Critical Reasoning Pre-Employment Assessment Tests | 2025 Recruitment Guide
Critical reasoning tests are among the most widely used pre-employment recruitment tools, used by organizations globally to identify and select a top talent pool with the necessary skills for the job.
As recruiters, hiring managers and talent acquisition specialists, you likely understand the importance of a strategically designed recruitment process incorporating various candidate assessment methods to help quickly and cost-effectively hire the right candidates.
These methods may include online psychometric tests, game-based assessments, video interviews, and assessment centers. Such tools create a recruitment funnel that facilitates efficient candidate sifting and selection at every hiring stage.
In this article, we delve into one pre-employment assessment in-depth: the critical reasoning test. We look at what critical reasoning tests are, what cognitive skills they measure, their pros and cons, and why so many organizations use them in their recruitment funnel.
Critical reasoning tests are an effective method for evaluating candidates’ critical thinking skills, enabling recruiters to save time and resources whilst shortlisting candidates with the required aptitude for the role. You will discover how, similar to other top employers, you can also implement critical reasoning tests in your organization.
Whether you are a hiring manager or HR professional, if you have questions like the following:
- Why should I use a critical thinking test for hiring?
- Which roles can be best assessed through critical reasoning tests?
- How can critical thinking tests help me find the best candidates?
- When should I use critical reasoning tests for hiring?
- How can I use the critical reasoning hiring test as my recruitment assessment test?
- Why is Watson Glaser’s critical thinking test so popular?
You are in the right place! Keep reading to discover how critical reasoning test assessments can help you select and hire top best-fit talent for the best return on investment.
CONTENTS
- What is a pre-employment critical reasoning assessment?
- What do critical reasoning tests measure?
- How do pre-employment critical reasoning tests work in hiring?
- Why do organizations use critical reasoning recruitment tests?
- At what stage are critical reasoning tests used in the hiring process?
- Best practices for implementing critical reasoning tests into your recruitment strategy
- When to give candidates a critical reasoning test?
- Which organizations use critical thinking test assessments in hiring?
- Why top companies choose Assess Candidates critical reasoning tests to hire
- Critical reasoning tests: Client application story
Let’s begin our discussion by defining what is a critical thinking test for hiring.
1. WHAT IS A PRE-EMPLOYMENT CRITICAL REASONING ASSESSMENT?
Critical reasoning tests, also known as critical thinking tests, are a type of pre-employment aptitude test that assesses a candidate’s ability to perceive, understand, and draw reasoned conclusions based on the information available.
Critical thinking tests measure how well candidates can make objective decisions and put forward logical arguments by evaluating the relevance of information and separating facts from opinions.
While critical reasoning assessment tests primarily present verbal information, they may also incorporate numerical data to test numerical critical reasoning skills. However, it is important to note that this does not mean evaluating mathematical abilities.
Critical reasoning tests can form a fundamental part of the candidate selection process. They provide employers the opportunity to assess candidates’ critical thinking skills and then select top talent who have the necessary abilities and potential to succeed within the role and organization. This is particularly useful for hiring for roles within technology, law, and finance, where critical decision-making and analytical skills are crucial.
In the following sections, we will explore these assessments in more detail, including what specific skills they measure, their format, and how employers are leveraging them in their recruitment strategies.
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Let’s cover what critical reasoning tests aim to measure.
2. WHAT DO CRITICAL REASONING TESTS MEASURE?
Critical reasoning tests are rooted in the principles of psychometrics, a field of assessment that has been used in hiring for decades to objectively measure psychological variables in candidates such as job-related cognitive abilities, behavior, and personality.
Critical reasoning tests fall under the bracket of cognitive ability tests and are even referred to as critical thinking ability tests. This means that they measure candidates’ cognitive ability in critical reasoning.
Critical reasoning tests can also help assess competencies like adaptability to ensure that you are choosing candidates that can adapt well to changes in work environment or responsibilities.
WHAT IS CRITICAL REASONING?
In a nutshell, critical reasoning is the ability to reason critically and objectively with any given data. To expand on this, critical reasoning involves analyzing the world around us, identifying relevant information, and drawing logical interpretations and sound decisions based on that information – skills that are essential in workplace situations.
WHAT SPECIFIC SKILLS DO CRITICAL REASONING TESTS MEASURE?
Critical reasoning assessment tests typically measure the following 12 major skills:
12 Top Skills Assessed by Critical Reasoning Tests
- Critical Reasoning: The ability to formulate and ask insightful questions to look further into the facts of a situation.
- Situational Awareness: How individuals read and analyze a situation holistically to arrive at the most logical interpretation.
- Emotional Intelligence: The skills of making decisions based on rational, objective judgment rather than emotional bias.
