How Elements Verbal works
Each screen puts a passage of text on the left and a question on the right, with the possible answers listed under the question. A passage carries more than one question, which is why the clock is split: the first question on a passage gets 75 seconds, because you are still reading it, and every later question on the same passage gets 60.
Most questions want one answer, but some want two. Talent Q’s guide promises it will always be clear which, so read the line above the options before you pick.
When a question’s time runs out the test moves on by itself, and you cannot go back to earlier questions. Talent Q’s FAQ adds one useful detail: if you have selected an answer but not yet clicked to continue, the selection is submitted for you. So pick your best option early and change it if you find a better one.
Before the scored questions there is a practice section. Talent Q let candidates repeat it as often as they liked and explained the correct answer to each practice question. Korn Ferry’s current guide still offers a couple of final practice questions when you log in and tells you to do them.
Why the questions get harder
Everyone begins on a question of average difficulty. Answer it correctly within the time limit and the next one is harder; answer wrongly, or let the clock run out, and the next one is easier. Korn Ferry’s 2021 candidate guide states this rule for all its cognitive ability tests, in the same words Talent Q used for Elements. Talent Q’s 2012 factsheet puts the starting point slightly lower, at “easy-to-average”.
This is why the test can stay short. Talent Q said Elements ends after between 12 and 15 questions, and that it has no upper ability cap, so a strong candidate keeps meeting harder passages. Korn Ferry warns that you will feel “continuously challenged and stretched” and not to worry about it: a hard passage late on usually means you have been answering well.
How it is scored
Talent Q’s product page says the system calculates your score from how you progressed through the test: “Scores are based on the level of difficulty of each question and whether or not the candidate answered it correctly.” The score is then compared with a comparison group and reported as a percentile. In 2014 the groups on offer were professional, graduate and managerial; customer service, administrative and similar; and a composite of everyone in the Talent Q database.
The pass mark is the employer’s. Talent Q’s system let each employer set a cut-off for every ability test in a role profile and then ranked candidates by “percentage fit”. Neither Korn Ferry nor Talent Q publishes a pass mark, and neither says anything about deducting marks for wrong answers. What both do say is that an unanswered question counts like a wrong one when the next question is chosen.
How our practice version works
Our Elements Verbal game uses the published question count and clocks: 15 questions, here three on each of five passages, with 75 seconds for the first question on a passage and 60 for the other two. It starts at the middle of three difficulty levels and moves up or down after each passage, stepping up when you get at least two of its three questions right. That is coarser than Korn Ferry’s question-by-question routing.
Some details differ from the real test. Every question takes a single answer from six options, so there are no two-answer items. There is a worked example in the instructions but no practice section. And if time runs out, a selected answer you have not submitted is not saved: the question is marked wrong and the game moves on, with no way back. Your result is our own score out of 100, not a Korn Ferry percentile.