Here are some sample questions to help you practice for the situational judgement test
Sample question one
You are asked to make a short presentation at your weekly team meeting outlining a piece of work you are working on. The presentations usually have an engaging activity where you ask a question to the team and ask them to help you sort through a problem together. How do you approach the task?
A: You prepare a visual presentation outlining your project at a high-level and in a succinct way. You talk around your slides and prepare a short discussion activity at the end to ensure that your team get engrossed in the task.
B: You prefer not to prepare your presentation before the meeting. You prefer to speak spontaneously about your project. This helps the session flow better and will be a more natural delivery.
C: You prepare a presentation that goes into all the details of your project, so that the team can participate in the planned presentation activity and provide you with some effective solutions.
- Most Appropriate: A
- Appropriate: C
- Least Appropriate: B
Sample question two
You currently have a large workload and are often faced with competing demands and time pressures. You also receive a lot of emails from internal and external individuals, as well as members of the public. How do you ensure that you effectively attend to all these demands?
A: You prioritise tasks based on the order in which they were received. You keep a list so that you can easily manage and keep track of when tasks have been completed.
B: You create a daily list to identify what is a top priority so that you can ensure that the most important tasks are completed first. You then prioritise the tasks based on urgency and shift your approach based on changing priorities.
C: You prioritise incoming tasks based on the urgency of the need. You create a list to track the progress of your work and identify any tasks that are falling behind, as well as where priorities need to change.
- Most Appropriate: B
- Appropriate: C
- Least Appropriate: A
Sample Question three
You have recently moved into a new department and are tasked with working on a weekly bulletin for your elected members that represent a specific local area. You put in a lot of work to draft the briefing and submit it to the members. Following a review, they send through a number of suggestions and want you to change a lot of the work you have done. How do you respond?
A: You explain that you are new to the department and are still learning, so you appreciate their feedback. You explain that you have limited time to work on this, but you will make their suggested changes when you can.
B: You ask the members to explain why they want to make the changes they suggested. Once you understand their rationale, you try to find a compromise that meets both of your needs. You dedicate some more time to editing the bulletin to get to a solution that you are all happy with.
C: You listen to the member's concerns and then explain why you believe your initial work was sufficient. You agree to make changes if they are still required.
- Most Appropriate: B
- Appropriate: A
- Least appropriate: C