Many actuarial graduate applications include an online assessment before the live interview stages. Depending on the employer, this can include numerical reasoning, logical or verbal reasoning, situational judgement, strengths questions, behavioural games or a recorded video interview.
The exact provider and format vary, so read your invitation carefully before starting. The most useful preparation is knowing the type of assessment you are sitting and practising that format under realistic timing.
The funnel usually runs online application, online tests, recorded video interview, assessment centre, final interview, and employers assemble it in their own order. Barnett Waddingham folds its video questions into the online test link. Lloyd's of London ran its 2026 actuarial cycle from January applications to a February online assessment, video interviews in March and assessment centres in March and April.
Examples of assessment providers used in graduate recruitment
Providers change their products and employers can configure them differently. Use the invitation and official practice material as the definitive format for your assessment.
| Provider | What you sit | Published timing |
|---|---|---|
| Aon (in-house platform, formerly cut-e) | scales numerical: 37 tasks, data spread across several tabs, each a statement to mark true, false or cannot say | 37 tasks in 12 minutes |
| SHL Verify Interactive | 10 numerical questions, interactive rather than multiple-choice: drag-and-drop, ranking, adjusting values on charts | 10 questions in 18 minutes |
| Korn Ferry Talent Q Elements | adaptive tests; numerical gives three questions per data set with long answer lists, so the options give you no help | 12 questions, 15-minute cap |
| Cappfinity | blended strengths assessment: numerical, verbal and critical reasoning framed as workplace decisions, plus a situational strengths test | often untimed, but speed and accuracy are recorded |
| Arctic Shores | game-based behavioural challenges | see below |
| Sova | one blended flow mixing numerical, verbal and logical reasoning with situational judgement and personality | typically untimed or generously timed, mobile-friendly |
| Criteria Corp | one link, three sections: mathematical questions, job-fit questions and recorded video questions | a set number of days to complete the lot |
| HireVue | recorded structured video interview, no live interviewer | not publicly specified |
Documented users in the 2026 cycle: Aon uses its own platform; PwC's Career Unlock is built with Arctic Shores; Lloyd's of London used Cappfinity; Barnett Waddingham used Criteria Corp; Mercer (Marsh McLennan) used HireVue for its graduate actuarial analyst route.
Some firms name no vendor at all. WTW's online stage is two assessments, one numerical and one cognitive-ability, plus a recorded video interview with pre-set questions. Aviva's covers numerical reasoning, logical reasoning and situational judgement, then a strengths-based recorded video interview with a practice question first. Prepare for the content rather than the brand.
What does a numerical reasoning test ask?
Data interpretation against a clock: percentages, percentage change, reverse percentages, ratios, weighted averages, and reading more than one table at once. Here is the shape of it, using an insurer invented for the course.
Ceredigion Mutual earns motor premium of £84m in 2024, rising 8% in 2025. Incurred claims are £61m in 2024 and £70m in 2025. Expenses run at 22% of premium each year.
- 2025 premium: 84 × 1.08 = £90.72m
- 2025 loss ratio: 70 ÷ 90.72 = 77.2%
- 2025 combined ratio: 77.2% + 22% = 99.2%
- 2024: loss ratio 61 ÷ 84 = 72.6%, combined ratio 94.6%
Both combined ratios start with a 9 and premium grew 8%, yet underwriting profit fell from £4.52m to £0.76m. Near a 100% combined ratio, a few points of movement swing the profit a long way, and a question set will ask you to notice that.
The arithmetic is usually straightforward; the difficulty is identifying the right information quickly and accurately. On Aon's scales format that means about 19.5 seconds per task, with the data sitting across several tabs, so the skill under test is finding the right cell and keeping your place. If loss ratio and combined ratio are new words, learn them now. They come up in interviews as well as tests, and they run through Inside General Insurance.
What do the gamified assessments measure?
Behaviour, inferred from how you play. Aon pairs scales with smartPredict, four gamified challenges (Switch, Grid, Digit and Motion) of 5–9 minutes each; gridChallenge measures working memory and executive attention. PwC's Career Unlock is built with Arctic Shores and runs short neuroscience-based challenges rather than questions with findable answers.
