Civil Service Online Tests: Practise All Eight
Eight Civil Service online tests, and you will only meet the ones on your advert. Practise each one as the real test runs it: the adaptive Verbal and Numerical tests, the Judgement Test built from your advert's behaviours, and the full 276-pair Styles Assessment.
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Civil Service Verbal Test
A passage and one statement at a time: True, False or Cannot say, from the passage alone. Adaptive and untimed like the real test, with no going back and two unscored trial items hidden in the sitting.
Civil Service Judgement Test
The CSJT: a 20-statement self-assessment, then three scenarios for each Behaviour on your job advert, every action rated Counterproductive to Effective. Pick your grade and the Behaviours you are being tested on.
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Civil Service Numerical Test
A table of data, with the chart a tap away, and a question with five answers. Adaptive and untimed like the real test, calculator expected, and every wrong option built from a common slip.
Management Judgement Test
Fifteen line-management scenarios across the five aspects the Civil Service assesses, choosing the action you would be most likely and least likely to take. Used for jobs from EO to SEO.
Work Strengths Test
All three parts: strengths statements, ten scenarios rated for effectiveness, and five most and least likely choices, on the AA to EO or HEO to SCS 1 strength pairs.
Styles Assessment for Behaviours
All 276 pairs of the Civil Service Styles Assessment, rated Much More to Much More, with the back button and final submit of the real one. No score to beat: a work-style profile and a check on the response patterns that stop a real score being produced.
Customer Service Skills Test
The three-part simulation: branching customer exchanges where your first reply changes what the customer says next, six rated scenarios, and ten minutes of timed checking and data entry.
Casework Skills Test
The three-part simulation: a case pack of emails, letters and policy extracts judged Definitely true to Definitely false, six rated casework scenarios, and ten minutes of timed checking and data entry.
Which tests will you sit?
No test is compulsory at any grade. The recruiter chooses per vacancy, and the job advert says which apply. This is the Civil Service's own guidance on which grades each test can be used at.
Verbal Test
- AA / AO
- Yes
- EO
- Yes
- HEO / SEO
- Yes
- G7, G6, SCS 1
- Yes
- Timed?
- No
Numerical Test
- AA / AO
- Yes
- EO
- Yes
- HEO / SEO
- Yes
- G7, G6, SCS 1
- Yes
- Timed?
- No
Judgement Test
- AA / AO
- Yes
- EO
- Yes
- HEO / SEO
- Yes
- G7, G6, SCS 1
- G7 only
- Timed?
- No
Management Judgement
- AA / AO
- No
- EO
- Yes
- HEO / SEO
- Yes
- G7, G6, SCS 1
- No
- Timed?
- No
Work Strengths
- AA / AO
- AA to EO version
- EO
- AA to EO version
- HEO / SEO
- HEO+ version
- G7, G6, SCS 1
- HEO+ version
- Timed?
- No
Styles Assessment
- AA / AO
- Yes
- EO
- Yes
- HEO / SEO
- Yes
- G7, G6, SCS 1
- Yes
- Timed?
- No
Customer Service Skills
- AA / AO
- Yes
- EO
- Yes
- HEO / SEO
- No
- G7, G6, SCS 1
- No
- Timed?
- Part 3 only
Casework Skills
- AA / AO
- AO only
- EO
- Yes
- HEO / SEO
- No
- G7, G6, SCS 1
- No
- Timed?
- Part 3 only
The recruiter guidance disagrees with itself on the Casework Skills Test at AA/AO; its own candidate guidance says Administrative Officer and Executive Officer, which is what we show.
The one thing to know about each test
Verbal and Numerical: they stop when they know your level
Both are adaptive and untimed. A right answer makes the next question harder, so almost everyone ends near half right; what counts is how hard the questions were when you were getting them right. You cannot skip or go back, and a few questions are unscored trial items you cannot spot.
The judgement tests: the rating scale has no middle
Counterproductive and Ineffective are both bad; Fairly Effective and Effective are both good. Decide the side first, then how far. Several actions can share a rating.