- Problem-solving: The ability to identify and solve potential workplace problems efficiently.
- Open-mindedness: A readiness to avoid falling into logical fallacies or subconscious biases by instead searching for alternative interpretations of the available information.
- Decision-making: Measures the ability to arrive at the most effective solutions using inductive and deductive reasoning.
- Objective Reasoning: The ability to distinguish facts from assumptions and opinions with clarity.
- Judgment Skills: The aptitude to judge arguments as either ‘strong’ or ‘weak’ based on evidence-based statements.
- Data Interpretation: The ability to interpret written or numerical data to extract meaningful patterns and insights.
- Attention to Detail: The ability to carefully identify key details, inconsistencies, or errors that could weaken or strengthen a conclusion for the given argument.
- Verbal Comprehension: The capacity to read, understand, and interpret verbal information effectively.
- Analytical Thinking: The ability to break down complex information to identify logical patterns and to evaluate arguments, assumptions, cause-effect relationships, and logical flaws.
Good to know: Some critical thinking assessments may aim to assess critical thinking based on numerical critical reasoning and verbal critical reasoning skills. Such tests are well-utilized for hiring for graduate and managerial roles.
HOW DO CRITICAL REASONING TESTS HELP RECRUITERS?
In a nutshell, critical reasoning assessments help recruiters:
- Assess the candidate’s ability to identify and reason the What, Why and How in the presented data.
- Accurately predict a candidate’s job performance and potential.
- Conduct a multi-purpose assessment of candidates for various industries not limited to law, finance, etc.
- Speed up the recruitment process by shortlisting candidates usually before the interview stage.
- Evaluate different sets of targeted skills like problem-solving, logical thinking, deductive reasoning, and creativity to think out of the box.
Continue reading to discover why critical reasoning skills are important to assess in your hiring process.
WHY ARE CRITICAL REASONING SKILLS IMPORTANT?
Critical reasoning is one of the most sought-after valuable skills in modern business. Across nearly every sector and department – from law, tech, and finance to marketing, healthcare and law enforcement – employees work with information. A high proficiency in critical reasoning empowers employees to extract valuable insights from the data, critically interpret the information, draw logical conclusions, and make informed business decisions.
In contrast, a lack of strong critical reasoning skills in organizations can lead to costly financial errors, missed opportunities, poor decision-making, and data inaccuracies. Investing in the critical reasoning skills of your current and future employees will help you enhance your company performance, modernize your business, and gain a competitive edge.
However, many companies still miss the opportunity to accurately assess critical reasoning skills in their hiring processes. Instead, they rely on CVs to determine candidates’ critical thinking abilities, a method proven to be a poor predictor of cognitive abilities.
On the other hand, pre-employment critical reasoning tests are a scientifically validated, reliable method of assessing a candidate’s critical thinking abilities in the workplace. These assessments also efficiently sift and filter out candidates who don’t meet the minimum requirements, advancing only those with the desired critical reasoning skills.
For example, imagine your business is hiring for a trainee solicitor, we would recommend implementing a critical reasoning assessment to determine candidates’ abilities to critically process important data and carefully consider propositions and arguments. Hiring candidates who excel in this test could positively contribute to workplace decisions and your business’s overall success.
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How do pre-employment critical reasoning tests like Watson Glaser work? Keep reading to find out.
3. HOW DO PRE-EMPLOYMENT CRITICAL REASONING TESTS WORK IN HIRING?
Critical reasoning pre-hire tests help to identify and select strong critical thinkers from the candidate pool by measuring a candidate’s ability to analyze complex information and solve problems using verbal and non-verbal reasoning skills.
Most critical thinking tests work by providing hypothetical workplace scenarios or detailed information about varied topics from which the candidate has to either recognize assumptions, determine the strength of arguments, draw inferences, and more, depending on the question types, and choose the relevant response from the given set of options.
Typically timed, critical reasoning tests usually allow test sitters 1 minute per question, thus simulating the requirement of a fast-paced work environment.
Now we will cover some popular critical reasoning assessments that employers use globally.
WHAT ARE SOME POPULAR TYPES OF CRITICAL REASONING TESTS?
- GMAT (Graduate Management Admissions Test)
Critical reasoning questions are part of the verbal reasoning test section in the GMAT. This section comprises 36 questions in total with a permissible time limit of 65 minutes. Out of which, nearly 13 questions are critical reasoning questions, each requiring the candidate to answer from the given 5 choices.
Read more about verbal reasoning tests in our full recruiter’s guide.
- Watson Glaser Assessment
The Watson Glaser critical thinking test is one of the most widely used and respected critical reasoning tests in the recruitment industry. This assessment is designed to assess candidate’s critical thinking through questions in 5 key areas:
- Inference: Candidates must determine whether a conclusion logically follows from the information provided.
