Management Situational Judgement Test (SJT) Preparation

Situational judgment tests for managers are an often mandatory pre-employment screening procedure for job seekers applying for managerial positions. As a distinct type of situational judgment tests, it places your aptitude for performing managerial work duties under assessment.

Ultimately, the content of every management SJT test depends on the unique demands of each specific job position. At the same time, the design of most management SJTs involves similar psychometrics making the format uniform across.

Sadly, it is not feasible to analyze all possible types of content that may comprise individual management SJTs in depth. Yet, learning about the most popular management SJT formats can be of major help in your exam preparation efforts.

Why You May Have to Take a Management Scenario Test

A vast range of managerial job positions requires you to use sound judgment in making decisions. For this reason, taking the managerial judgement test has become commonplace in the hiring process. Along with traditional hiring practices, such as an interview, SJTs are administered extensively to assist with managerial personnel selection.

In civil service alone, managerial salaries amount to almost $101,000 per year on average. Despite their desire to secure such competitive salaries, most managerial job seekers overlook the importance of their SJT exam. Instead, they believe that being a graduate with a relevant degree is sufficient to secure chances of getting employed.

While credentials and prior work experience can help, assessment tests for managers present you with a unique opportunity. It allows you to showcase to your potential employer that you are the most capable candidate for the job and that you have the skills and abilities that will make you an asset to them.

What a Typical Management SJT Involves

As was mentioned earlier, while the content may differ, the psychometrics of each management SJT remains similar. As a result, each type of question aims to evaluate your aptitude in rather specific ways.

Below are some tips on what types of aptitude questions you can expect:

• Scenario-Based Questions
  You will first have to analyze a hypothetical, but nonetheless likely, work-related conflict situation. Depending on your evaluation of it, you will then have to select the most appropriate response option. The answers you choose will help to determine how you will most likely conduct yourself in a real work environment.
• Most-Least Likely / Best-Worst Answer Tables
  You will have to acquaint yourself with a situation and a set of corresponding possible response options to it. You will then have to rate each response option. Either as something you would be most or least likely to do. Or as something that you consider to be the best or the worst way to respond.
• Ranking and Rating
  You will first face statements about yourself. You will then have to rank or rate them depending on how much they apply to you.

The types of aptitude questions mentioned above are commonplace in almost any management version of situational judgment tests. They tend to evaluate the following key managerial competencies:

• Ability to lead and take responsibility.
• Interpersonal communication and negotiation skills.
• Personal attributes such as integrity, ambition, and initiative.
• Ability to adapt to various business contacts and fast-changing environments.

The particular assessment test for managers in your case, however, may have a more specific focus. On top of the managerial competencies above, it may evaluate additional managerial aptitude areas.

How to Prepare for Management Situational Judgment Test?

You can prepare yourself for your management SJT by regular practice with free example questions and sample answers. You can also use online study guides that provide explanations and include common questions and answers concerning the test. Both of these exam preparation strategies work and help you to increase your confidence before the examination. Free from exam-induced anxiety, you will achieve the scores that most other job seekers can only dream of.