How the Styles Assessment works
Each item shows two statements, one above the other, with a rating scale between them. You choose which statement is more like you and by how much. There are 276 pairs, and the Civil Service warns that it may feel repetitive.
You can move back and forth through the questions until you submit at the end. After that your answers cannot be changed. Your responses are compared with a representative group of applicants and reported as a percentile, and a pass is banked for six months at that grade.
The answer patterns that stop a score
The Civil Service checks every set of answers for patterns. Answering at random, or using one option most or all of the time, including the middle option, is not accepted. If your answers follow such a pattern, a score may not be produced, and you may be asked to take it again, up to three attempts in all.
Using the middle option now and then is fine. Leaning on it for whole pages is what causes the problem.
How to answer each pair
- Read both statements. Every one describes something good, so ask which is more typical of you, not which is better.
- Choose the strong option when one statement is clearly more like you, and the milder one when it is close.
- Keep the middle for pairs you really cannot separate.
- Answer as you work in an ordinary week, not on your best day.
- Do not try to guess the right answer. The Civil Service asks you to answer honestly.
Worked example
Top statement: "I plan my week before it starts." Bottom statement: "I stay calm when a deadline moves."
If you always plan your week but deadline changes do rattle you, choose the strong option towards the top statement. If both describe you about equally well, ask which you would give as an example at interview, and lean slightly towards that one rather than taking the middle.
Tips for the real Styles Assessment
- Set aside a full hour in a quiet place. Most people take a few seconds a pair.
- If you notice yourself drifting to the middle option, take a short break. Tiredness is the usual cause.
- Use the back button to fix a slip before you submit. Once submitted, answers are final.
- Do the practice comparisons at the start, and the official practice assessment before the day.
- You get a feedback report afterwards with general suggestions for improving.
Practise the Styles Assessment on CogniPrep
Our version has all 276 pairs, untimed, on a five-point scale from Much More to Much More, with a Previous Page button and a final submit as in the real one. There is no score to beat, because the Civil Service does not publish how it marks the answers. Instead you get a work-style profile and a check on the patterns that can stop a real score being produced: how often you chose the middle, especially late on, how often you used one option, and how consistent your choices were. The statements and profile names are ours.