- Recognition of Assumptions: Candidates identify implicit assumptions or unspoken premises within statements or arguments.
- Deduction: Applicants have to determine whether conclusions are justified based on the given evidence or rules.
- Interpretation: Individuals are required to assess the validity of conclusions based on the interpretation of information.
- Evaluation of Arguments: Candidates evaluate whether arguments are ‘strong’ or ‘weak’ based on their logical consistency and relevance.
The Watson Glaser test is a 40-question multiple-choice format test that candidates must complete within 30 minutes. It is most commonly administered online through a talent assessment platform, though in rare cases, paper-and-pencil format may be preferred.
Let’s now take a look at some critical reasoning test question examples.
WHAT ARE SOME EXAMPLES OF CRITICAL REASONING TEST QUESTIONS?
Most critical thinking tests have a similar format with every question having one or more paragraphs, presenting verbal and numerical information. Depending upon the question type, the candidate has to conceptualize, understand, and interpret information to choose the relevant answer.
The 12 most common critical reasoning test questions are the following:
- Inference: This question type evaluates the candidate’s ability to evaluate whether a conclusion is true, false, or impossible to answer based on the information in the paragraph(s) given.
It usually offers multiple-choice options using the 5-point Likert scale format, with the possible answers ranging from absolutely true, possibly true, to possibly false, absolutely false or insufficient data.
- Assumptions: This question style aims to measure candidates’ situational awareness skills and open-mindedness to distinguish assumptions from facts.
It requires the candidate to choose whether the given statement is an assumption or not.
- Deductions: This question type assesses the candidate’s deductive reasoning and judgment skills to arrive at the most appropriate conclusion for the situation.
It requires candidates to decide whether the given statement is the correct conclusion of the given scenario.
- Interpretations: This question type aims to assess candidates’ ability to solve problems and objectively reason with the given alternative interpretations to arrive at the best appropriate answer.
Here, candidates are provided with a scenario that they have to read and analyze to arrive at the correct logical interpretation.
- Evaluation of Arguments: It requires the ability to weigh arguments based on the evidence to determine their rationality.
In this question type, candidates are provided with a scenario and some statements that can be for or against the situation.
- Examining Definitions: This question type requires candidates to comprehend information accurately.
Candidates have to choose the best option that clarifies the terminology being used by one of the participants in the dialogue stated in the scenario.
- Credibility Judgment: These questions focus on analytical thinking, emotional intelligence, objective reasoning, and judgment skills.
The candidate is required to choose which of the given statements in the questions is believable. If none seem too good to be true, the candidate can choose the option ‘Neither statement is more believable.’
- Paradox Rectification: It requires candidates to judge and solve problems.
Candidate must spot the paradox or discrepancy in the given statement and rectify it. The candidate will choose their answers from the options given in the question.
- Argument Completion: These questions assess the language comprehension and problem-solving skills of the candidate.
In this question type, candidates are asked to complete the passage using any one of the given 5 options.
- Finding the Conclusion: This question type aims to evaluate decision-making skills, objective reasoning, and problem-solving skills.
The candidate will be given a passage based on which the candidate has to choose the best possible conclusion.
- Evaluation of Conclusion: This question style assesses judgment skills and problem-solving skills.
In this question, the candidate has to determine which of the given 5 statements is necessary to evaluate its conclusion.
- Strengthening/Weakening the Argument: These questions require objective reasoning, decision-making, and judgment skills.
Here, the candidate has to choose which of the given statements strengthen or weaken the given argument based on the given evidence.
Check out one of the types of questions typically assessed in critical reasoning tests below:
EXAMPLES OF CRITICAL REASONING TEST QUESTIONS
The task: Candidates must read the passage thoroughly and answer whether the given statements are:
- True or probably true based on the information in the passage
- False or probably false based on the information in the passage
- More information is required to choose based on the information contained in the passage
Critical reasoning test statement 1 solution:
The passage states that quantum mechanics helped zoom into the atomic and subatomic levels of the universe. This helped reveal atoms and particles. However, nothing in the paragraph fully validated what they learned about the universe.
Answer: The correct option is that the statement is probably true.
Critical reasoning test statement 2 solution:
The passage states that before Planck’s discovery, energy did not have any specific values and was viewed as a continuous spectrum, not one with a quantitative capacity that moved from an object with a level of force as presented in the statement.
Answer: The correct option is thus that the statement is false.
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Keep reading to know why top organizations today use pre-employment critical reasoning tests to shortlist candidates.
