How the TOJ 376 works
The Unsupervised Test of Judgement 376 replaced the Test of Judgement UIT 374 on 22 July 2025. It keeps the 52 items but gives 90 minutes instead of 75. You take it at home on the PSC’s Candidate Assessment Tool with the Test Access Code from your invitation, on a desktop or laptop, not a phone or tablet, and without a VPN.
Each item is a short work situation followed by one possible response. You rate how effective that response is on six points: Very ineffective, Ineffective, Somewhat ineffective, Somewhat effective, Effective, Very effective. There is no neutral middle. The same situation can come back later with a different response, which you rate on its own.
Some answers earn partial marks and there is no penalty for guessing. Your result is a level from J-01 to J-10 that compares you with a large sample of earlier test takers. J-02 to J-09 are five-point percentile bands from the 10th to the 49th percentile, and J-10 means the 50th percentile or higher. Each department sets its pass mark between J-02 and J-07.
Often the TOJ 376 is step 1 of two. Only those who pass it go on to step 2, usually the supervised TOJ 377, and you must pass both. A TOJ 376 result is valid indefinitely and portable across the federal public service, unless a process asks for a new one.
How to rate a response
Rate each response against the situation, using the PSC’s own meaning of each point:
- Ask first whether the response makes things worse. If it does, it is Very ineffective.
- If it does no harm but does not move the problem forward, it is Ineffective. If it might not help, Somewhat ineffective.
- If it might help, Somewhat effective. If it clearly helps, Effective. If it solves the problem or makes a very important contribution, Very effective.
- Look for what strong responses share: they deal with the problem directly, keep the right people informed, act within your role and stay honest.
- Judge the response written, not the one you would have chosen. A decent response can still be Effective even if you can think of a better one.
Worked example
Situation: you are finishing a briefing note your director needs by noon. At 10:30, the colleague who supplied the key figures tells you one number is wrong and the corrected figure will not be ready until 2 p.m.
Response: send the note on time with the figure marked as pending, and tell your director which number is affected and when the correction will arrive. This meets the deadline, keeps the director informed and does not pass off a known error, so it is Effective or Very effective.
The same situation with a different response: send the note with the original figure, since the error is your colleague’s responsibility. This knowingly puts wrong information in front of a decision maker and makes the situation worse, so it is Very ineffective.
Tips for the real TOJ 376
- Take it seriously even though it is at home. The result follows you to other federal jobs.
- Use a desktop or laptop in a quiet room, switch off any VPN, and do not leave it to the last hour before your invitation expires.
- Rate every item. Some answers earn partial marks, so a considered near miss still scores and a blank does not.
- Avoid extremes by habit. Save Very effective for responses that really solve the problem.
- 90 minutes for 52 items is about 1 minute 44 seconds each. Keep moving and use Mark for Review on the ones you want to revisit.
- If you need to retake it, the wait is 180 days.
Practise the TOJ 376 on CogniPrep
Our TOJ 376 has 52 items in 90 minutes, each a situation and one response to rate on the same six-point scale, with responses to the same situation spread through the paper. You can move freely and mark items for review. We key each response to one point on the scale and give full credit for that rating and 20 points less for each step away; the PSC does not publish its formula. Your result is placed on the J-01 to J-10 scale against other CogniPrep users, not the PSC’s norm group. The situations are ours.