Management Judgement: "likely" is still judged on what works
You pick the action you would be most likely and least likely to take, across 15 scenarios and five aspects of managing people. The best action is often the less comfortable one.
Styles Assessment: the pattern is checked
276 pairs of statements. Using one option most of the time, especially the middle, or answering at random, can mean no score is produced and a retake is required, up to three attempts.
The skills tests: the only clock in the range
Part 3 of the Customer Service and Casework Skills Tests is ten minutes of checking records and typing details exactly. Everything else, in every Civil Service test, is untimed.
The Judgement Test follows you to interview
Its self-assessment is worth 15% and you may be asked about it at interview, and the test writes a report your interviewers can use to plan their questions.
How you are marked, and the pass mark nobody publishes
A percentile against other applicants
Every test reports a percentile against a representative group of applicants who took the same test. A percentile of 44 means you scored better than 44% of that group. On the Verbal and Numerical tests the percentile comes from an ability estimate, not a count of right answers.
A minimum per grade, then a job pass mark
Below a system-set minimum for your grade you are rejected automatically. After the deadline the recruiter can raise the pass mark for the job, depending on the number of applicants and the impact on protected groups. Neither number is published, and meeting the minimum is no guarantee of an interview.
Pass once, reuse for six months
Passing scores on the Verbal, Numerical, Work Strengths, Styles Assessment and Customer Service tests are banked for six months at the same grade grouping. The Judgement Test never is, because each job selects its own behaviours. Hiring managers can also ask you to sit any test again, supervised, at interview.
Written by the Cabinet Office, not by a test vendor
The Cabinet Office's Occupational Psychology Service writes the questions and sets the correct answers, the adaptive rules and the cut-scores. The tests run on Talogy's platform, which is why a practice link may point at a Talogy domain, but they are the Civil Service's own content. Talogy absorbed Cubiks in 2022, and the Cubiks Logiks tests are a different format: practise those separately if your invitation names them.
The Verbal and Numerical tests alone are taken about 230,000 times a year, and the Cabinet Office publishes how their adaptive algorithm works in an algorithmic transparency record. Our versions follow it: the same estimation method, the same starting point and the same stopping rule. Older prep material calls them the VRT and NRT, which were the tests used before 2020.
Where these practice versions differ from the real tests
- The real tests open with unscored practice questions; ours start on the first scored question.
- Where the real judgement tests play a short video, ours show the transcript the real test also offers.
- The real Judgement Test has scenarios for four job levels; ours has two, AA to EO and HEO to Grade 7. Its self-assessment section is shown back to you as a profile rather than scored, because its key is not published. Work Strengths Part 1 is treated the same way.
- Item counts the Civil Service does not publish (the Verbal and Numerical maximums, the skills tests' Part 1 sizes, the Work Strengths Part 1 scale) are our choices and each game's instructions say so.
- The Styles Assessment gives you a work-style profile and a check on your response pattern rather than a score, because the real one is a self-description with no key we could honestly reproduce.
- The tests work on a phone, as the real ones do, but the Civil Service says they work much better on a large screen, so sit the real thing on a laptop if you can.
Applying to the Fast Stream?
The Fast Stream uses its own tests, not these eight. For 2026 entry the online stage was two untimed tests, Work-based Scenarios and a Case Study assessment, followed by a virtual assessment centre. The format changes most years, so we cover it as a guide rather than a simulation.
Read the Fast Stream assessment stages guideFrequently Asked Questions
Are the Civil Service online tests timed?
No, with one exception. Every Civil Service online test is untimed except Part 3 of the Customer Service and Casework Skills Tests, which is a ten-minute checking and data entry section. On the Verbal and Numerical tests the guidance says your final score is not affected by how long you take.
What is the pass mark for the Civil Service tests?