4. WHY DO ORGANIZATIONS USE CRITICAL REASONING RECRUITMENT TESTS?
Employers widely use critical reasoning tests for pre-employment skills testing and candidate selection. These assessments provide valuable insights which help recruiters save time and money, improve hiring quality, reduce biases, and make more informed hiring decisions.
Tests like Watson Glaser’s Critical Thinking Appraisal offer an accurate method for identifying candidates with strong critical thinking skills and predicting their potential job performance, ensuring that they meet the role’s demands and can advance to the next hiring stage.
Here are the reasons why assessing and hiring strong critical thinkers is an advantage for your business:
- Analytical Decision-making
Candidates with strong critical thinking skills and comprehension are effective problem solvers. These candidates can deal with problems unbiasedly, consider them from all perspectives, and then critically think to arrive at a logical conclusion.
- Open to Experience
Strong critical thinkers are open-minded and their decisions are based on a holistic evaluation of the situation. They tend to move beyond physical, cultural, and political biases to reach sound conclusions and rationally make decisions.
- Effective Communicators
Candidates with strong critical thinking skills are highly effective communicators. They base their arguments on facts and supporting evidence, demonstrating confidence and resourcefulness.
- Promotes Approaching Problems Head-on
Strong critical thinkers benefit organizations with their ability to deal with problems head-on. They come up with new evidence-based approaches to deal with intricate issues using inductive and deductive skills and logical reasoning.
- Creative Thinkers
Critical thinkers tend to find connections within seemingly unrelated data. This ability to think creatively helps to devise new efficient ways to solve problems and is a valuable skill to have in the workplace.
- Promotes Collaborative Strategy
A critical thinker will analyze the inputs of all the team members to collaborate and reach a favorable and rational solution or strategy.
- Helps Self-evaluate
Critical thinking skills are not limited to company profit, but also extend to self-reflection. Effective critical thinkers will be able to reflect on their contribution to organizational growth and their careers. Choosing such employees will be a long-term asset for businesses and their scalability.
- Prevents Possible Judgmentalness
Employees with strong critical thinking skills evaluate all available information and don’t fall into the temptation of quick judgment. They weigh both pros and cons before giving their stance on one decision based on all possible perspectives.
- Improves Time Efficiency
Time is a business’s irreplaceable currency. Critical thinkers excel at managing their time effectively by streamlining tasks with newly devised procedures and methods. For instance, if significant time is being spent on low-return activities, like administrative tasks, they will reallocate that time to higher-impact tasks, like driving sales.
- Job-Performance Indicators
Critical thinking tests have a high predictive validity and reliability, and thus, are one of the most important pre-employment aptitude assessments for predicting job performance and potential to succeed. Each question is linked to a specific skill deemed highly relevant to the specific role.
Here are some of the benefits of using critical reasoning tests for recruitment.
WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF USING CRITICAL REASONING TESTS FOR HIRING?
Let’s look into the top 9 benefits of using pre-employment critical reasoning tests in recruitment:
- Highly Accurate and Precise
Critical thinking tests offer every candidate the same testing experience and are scientifically proven to accurately predict candidates’ job performance in solving complex problems in the workplace. Candidates attempt a fixed number of critical reasoning questions within a predetermined time which will be later scored using a scientifically validated methodology.
- Major Time Savers and Cost-effective
The critical reasoning tests are automated pre-employment tools that streamline the hiring process. They help employers screen thousands of candidates in minutes with the results immediately accessible in one click and thus, save valuable time on going through multiple interviews with unqualified candidates.
Did you know 50% of job applicants don’t even fit the basic job qualifications? That’s when critical reasoning aptitude tests come to the rescue. They are particularly beneficial for graduate scheme recruitment, helping to sift through hundreds of applications from seemingly equally qualified candidates and focus more on deserving candidates’ resumes and applications.
Furthermore, critical reasoning tests employ online remote testing systems with auto-grading features that help save human resource intervention costs. Moreover, pre-employment critical reasoning assessment tests also help minimize the high financial costs often associated with high-volume recruitment as they typically offer a relatively low cost per candidate.
- Improving The Quality Of Hiring and Training
Critical reasoning tests help to hire and train a highly competent quality workforce and avoid incompetent employees. In fact, critical thinking assessment tests are more reliable predictors of job performance and success than CVs. Moreover, administration of critical reasoning tests can help organizations design effective employee developmental programmes.
Critical reasoning tests are powerful indicators of job performance. When combined with other cognitive ability tests, such as verbal and logical reasoning, their predictive validity increases further. Hiring decisions regarding whether to pass a candidate to the next assessment stage are based on comprehensive combined results about candidates’ skill sets and on-the-job performance.
