Amberjack Assessment: Blended Test Practice
One sitting with no clock that still records how long you take on every answer: workplace scenarios marked Most and Least effective, then emails from colleagues answered from an inbox, and usually a few video questions at the end.
What your invitation may call it
Employers rename it and often leave Amberjack’s name off entirely. If your invitation says any of these, and the link starts assessment.weareamberjack.com, this is the test:
- Immersive assessment, or online immersive assessment
- Online blended assessment
- Future Potential Assessment, or Future Potential Blended Assessment
- High Potential Assessment (the name BDO used in 2022)
- Simply “our Amberjack assessment”
The three things to know
- No clock, but timed. Nothing counts down on the scored items, yet the time you take on each is recorded.
- One attempt, no going back. Every item must be answered before you can continue.
- Phone-friendly. Amberjack’s platform is built for mobile as well as desktop, so practising on a phone here is fair practice, unlike for a desktop-only test.
Free Test
Free to try with a free account - unlock this provider for unlimited practice.
All Tests
Email Inbox Reasoning
The Applied Intellect items from Amberjack’s blended assessment: emails from colleagues in an inbox, each ending in a query. Verbal emails give you three replies to choose from; numerical ones carry a table and a chart and four answers, with a calculator expected. Ten emails in three inbox runs, no clock.
Future Potential Blended Assessment
The full Amberjack sitting that employers call an immersive, online blended or future potential assessment: 12 workplace scenarios where you mark the Most and Least effective response, then 10 emails from colleagues answered from an inbox, in three sections. No clock, but every answer is timed. Used on UK graduate, apprentice and training contract schemes.
What is the Amberjack assessment?
A recruiter’s own test
Amberjack is a UK early-careers recruitment company (it traded as Gradweb until 2016) that runs graduate, apprentice and placement campaigns for employers. Its flagship assessment has been called the Future Potential, High Potential and Future Potential Blended Assessment, and it runs on Amberjack’s own platform.
Four pillars of potential
Everything maps to Amberjack’s model: Grit (resilience, passion, delivery), Creative Force (future-focused, agent of change), Applied Intellect (social and emotional intelligence, learning agility, cognitive ability) and Digital Mindset. Your feedback report is written in these terms.
One score, the employer’s cut-off
The employer sees one overall score and a breakdown by pillar, and sets its own cut-off. There is no published pass mark or norm. A strong online result is often what gets your video answers watched.
How a sitting runs
- 1
A quick tech check, then an introduction, often a short video from the employer. The instructions have a text-only option.
- 2
Optional diversity questions and, if the employer scores video with AI, a consent screen. Declining sends you to an alternative process.
- 3
The scored items, in sections separated by short videos or pause screens. The first item of each type may show an animated demonstration of how to answer.
- 4
The video questions, straight after the scored items.
- 5
A completion page, then an automated feedback report on how you did.
The item types, with examples
Scenarios: Most and Least effective
About half the sittingA workplace situation and four responses. You mark one Most effective and a different one Least effective. Both are required. On a laptop the scene sits on the left and the responses on the right; on a phone each response has its two buttons beneath it. An example written for this page:
You are three weeks into a graduate placement. Your manager asked you to update a client tracker by Friday. On Thursday afternoon you notice two figures you were given by a senior colleague do not match the source report. That colleague is on leave until Monday.
- Update the tracker with the figures you were given and raise it next week.
- Tell your manager today what you found, show both sources, and ask whether to publish with a note or hold the update.
- Correct the figures yourself and publish without mentioning it.
- Leave the tracker as it is until Monday.
Most effective: telling your manager today. Least effective: knowingly sending a client figures you believe are wrong.
Verbal emails: choose the right reply
Three repliesAn email from a colleague sets out a policy, a process or a thread and ends with a question. You pick the one of three full-sentence replies that answers it correctly from the email alone. This is not True, False or Cannot Say: the wrong replies each misapply one condition, miss an exception buried later in the email, or overstate what it allows. For example, a room booking email where only team leads can book the large room, full days need Facilities approval and catering needs three working days' notice: the right reply is the only one that honours all three.