It is not published. Each test has a system-set minimum percentile for each grade, and candidates below it are rejected automatically. After the deadline the recruiter looks at all the scores and may raise the pass mark for the job, considering the number of invitations to the next stage and the impact on protected groups. Any specific pass mark you read on a prep site is a guess.
How many questions are in the Civil Service Verbal and Numerical tests?
It varies. Both tests are adaptive: they choose each question from your previous answers and stop once their estimate of your level is precise enough or a maximum is reached, so different candidates answer different numbers of questions. Most people take 15 to 45 minutes. The number is not published and the real test shows no question counter.
Can I use a calculator in the Civil Service Numerical Test?
Yes. The Civil Service suggests having a calculator, a pen and rough paper to hand. There is no on-screen calculator, so use your own.
Can I go back and change my answers?
Not on the Verbal and Numerical tests: the guidance says you cannot skip or go back. The Styles Assessment is the exception, where you can move back and forth and change answers until you submit.
Do I have to retake the tests for every application?
Not always. Passing scores on the Verbal, Numerical, Work Strengths, Styles Assessment and Customer Service tests are banked for six months at the same grade grouping and reused. The Judgement Test cannot be banked, because different behaviours are selected for each vacancy.
Who makes the Civil Service tests? Are they Cubiks or Talogy tests?
The Cabinet Office’s Occupational Psychology Service writes them and sets the correct answers, the adaptive rules and the cut-scores. They run on a platform supplied by Talogy, the company that absorbed Cubiks in 2022, but they are not the Cubiks Logiks tests, which are a different format.
Is the Fast Stream the same as these tests?
No. The Fast Stream has its own online tests, which for 2026 entry were two untimed tests called Work-based Scenarios and a Case Study assessment, followed by a virtual assessment centre. It does not use these eight tests.
Companies That Use UK Civil Service online tests
These are the Civil Service’s own tests, written by the Cabinet Office and used on vacancies advertised through Civil Service Jobs. Any department or agency recruiting there can add them to a vacancy, at its own discretion and cost, so the job advert is the only reliable statement of which tests a role uses.
UK Civil Service
Government & Public SectorThe Verbal and Numerical tests alone are taken about 230,000 times a year by applicants on Civil Service Jobs, according to the Cabinet Office’s algorithmic transparency record. The other six tests are listed on the same guidance pages.
We name no individual departments here. Use is decided per vacancy rather than per department, so check the advert for the role you are applying to.
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 Civil Service Tests? No Two Alike
No shared answer key can exist for a test that builds a different paper for every candidate. Why the Civil Service tests cannot be shortcut.
Civil Service Online Tests: What Each of the Eight Is Really Testing
Almost every Civil Service test is untimed, the Verbal and Numerical tests stop when they know your level, and the judgement tests have a rating scale with no middle. What that changes about how you prepare.
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.
Personality Test Practice for Job Applications
No right answers, which is exactly why they unsettle people. Learn the traits, the consistency checks and the formats before you sit one for real.
About CogniPrep Civil Service Practice
The UK Civil Service online tests are used on Civil Service Jobs vacancies across departments and agencies, at each recruiter's discretion. They are written by the Cabinet Office and delivered on Talogy's platform. Verified September 2026.
- 8 practice tests: Verbal, Numerical, Judgement, Management Judgement, Work Strengths, Styles Assessment for Behaviours, Customer Service Skills and Casework Skills
- Verbal and Numerical: adaptive, untimed, no skip or back, variable length, unscored trial items; Numerical has five options and allows a calculator
- Judgement Test: 20 self-assessment statements on a seven-point scale, then three scenarios per behaviour rated Counterproductive to Effective
- Management Judgement: 15 scenarios, most and least likely, EO to SEO
- Work Strengths: statements, 10 rated scenarios and 5 most and least choices
- Styles Assessment: 276 graded pairs, with a back button until you submit
- Customer Service and Casework Skills: three parts, with a ten-minute timed Part 3, the only clock in the range
- Results are percentiles against other applicants with an unpublished minimum per grade; five tests bank a pass for six months
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