- Assess Selective Attention and Creativity
Critical reasoning assessments test candidates on their ability to single out and selectively attend to important information to solve a problem. Well-designed critical reasoning questions require candidates to gauge one situation from multiple perspectives and finally come up with the best favorable approach.
- Standardized, Data-driven Assessments
Critical aptitude tests provide a standardized, quantitative metric to compare candidates in different areas. Their data-driven insights go beyond qualitative metrics like resumes and cover letters to cross-check how much reality is in the skills mentioned by candidates.
- Reducing Bias
Critical reasoning tests reduce conscious and unconscious biases in the hiring process. They assess and select candidates objectively based on their critical thinking skills and ability to perform in the role. This creates a fair, inclusive, and objective hiring assessment process that complies with company policies and is legally defensible.
- Promoting Diversity and Inclusion
Online critical reasoning tests help make the application process accessible to a wider candidate pool and help hire a more diverse and inclusive workforce. They also allow employers to adjust the assessment’s cut-off rates to account for traits, knowledge and thinking styles missing from their current team.
- Ensuring a User-friendly Candidate Experience
The critical reasoning assessment platform is easily accessible and user-friendly ensuring a positive candidate experience. By integrating a critical reasoning assessment into your hiring assessment process, you can confidently select candidates with the exact skills for the role and thus, build a successful and productive workforce in the long run.
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Despite the numerous benefits of using critical thinking tests in recruitment, there are some drawbacks to consider.
4 THINGS TO CONSIDER BEFORE USING CRITICAL REASONING TESTS
- Test Anxiety: Completing critical reasoning tests, similar to any assessment, can cause test anxiety in candidates, decreasing the reliability of the test results.
Solution: Encouraging candidates to practice the test beforehand in an exam-simulated environment will help put them at ease when tackling the real assessment. Ensure to offer a user-friendly interface with smooth navigation with the least technical complexities to prevent any unnecessary stress during the exam.
- Other Barriers to Performance: Research indicates this type of test can be challenging for individuals where English is not their first language or those who are economically disadvantaged or from culturally different groups.
Solution: Setting lower cut-offs can help ensure the reduction of bias in recruitment. The test is less about how well candidates know the language, but how well they can reason with the information and conclude the given scenario.
- Prone to Cheating: It is technically possible for candidates to cheat on an online critical thinking test or it can be completed by someone else.
Solution: When searching for solutions on the market, it is important to check the cheating prevention measures offered by assessment test providers. Many third-party assessment providers, such as Assess Candidates, provide cheat detection technology and mechanisms.
- Not a Holistic Assessment: Using critical thinking tests as the sole indicator of job potential is not enough since they do not measure soft skills like punctuality, motivation, organizational skills, time management, and even domain-specific skills.
Solution: Critical reasoning assessments measure candidates’ critical reasoning ability, a crucial skill required in nearly every modern job. We recommend assessing candidates’ soft skills at later recruitment stages, for example, through a situational judgment test, interview, and/or assessment center to complement the insights gained from the critical reasoning test.
Our next section will help you know when to use critical reasoning tests in your recruitment process.
5. AT WHAT STAGE ARE CRITICAL REASONING TESTS USED IN THE HIRING PROCESS?
Critical reasoning assessment tests are one of the most common types of pre-employment tests employers use in their hiring processes. Since the difficulty of the questions and format can be adjusted, most critical reasoning tests are well-suited for graduate, managerial and even senior hires.
These critical thinking tests are usually administered online. Candidates receive a link to the candidate assessment platform and have a dedicated period of time (usually several days) to complete the assessment. Recruiters then review candidate results via an online reporting dashboard and select the top candidates to advance to the next round of hiring tests.
For the best results, we also suggest combining a critical reasoning test with other pre-employment aptitude assessments at this early stage, such as a verbal, numerical and/or logical reasoning test.
Below is a detailed explanation of the purpose and role of critical reasoning tests at different stages of the hiring process:
The incorporation of critical reasoning assessments at different stages of the hiring process can help organizations save time and resources, reduce biases, ensure a positive candidate experience, and customize onboarding and training according to each new employee. Use a critical reasoning test at the assessment stage that works for you!
Critical reasoning tests are also valuable tools for learning and development initiatives within your organization. By administering a critical thinking test to your current employees, you can identify their critical thinking skills, strengths, and areas for improvement. Whether the goal is to improve how the team interprets information, evaluates arguments, or draws effective inferences, these insights can help you design targeted learning and development programs to upskill your employees.
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In the next section, we will explore the best practices to implement critical reasoning tests for hiring.
