NV5 Thomas Assessment Practice

About NV5's use of Thomas

NV5 is a US engineering and consulting firm working across infrastructure, energy, construction quality assurance and environmental services. Thomas International publishes a case study naming NV5 as a user of three of its four instruments: the Aptitude assessment (GIA), the Personality assessment (HPTI) and the Behaviour assessment (PPA).

The stated motivation is turnover. That is a common reason employers adopt behavioural assessment, and it is worth understanding because it shapes what the assessment is looking for. An employer trying to reduce turnover is not looking for the highest score on every scale; it is looking for a fit between how someone naturally works and what the role actually involves day to day. A profile engineered to look impressive works against that.

The three instruments

• Aptitude assessment (GIA). The only scored one. Five short timed tasks measuring processing speed and accuracy under pressure. Desktop and mouse only; it will not run on a phone.
• Behaviour assessment (PPA). Twenty-four sets of four adjectives, pick the one most like you and the one least like you. Untimed, under eight minutes, any device. No right answers, no pass mark.
• Personality assessment (HPTI). Seventy-eight statements rated 1 to 7 across six workplace traits. Untimed. Thomas reads high scores as potential derailers as well as strengths.

Thomas renamed all of these and kept the acronyms in candidate-facing material, so your invitation may use either name for the same test. Assess and Assess Accredited are the platforms, formerly called Thomas Perform and Thomas Hub.

The GIA is the one to prepare for

Five tasks in a fixed order, each with its own instructions, eight practice items and its own clock of between two and five minutes: Reasoning, Perceptual Speed, Number Speed and Accuracy, Word Meaning, and Spatial Visualisation.

• No fixed question count. You answer as many as the clock allows and nobody finishes, so stop thinking about completing it.
• Negative marking at a different rate per task. A wrong answer costs a full mark on Reasoning, a quarter on Perceptual Speed and half on the other three. Blanks cost nothing, so a blind guess is worth zero on average. Guess only once you have ruled an option out.
• Each task tips a different way. Reasoning rewards getting through more items. Perceptual Speed rewards accuracy, because everyone already works at roughly the same speed on it. Spatial Visualisation punishes speed bought with errors hardest of all.

NV5 role families

Technical and field

• Civil and structural engineering
• Construction quality assurance and inspection
• Geospatial and surveying
• Environmental and energy services

Professional and corporate

• Programme and project management
• Building and technology consulting
• Health and safety
• Corporate and business services

The Thomas case study describes NV5's hiring in general rather than a specific programme, so confirm with your recruiter which of the three you will be sent for the role you applied to.

Preparation that actually helps

Drill one GIA task at a time

A real Thomas report gives each task its own percentile, and its interviewer notes are built around probing an uneven profile. Sitting the whole battery over and over tells you your average; drilling the single task you are weakest at is what changes it.

Sit one full battery run before the real thing

The cumulative pacing across five different task types in one sitting is the actual difficulty, and no individual drill reproduces it.

Answer the PPA and HPTI honestly

With turnover as the stated reason for using them, a fit assessment answered as the person you think they want produces a job that does not suit you. Neither instrument has a score to protect.

Practise the exact tests

Our Thomas practice hub has all five GIA tasks, the full battery and both questionnaires. GIA Perceptual Speed is free.