA company. What matters most is the pace, because it varies fourfold:

A candidate who carries the number series pace into Rekenvaardigheid will reach half the sums. A candidate who carries the arithmetic pace into number series will guess at series they could have solved. Practise each at its own rhythm.

Number series: four operations, one next number

TMA says the series change by adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing, sometimes two at once, and that you always choose the single next number. That is narrower than most number series tests: no squares, no primes. Test in the same order every time: the gaps between neighbours, then whether each number is a multiple of the last, then every other number, in case two series are woven together. If the gaps change, write them down and find the rule in the gaps.

Word analogies: one blank, simple words

A is to B as C is to what. TMA keeps the vocabulary deliberately simple, so the marks are in the relation. Say the first pair as a sentence ("a baker makes bread") and test each option in that sentence. The wrong options are words that feel connected to the third word: bee next to beekeeper, when the answer is honey. Some prep sites describe a double analogy here; TMA's own description is a single blank.

Arithmetic: estimate, then check the last digit

Thirty-nine bare sums with five options each, easy first and harder later, no calculator. At about twelve seconds a sum, written working does not fit. Decide the rough size of the answer, check the last digit, and choose: 36 × 25 is a quarter of 3600, and it must end in 0. The wrong options are built from the usual slips, a dropped carry, a digit in the wrong place, the wrong order of operations.

Figures: read the question line first

Two question forms appear, and TMA says the question tells you which: which figure goes in the gap, or which figure does not belong. They look alike and ask opposite things. Then list what changes from frame to frame, direction, position, number, fill, before you look at the options. A mirror image can never be rotated into the original.

Technical insight: recognise the principle

Sent mainly for technical roles. At about twenty seconds an item it is a recognition test: gears reverse at every mesh, a longer lever arm needs less force, more rope sections need less pull, a series circuit shares the voltage. The real items are drawings.

How the scores come back, and why a 5 is not a fail

Because there is no total, a weak subtest is visible to the employer rather than averaged away. And because you are compared with your own education level, the same answers read higher against the MBO group than against the HBO/WO one. If you are coming from the Dutch school system, the one thing to unlearn is that a 5 means you failed. On this scale it is the middle.

Preparing in English for a test in Dutch

The real test runs on a computer, in Dutch, and TMA's platform expects a laptop or desktop. Number series, arithmetic and figures barely depend on language, so English practice transfers well. Word analogies transfer least: practise the format in English and Dutch word relations separately. Dutch writes decimals with a comma, which is worth knowing before a twelve-second sum.

Two names to keep apart. TMA is not Ixly, although both are in Utrecht; an invitation that says Test-Toolkit is Ixly. And BrainsFirst, whose NeurOlympics games some employers send, has been a TMA company since March 2026, but it is a different assessment again. The TMA practice page explains both and has all six TMA games, with number series free to try.