6. BEST PRACTICES FOR IMPLEMENTING CRITICAL REASONING TESTS INTO YOUR RECRUITMENT STRATEGY
When incorporating a critical reasoning test into your hiring process, there are several best practices that you should follow for optimal results. Below, we have outlined 3 simple steps to help you shortlist and select the right candidates.
1. CREATE YOUR CRITICAL REASONING ASSESSMENT CAMPAIGN
- Decide in advance whether to give candidates a standalone critical reasoning test or combine it with other assessments. We recommend combining the critical thinking test with a verbal reasoning, logical reasoning, situational judgement, and/or personality test to enhance predictive quality and provide a holistic view of candidates’ cognitive abilities, behaviors, and traits. Using multiple assessments also minimizes the influence of bias in the hiring process.
- Establish clear cut-off scores for your critical reasoning test before launching your recruitment campaign. Base these on industry standards, specific role requirements, and the strength of critical reasoning skills required for the role.
- Set a firm deadline for candidates to complete the critical reasoning test and ensure all candidates have the same amount of time. This standardization ensures that candidates are assessed under the same conditions, making the hiring process fair and objective.
2. INVITE CANDIDATES TO YOUR CRITICAL ASSESSMENT PLATFORM
- Invite candidates in one click to take your critical reasoning test via individual email, CSV file upload or public link.
3. ANALYZE CANDIDATE RESULTS AND SHORTLIST CANDIDATES
- Monitor candidates’ progress in real-time during their critical reasoning test. Access comprehensive results and detailed reports immediately after test completion.
- Leverage advanced tools to rank, filter, and sort candidates based on a range of criteria, such as performance score, assessments completed, hiring status, confidence score, and more. This empowers you to quickly view and select top talent for your role and organization.
By adhering to this structured selection process and best practices, you can confidently make informed hiring decisions.
Check out our critical reasoning tests and how they can help you identify candidates with the critical reasoning skills crucial for success in your role and organization.
Let’s cover when to give candidates a critical reasoning test for quality-quantity hiring.
7. WHEN TO GIVE CANDIDATES A CRITICAL REASONING TEST
Critical reasoning assessments can be a game-changer in your recruitment strategy. Let’s explore 3 types of recruitment campaigns where you can use critical thinking tests:
- High-volume Recruitment
- Imagine handling 1000+ job applications and CVs and having to narrow them down to a few hundred – or fewer – within a tight deadline. When recruiting for popular roles like entry-level positions, this challenge is common and you will likely receive a large number of applications from seemingly equally qualified candidates.
- Critical reasoning tests can efficiently screen and sift through large volumes of applicants, enabling you to concentrate your time on the most qualified candidates. Commonly used by organizations for their graduate scheme recruitment, critical reasoning assessments are effective in hiring several graduates in a relatively short period of time.
- Low-volume Recruitment:
- Critical reasoning tests are also useful when hiring and assessing for more experienced professional roles, where the applicant pool is typically smaller.
- With this reduced volume, the purpose of the critical thinking test shifts from sifting through large numbers of candidates to thoroughly evaluating and confirming the specific skill levels required for each candidate.
3. Rolling recruitment:
- For employers who adopt a rolling recruitment strategy, where applications are reviewed on a continuous basis and vacancies filled as they arise, critical reasoning tests offer an effective solution.
- These tests establish a standardized and streamlined process, benefitting both candidates and hiring managers.
- By quickly identifying top-performing candidates who align closely with the role, employers can confidently advance suitable applicants to the initial interview stages as soon as opportunities become available throughout the year.
In rolling recruitment, the test provider must have both the capability and technology to run the assessment on a continuous basis with access to ongoing reporting and support for recruiters. Proper communication and low admin effort on the recruiter side should be the test provider’s prime priority.
Here are the top industries and roles for which renowned organizations use critical reasoning tests in hiring.
WHICH INDUSTRIES AND ROLES CAN USE A CRITICAL REASONING TEST FOR RECRUITMENT?
Critical reasoning tests are not limited for use in just one type of industry or role. Though they are particularly prevalent within the legal and business sectors, critical thinking skills are one of the most invaluable skills across many different roles, especially in 2025 where remote working has become the norm. Today, success in any career is impossible without critical reasoning.
Candidates with strong critical thinking skills stand out in these professions as they can demonstrate the ability to brainstorm, manage pressure, and problem-solve for rational decision-making.
Sectors and roles that most benefit from critical reasoning tests, such as the Watson Glaser Test, are:
- Law: Critical reasoning tests are essential in legal roles where professionals must analyze complex cases, interpret laws, and make sound judgments. Roles frequently assessed using these tests include lawyers, trainee solicitors, legal analysts, judges, and attorneys.