Numerical emails: tables and charts
Four answers, calculator expectedThe same inbox, but the email carries a table and usually a chart, and there are four short answers. The wrong answers are what you get by skipping one line: a mileage allowance, a delivery charge, a contingency. For example, two van hire quotes with day rates, a charge per mile after the first 100 and daily insurance: forget the allowance or the insurance and a different supplier looks cheaper. Emails arrive in runs of three or four, and the inbox list shows which one you are on.
The video questions
Most employers add two to four recorded questions straight after the scored items; Stephenson Harwood asks four and AtkinsRéalis has asked three. Some newer deployments move them to a later stage or drop them. How they work on Amberjack’s platform:
- You read the question and can think for as long as you like.
- Once you press Record you have two minutes, and you cannot pause, stop or record again.
- They ask about your motivation for the role and why you would be a good fit.
- An assessor watches them, or with your consent an AI scores the transcript. Often only candidates who clear the employer’s cut-off have them reviewed.
We do not simulate them, because a free spoken answer cannot be marked faithfully. Prepare four answers of under two minutes each: why this role, why this employer, a time you worked well in a team, and a setback you recovered from. Our video interview practice helps with delivery.
What we simulate, and what we do not
Simulated
- The full sitting: 12 scenarios and 10 emails in three sections, the configuration most accounts describe
- The scenarios on their own, marked per half, with a breakdown by pillar
- The emails on their own, in three inbox runs
- No clock, forward only, every answer required, time recorded
Not simulated
- The video questions, or written-answer versions of them
- Behavioural questionnaire items: Amberjack says they exist, but no candidate account shows one in the blended sitting
- Video-led scenarios such as Virgin Atlantic’s cabin crew version
- The Digital Assessment Centre, which is human-marked
Amberjack does not publish how it weights the two halves or how it marks Most and Least. We mark each half of a scenario separately and weight the scenarios and emails equally, and our feedback says so.
Ambertrack is not the test
Ambertrack is Amberjack’s applicant tracking system: the portal you apply through, usually at an address ending ambertrack.global. It can launch another vendor’s assessment as easily as Amberjack’s own. Network Rail’s Ambertrack portal, for example, has passed signaller candidates to Aon’s reaction speed test, and its privacy notice names Arctic Shores and Saville for graduate assessment.
So check the link of the test itself. If it starts assessment.weareamberjack.com, practise here. If it names another vendor, go to that vendor's page: Aon, Arctic Shores or Saville. If you are not sure, our guide to working out which provider sent your test will help.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is the Amberjack assessment timed?
Not on the scored items. Stephenson Harwood tells candidates there is no time limit, and AtkinsRéalis says its version is not timed. Amberjack itself describes responses as "time recorded rather than time limited", so how long you take on each item is logged even though nothing counts down. The video questions are the exception: two minutes per answer once you press Record.
How long does the Amberjack assessment take?
Employers quote different figures because they configure it differently: about 30 minutes (BDO in 2022), about 45 minutes and up to about an hour (AtkinsRéalis in 2024), and around 30 minutes for the reasoning part alone (AtkinsRéalis graduate FAQs). Most give you about a week to complete it.
What kinds of question are in it?
Workplace scenarios where you mark the Most effective and the Least effective of four responses, and emails from colleagues in an inbox, where you choose the reply (verbal) or the answer (numerical, with tables and charts) that deals with their query. Most sittings end with two to four recorded video questions.
Can I use a calculator?
Yes, and you should. Stephenson Harwood suggests having a calculator, paper and pen to hand, and Amberjack’s own practice test warns that some items need a calculator. The platform does not provide one on screen.
How do the video questions work?
You read a question, take as long as you like to think, then have two minutes to record once you press Record, with no pause, stop or second take. They cover your motivation for the role and why you would be a good fit. Some employers have them watched by an assessor; others score the transcript with AI, with your consent.