Published timings can differ, so use the instructions in your own invitation rather than a third-party estimate.
You cannot revise for working memory. You can remove the two avoidable ways to underperform: unfamiliarity and conditions. Use whatever official practice material the invitation offers so the first time you meet a mechanic is not the scored attempt, then sit it on a laptop in a quiet room, rested, well before the deadline.
How do situational judgement and strengths tests work?
SJT scoring depends on the employer's competency and values framework, so memorising a generic set of supposedly correct answers is unlikely to help. The principles that tend to sit behind well-regarded options are worth knowing: act rather than stall, stay within your actual competence, escalate to the right person with a proposed way forward, and do not trade quality or honesty for speed.
Strengths assessments run on a specific definition, and Lloyd's, strengths-based at every stage, states it plainly: a strength is something you do well and enjoy doing. You cannot fake one well, but you can prepare. List what you genuinely do well and enjoy, with one example each, before the test, so fast questions do not catch you meeting yourself for the first time. Read the firm's values pages so you can describe your strengths in their vocabulary. Then answer quickly and honestly, and be the same person at the live stages.
How are recorded video interviews reviewed?
Recorded interviews may be reviewed by people, automated tools or a combination depending on the employer and provider. Prepare for the substance of the answer rather than trying to optimise for keywords or software.
- Bank six to eight stories from your own life, mapped to the competencies the employer names, and deliver each in 90–120 seconds. Keep bullet-point skeletons rather than scripts.
- Draw on any part of life. WTW's recruiters say so directly: university projects, part-time jobs, volunteering and sports teams all count.
- Expect four genres: competency, motivational, strengths and ethics. Candidates report Lloyd's asking about a time something did not go right and how you solved it, working in an unfamiliar situation, your most recent work experience, and your ethical standards.
- Finish the story. Weak competency answers stop before the outcome.
- Practise looking at the camera and speaking within the time limit.
Each question gives you a short thinking window, a fixed recording slot and a limited number of takes. The invitation email tells you which, so read it, and record early in the window rather than on the last evening.
How do you handle the timing pressure?
Budget in seconds per question, then practise at that pace. These are examples of published formats and can change.
| Test | Questions | Time allowed | Seconds per question |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aon scales numerical | 37 tasks | 12 minutes | about 19.5 |
| SHL Verify Interactive numerical | 10 | 18 minutes | about 108 |
| Talent Q Elements numerical | 12 | 15-minute cap | 75–90 |
Those three formats reward different habits. Aon rewards finding the right cell in the right tab before any calculation, and the discipline to answer cannot say when the data is not there. SHL rewards multi-step calculation and careful interaction with charts. Talent Q rewards precise computation, because a long answer list means a rounding error leaves you with nothing plausible to click.
Scores usually come back as stanines: a nine-band scale where stanine 5 is average, roughly the 50th percentile of the comparison group. Employers set their own progression thresholds and generally do not publish them.
Why you should sit the tests yourself
Online assessments are part of the selection process and should be completed by the candidate. Later stages may also test similar skills under supervision: Hymans Robertson's final assessment adds a supervised numerical and written assessment of about an hour and a half, and Mercer's assessment centre uses an individual case-study and document-analysis task. Genuine practice is more useful than trying to game the online stage.
How should you practise in the three weeks before?
- Week one: the arithmetic. 15 minutes a day on percentages, percentage change, reverse percentages, ratios, weighted averages and reading two tables at once. Start untimed until you are consistently accurate, then add time pressure.
- Week two: format reps. Practise at the real per-question budget above, with a calculator and rough paper to hand, because that is the setup you will have.
- Week three: the behavioural half. One or two gamified practice sittings, plus your banked stories recorded to camera and watched back once.
Then apply. Most graduate windows open between late August and October for the following September's start, and Lloyd's opens in January. Where recruitment is rolling, applying earlier can matter, so do not delay an application for weeks simply to chase perfect practice scores.
Want more practice?
The Become an Actuary course covers online tests, video interviews and the later application stages in more detail.
You can also use the free readiness quiz to identify which part of the application process needs the most preparation.