- Finance: Precision and analytical thinking are key in finance roles, making critical reasoning tests crucial for evaluating candidates’ ability to handle data-driven tasks and financial analysis. Typical roles include statisticians, auditors, actuaries, financial analysts, and financial managers.
- Technology: In the tech sector, critical reasoning assessments measure problem-solving abilities and logical thinking, especially in data-intensive or operational roles. Roles using these tests for recruitment include air traffic controller, computer programmers, technicians, software developers, sales engineers, web developers, and data scientists.
- Marketing: For marketing roles, critical thinking tests help evaluate strategic thinking and market analysis, skills necessary for interpreting trends and data. These tests are commonly used to recruit for marketing research analysts, marketing specialists, management analysts, and marketing directors.
- Healthcare: Healthcare roles require quick decision-making and critical thinking in high-stakes scenarios, making these tests valuable in the hiring process. Common roles include physicians, psychologists, nurse practitioners, dentists, veterinarians, social workers, chemists, dieticians, and nutritionists.
- Law Enforcement: In law enforcement, critical reasoning tests assess candidates’ ability to think logically and solve problems under pressure. Key roles include detective, police officer, criminologist, cybersecurity analyst, and forensic scientist.
- Education: Educators and academic professionals use critical reasoning tests to measure candidates’ analytical and instructional capabilities. Roles typically assessed include teachers, mathematicians, principals, and geologists.
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Let’s now cover what top employers use and should incorporate critical thinking tests for hiring.
8. WHICH EMPLOYERS USE CRITICAL THINKING TEST ASSESSMENTS FOR HIRING?
From large global corporations to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), many organizations are integrating critical reasoning tests into their hiring processes. Some of the top organizations that use critical reasoning tests, such as the Watson Glaser Test, are:
- Marsh and Allianz
- Unilever
- Adidas
- Accenture
- Aviva
- Kearney
- Kantar Group
- Linklaters
- Simmons and Simmons
- Clifford Chance
- Hogan Lovells
- Hill Dickinson
- Ince & Co
- Deloitte
- Bank of England
- Prudential Financial
- Kaplan
- Glencore
- Roche
- Amazon
- NHS
- Civil Service
So, who are some of the top candidate assessment software providers that you should consider to help implement your critical reasoning test?
THE TOP 10 CANDIDATE ASSESSMENT SOFTWARE PROVIDERS
Here are some of the top pre-employment screening providers that offer critical reasoning tests to help you choose the best talent with the desirable cognitive skills and suitability for your role:
- Assess Candidates
- SHL
- Pearson TalentLens
- Mercer | Mettl
- Cappfinity
- TestGorilla
- Criteria Corp
- Korn Ferry
- Criterion Partnership
- Psytech International
HOW TO SELECT THE BEST CRITICAL REASONING ASSESSMENT PROVIDER FOR MY RECRUITMENT PROCESS?
When choosing a candidate assessment provider for your pre-employment critical thinking tests, it’s crucial to evaluate both the quality of the critical reasoning test and the overall functionality of the talent assessment platform.
To ensure you select the right solution, consider the following key questions:
- Does the candidate assessment software streamline and accelerate the recruitment process?
- Can I assess multiple candidates’ skills simultaneously and effectively?
- Is there easy, one-click access to candidate results and insights?
- Does the critical reasoning test provide an objective evaluation of candidates’ skills?
- Have scientists validated the pre-employment critical reasoning test to ensure it predicts the desired outcomes?
- Can I customize the critical reasoning test and questions to align with my specific role and organization?
- Is the talent assessment platform user-friendly and does it ensure a positive candidate experience?
By considering these factors, you can confidently select a candidate assessment platform for your pre-employment critical reasoning assessment test that meets your objectives and enhances your recruitment process.
If you are an employer and unsure if using a critical reasoning test is the right choice for you, learn more here or get in touch with us for a free-of-charge analysis of your recruitment needs.
Let’s sum up our discussion with the final question. Why choose us?
9. WHY TOP COMPANIES USE ASSESS CANDIDATES CRITICAL REASONING TESTS TO HIRE?
The critical reasoning test has been an integral recruitment assessment for a long time in organizational recruitment. At Assess Candidates, we specialize in a range of pre-employment aptitude tests, including critical reasoning tests, and can design recruitment campaigns tailored to the specific hiring needs of any organization.
Here is an example of our campaign reporting dashboard available on the Assess Candidates platform. This user-friendly tool is accessible to hiring managers and talent acquisition professionals, offering valuable insights and advanced sorting functions to streamline candidate selection.
Here are the top 4 reasons why you should use Assess Candidates’ critical reasoning assessments for your online pre-employment skill testing:
- Design Scientifically Validated by Expert Psychologists: Assess Candidates’ critical reasoning tests are rigorously validated and tested by top psychologists and psychometricians with decades of experience designing assessment solutions for companies like SHL and IBM Kenexa. They have consistently proven successful in hiring high-performing talent across various organizations and industries.
