How Elements Numerical works
The data sits on the left of the screen and the question on the right. Sometimes the data is one table and sometimes a set of tables read together. Under each question is a drop-down list of possible answers to choose from.
Each question has its own clock and there is no overall limit. The first question on a new table or set of tables gets 90 seconds, and each later question on the same data gets 75. Run out of time and the test moves on without you, with no going back.
For this test Talent Q asked candidates to have a calculator, paper and a pen or pencil ready. Korn Ferry’s current guide gives the same advice for its assessments generally, so have all three on the desk before you open the link.
Working against a per-question clock
Korn Ferry’s advice is to work quickly and accurately, but also to “use the full time given and not to rush into an unconsidered answer”, since every question has its own limit. Talent Q’s guide adds that warnings appear as you near each question’s limit.
Two rules from Talent Q change how to handle a hard question. An answer you have selected, but not confirmed, is submitted automatically when time runs out. And a question left unanswered sends you to an easier question, exactly as a wrong answer does. Together they mean you should always have your best estimate selected before the clock ends.
- Read the table titles and units while the first question’s longer clock is running.
- Estimate first, then use the calculator to choose between close options.
- Select an answer as soon as you have one, then check it if time remains.
How it is scored
Your responses are compared with those of a comparison group who have taken the test before, and the result is a percentile: the 75th percentile means you did better than 75% of that group. Talent Q based the underlying score on the difficulty of each question you met and whether you answered it correctly, so how far up the difficulty range you climb matters, not only how many you got right.
Employers decide what is good enough. Talent Q’s system let them set a cut-off per test and rank candidates against a role profile, and it advised that combining Verbal, Numerical and Logical scores gives a more rounded decision than any one score alone. No pass mark is published, and neither publisher says whether wrong answers cost marks.
How our practice version works
Our Elements Numerical game uses the published clocks: 12 questions on four sets of tables, three questions per set, with 90 seconds for the first question on each set and 75 for the next two. It starts at the middle of three difficulty levels and changes level after each set of tables, not after each question as the real test does.
Answers appear as ten buttons rather than a drop-down list, and you press Submit to confirm. There is no calculator on screen, so use your own as you would in the real test. A question that times out is marked wrong even if you had selected an answer, which is stricter than Talent Q’s rule. Korn Ferry offers its own free numerical practice test; ours adds repeated timed runs, and its score out of 100 is our own measure, not a Korn Ferry percentile.