What the test asks you to do
SHL’s fact sheet says the Interactive numerical test measures your ability to make correct decisions or inferences from numerical or statistical data, in a realistic workplace context. The tasks involve using numerical information to create charts and graphs and to fill in spreadsheets, and the job tasks SHL has in mind are things like analysing budgets and costs, trends and margins.
The format is the main change from older numerical tests. SHL says its immersive assessments upgrade button clicking with drag-and-drop and gamified interactions, and its practice page describes the interactive numerical test as using a drag and drop format rather than standard multiple-choice inputs. The test is adaptive, designed mobile-first, and taken in one unsupervised sitting.
Verify, Verify Interactive and the other numerical tests
Verify is SHL’s range of ability tests, and the numerical test exists in more than one form. SHL’s current cognitive assessments page lists SHL Verify Interactive Numerical Reasoning. The older multiple-choice Verify Numerical Reasoning is still on SHL’s store: its Managerial & Professional version lists a completion time of 30 minutes, 27 language options, and use at all job levels.
Two other SHL tests use numbers and are easy to confuse with it. Verify Interactive Numerical Calculation is an entry-level test of 10 minutes and up to 12 questions on order of operations, calculations and spotting errors in calculations. Verify G+ mixes numerical questions with deductive and inductive ones. Your invitation should name the test; that name tells you which of these you are sitting.
Figures of 18 multiple-choice questions in 17 to 25 minutes are widely repeated, but they do not match SHL’s current fact sheet for the Interactive version, so check the name on your invitation before relying on any timing.
How it is scored
SHL does not publish its marking rule. What it does say is that the test uses computer adaptive technology, which it credits with a shorter test, the ability to test unsupervised and a more precise score, and that its cognitive assessments ask fewer questions thanks to a partial-scoring methodology. SHL does not explain what earns partial credit, or whether a wrong answer costs more than a blank.
SHL offers free practice tests in both formats: an interactive numerical test that gives you a report, and a standard multiple-choice one. It warns that their difficulty may not exactly reflect the test you will be asked to complete.
How our practice version works
Our SHL numerical game is the multiple-choice format, not the interactive one. It runs 18 questions from a fixed bank of 36, easiest first. Each shows one table, bar chart or line graph, a single question and five options, with its own 75-second clock; a question that runs out of time is recorded unanswered. There is no Back button, no skip and no deduction for a wrong answer.
It is not adaptive and has no drag-and-drop chart building, so it trains the data reading and arithmetic the test depends on rather than the Interactive screen itself. If your invitation is for Verify Interactive, sit SHL’s free interactive practice test as well.