- Expert Reporting: Assess Candidates’ user-friendly and easy-to-navigate assessment platform enables employers to easily view individual candidates’ performance on the critical reasoning test, then filter, rank, and shortlist candidates. Additionally, our talent assessment platform also offers the option to integrate with your existing ATS for a seamless experience.
- Positive Candidate Experience: Assess Candidates’ critical reasoning test is easily accessible from any device and provides a user-friendly interface with a seamless and positive candidate experience. It provides clear assessment instructions and can be fully branded to match your organization.
- Candidate Accessibility Support: Assess Candidates offers support for individuals with disabilities and visual impairments. Our assessments, including the critical reasoning test, enable adding extra time, include zoom functionalities, and ensure using accessible color schemes and images in compliance with Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), guaranteeing compatibility with screen readers.
Assess Candidates is one of the major pre-employment aptitude test providers proven to provide end-to-end assessment solutions for small, medium, and large employers to ensure they successfully hire top best-fit candidates. After spending many years working with multiple organizations and backed by research, our critical reasoning tests will help you select the best out of the talent pool using the highest industry standards.
Why not explore Assess Candidates’ critical reasoning tests and start hiring today!
Let’s now discuss with a sample case study on how critical reasoning tests can help you make informed hiring decisions.
10. CRITICAL REASONING TESTS: CLIENT APPLICATION STORY
CLIENT PROBLEM STATEMENT
Consider an HR team at a top FinTech company needs to find a more efficient and effective way to assess candidates for managerial roles while maintaining the quality of hire. They require a solution that would help them identify the best candidates with strong critical thinking skills quickly and efficiently.
ASSESS CANDIDATES PROPOSAL
At Assess Candidates, we would recommend that this HR team invites candidates to take a critical reasoning test. The critical reasoning test would assess candidates’ aptitude in understanding, interpreting, and reasoning with complex information and problem-solving abilities essential for managerial roles.
Candidate results would enable recruiters and hiring managers to efficiently screen and sift large volumes of applications and identify individuals with the strongest critical reasoning skills who should advance to the next assessment stage.
RESULT
Critical reasoning tests in the hiring assessment process can help this HR team better identify and hire top talent who have the necessary critical thinking skills to succeed in managerial roles. This approach offers a reliable and accurate method to assess candidates’ cognitive abilities and empowers recruiters for informed hiring decisions.
Utilizing critical reasoning tests aids the organization in meeting its talent acquisition needs for its managerial positions, ensuring a higher quality of hires, reduced training costs, and enhanced overall customer satisfaction and business performance.
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Frequently Asked Questions
What are critical reasoning tests?
Critical reasoning tests, also called critical thinking tests, are aptitude tests that assess the ability to infer, deduce, interpret, and evaluate information logically for effective decision-making. Many sectors, such as law, finance, and consultancy, use pre-employment critical reasoning tests like the Watson Glaser Critical Appraisal Test for hiring.
Which skills do critical reasoning tests assess?
The critical reasoning tests can assess: 1. Critical reasoning to ascertain the extent of validity of the given information 2. Situational awareness to analyze the situation holistically 3. Problem-solving 4. Emotional intelligence to think logically over emotionally 5. Open-mindedness to prevent succumbing to logical fallacies 6. Decision-making 7. Objective reasoning to distinguish facts from assumptions 8. Judgment skills to effectively evaluate arguments.
Why is the critical reasoning assessment important?
Critical reasoning assessments are a robust predictor of job performance. They assess how well the candidate approaches a problem and solves it objectively and not fall into logical fallacies. Advanced critical reasoning tests are also highly accurate in assessing other skills like open-mindedness, creative problem-solving, analytical thinking, etc.
How effective are critical reasoning assessment tests for hiring?
Critical reasoning tests are highly effective tools for hiring, backed by decades of research and rigorous scientific validation. These assessments provide a reliable and accurate measure of candidates’ problem-solving and decision-making skills. By incorporating critical reasoning tests into the hiring process, employers can better predict candidates’ potential performance in the workplace, leading to more informed hiring decisions, enhanced productivity, and reduced training costs.
Do critical reasoning tests ensure objectivity in the hiring process?
Yes, logical reasoning tests ensure objectivity in the hiring process by providing a standardized, bias-free method to evaluate candidates’ critical reasoning skills. They use consistent scoring criteria and assess candidates based solely on their skills and performance, rather than subjective judgments. Critical reasoning tests offer a fair assessment of candidates, empowering employers to make objective and informed hiring decisions.