Smurfit Kappa Thomas Assessment Practice

Which part of Smurfit Kappa this is about

Thomas International publishes a case study on Smurfit Kappa ELCORR, the corrugated packaging operation at Etten-Leur in the Netherlands. It names two instruments, the Behaviour assessment (PPA) and the Aptitude assessment (GIA), used for hiring and retention.

Smurfit Kappa is a large international packaging group, and a case study about one Dutch site is evidence about that site rather than about every Smurfit Kappa location. If you are applying elsewhere in the group, ask your recruiter which assessments the process uses rather than assuming these two.

The two assessments are nothing like each other

This is the most important thing to sort out before you prepare, because the two Thomas instruments used here demand completely different things from you.

• The Behaviour assessment (PPA) is 24 sets of four adjectives. From each, you pick the one most like you and the one least like you. It is not timed, takes under eight minutes, works on any device, and Thomas tells candidates outright that there is no correct behavioural style and you cannot pass or fail. There is nothing to revise.
• The Aptitude assessment (GIA) is five short timed tasks measuring processing speed and accuracy. It has right answers, it penalises wrong ones, and it is the only Thomas instrument where practice changes your result. It is also desktop and mouse only: Thomas says it will not run on a phone or tablet.

Thomas renamed both and kept the acronyms in candidate-facing material, so your invitation may use either name for the same test.

The GIA in detail

Five tasks, always in the same order, each with its own instructions, eight practice items and its own clock: Reasoning, Perceptual Speed, Number Speed and Accuracy, Word Meaning, and Spatial Visualisation. Thomas says each task lasts between two and five minutes and the whole series takes 30 to 45 minutes.

• There is no fixed number of questions. Thomas publishes none because there is none. You answer as many as the clock allows, and nobody finishes, so stop planning to.
• Wrong answers are penalised, differently on each task. A full mark on Reasoning, a quarter of a mark on Perceptual Speed, half a mark on the other three. Blanks cost nothing. That means blind guessing is worth exactly zero on average, so guess only after you have ruled an option out.
• The Reasoning task hides its statement. Read the comparison, click to continue, and it disappears. The question is answered from memory.
• Everybody answers the same test. It is not adaptive and there are no level-banded versions, which is exactly why processing speed carries so much of the score.

Preparing for a manufacturing-site process

Work out which task you are weakest at

A real Thomas report prints a separate percentile for each of the five tasks, and its interviewer notes are built around probing an uneven profile. Drilling the one task you are worst at is worth more than three more full battery runs.

Rehearse the guessing rule

Most aptitude tests reward guessing on everything. This one does not, and candidates who have practised on a CCAT or a Wonderlic carry the wrong habit into it.

Sit it on a laptop with a mouse

Thomas asks for a desktop or laptop and recommends attaching a real mouse rather than using a trackpad, and the test may ask for your screen size so the tasks render at a consistent scale. On a task scored in units of about two seconds, the pointing device is part of the measurement.

Answer the PPA honestly

With retention named as a reason for using it, a behaviour profile answered as the person you think they want gets you into a role that does not suit you. There is no score to protect.

Smurfit Kappa roles in the Netherlands

Operations

• Production and machine operation
• Maintenance and technical services
• Logistics and warehousing
• Quality and process control

Commercial and support

• Sales and account management
• Design and packaging development
• Planning and supply chain
• Finance, HR and site administration

Practise the exact tests

Our Thomas practice hub has all five GIA tasks as separate drills plus the full battery, and the PPA. GIA Perceptual Speed is free.