Can I go back and change an answer?
No. Every item has to be answered before Continue works, and there is no route back to an earlier one. Some employers let you close the assessment and return later, but only to where you left off.
Will I get feedback?
Usually yes. Employers using Amberjack tell candidates they will receive an automated feedback report on how they performed, with hints and tips, whatever the outcome.
Is Ambertrack the same thing as the Amberjack assessment?
No. Ambertrack is Amberjack’s application portal, the site you apply through. Tests launched from it can come from other vendors: Network Rail’s Ambertrack portal has handed candidates to Aon’s reaction speed test and, for graduates, to Arctic Shores and Saville. Check the link of the test itself: the Amberjack assessment runs at assessment.weareamberjack.com.
Companies That Use Amberjack
Amberjack runs outsourced early-careers recruitment for UK employers and puts its Future Potential Blended Assessment at the online stage, usually straight after the application form. The employers below are ones where the employer or Amberjack itself says so.
Stephenson Harwood
LegalEvery training contract and placement scheme applicant completes the Amberjack assessment, with a practice test on Amberjack’s platform.
View Stephenson Harwood guide →HS2
Rail & InfrastructureAn immersive online blended assessment for graduates and apprentices, with situational, verbal, numerical and video questions.
AtkinsRéalis
Engineering ConsultancyThe immersive assessment for graduates, apprentices and placements; the 2026 selection pages describe a changed format.
Morrisons
RetailAn immersive blended assessment between the application form and the assessment centre for early-careers programmes.
Virgin Atlantic
AviationA video-led immersive blended assessment for cabin crew, with a feedback report to every candidate.
Employers change assessment vendors between intakes, and several of these describe the test without naming Amberjack, so check the link in your invitation: the Amberjack assessment runs at assessment.weareamberjack.com.
Guides and Tips
Read up before you practise: what the tests reward, what catches candidates out, and why shortcuts do not work.
Can You Cheat the Amberjack Assessment?
One sitting, every answer timed, then two minutes of video in one take. What Amberjack found when candidates tried AI.
Amberjack Assessment: What to Expect From the Blended Test
Most candidates never see the name Amberjack except in the link. What the immersive assessment actually asks, why there is no clock but every answer is timed, and what the video questions need.
Practice by Test Type
Compare the same format across every provider that uses it, and see what each one is really measuring.
Numerical Reasoning Test Practice
Tables, charts, percentages and ratios against the clock. The most common screening test on graduate schemes and analyst roles.
Verbal Reasoning Test Practice
Short dense passages and true, false or cannot say answers. Judged on what the text supports, never on what you already know.
Situational Judgement Test Practice
Realistic workplace scenarios scored against an employer competency framework. No maths, no time pressure, and a scoring key you can reason about.
About CogniPrep Amberjack Practice
CogniPrep provides 3 practice tests for the Amberjack Future Potential Blended Assessment: the full sitting, the Most and Least situational judgement items on their own, and the email inbox reasoning items on their own. Each reproduces the real interaction: four responses with a Most and a Least pick, three sentence-length replies on a verbal email, four answers on a numerical email with its table and chart, strictly forward navigation, and no clock with time recorded per item. Amberjack runs this assessment for UK graduate, apprentice, placement and training contract schemes, with evidenced use at Stephenson Harwood, HS2, AtkinsRéalis, Morrisons and Virgin Atlantic.
- Future Potential Blended Assessment: 22 items in three sections, 30 to 45 minutes
- Situational Judgement (Most and Least): 12 scenarios, free to try
- Email Inbox Reasoning: 5 verbal and 5 numerical emails in three inbox runs
- Calculator, paper and pen allowed and expected
- Feedback written in Amberjack’s four pillars and its employer-cut-off model
Ready to Start Practising?
Start with the free situational judgement test, then unlock all 3 Amberjack practice tests with full scoring and feedback.