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Critical Thinking Tests

    • 20 tests |
    • 228 questions

Critical thinking tests, sometimes known as critical reasoning tests, are often used by employers. They evaluate how a candidate makes logical deductions after scrutinising the evidence provided, while avoiding fallacies or non-factual opinions. Critical thinking tests can form part of an assessment day, or be used as a screening test before an interview.

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5 Example critical thinking practice questions with answers

Inference

In this section, you need to deduce whether the inferred statement is true, false or impossible to deduce.

Statement

The UK Government has published data that shows 82% of people under the age of 30 are not homeowners. A charity that helps homeless people has published data that shows 48% of people that are considered homeless are under 30.

Inference

The lack of affordable housing on the sales market is the reason so many under-30s are homeless.

  1. Definitely True
  2. Probably True
  3. Impossible to Deduce
  4. Probably False
  5. Definitely False

Answer

The information given does not infer the conclusion given, so it is impossible to deduce if the inference is correct – there is just not enough information to judge the inference as correct.

Assumptions

Statement

The removal of the five-substitution rule in British football will benefit clubs with a smaller roster.

Assumption

Clubs with more money would prefer the five-substitute rule to continue.

  1. Assumption Made
  2. Assumption Not Made

Answer

Assumption Not Made

This is an example of a fallacy that could cause confusion for a candidate – it encourages you to bring in any pre-existing knowledge of football clubs.

It would be easy to assume the assumption has been made when you consider that the more money a club has, the more players they should have on the roster. However, the statement does not make the assumption that the clubs with more money would prefer to continue with the five-substitute rule.

critical thinking tests

Deduction

Statement

All boys love football. Football is a sport, therefore:

  1. All boys love all sports
  2. Girls do not love football
  3. Boys are more likely to choose to play football than any other sport

Answer

In this section we are looking for the conclusion that follows the logic of the statement. In this example, we cannot deduce that girls do not love football, because there is not enough information to support that.

In the same way the conclusion that all boys love all sports does not follow – we are not given enough information to make that assumption. So, the conclusion that follows is 3: boys are more likely to choose football than any other sport because all boys like football.

Interpretation

Statement

The British Museum has a range of artefacts on display, including the largest privately owned collection of WWII weaponry.

Conclusion

There is a larger privately owned collection of WWII weaponry in the USA.

  1. Conclusion Follows
  2. Conclusion Does Not Follow

Answer

Conclusion Does Not Follow

The fact that the collection is in the British Museum does not make a difference to the fact it is the largest private collection – so there cannot be a larger collection elsewhere.

Evaluation of Arguments

Statement

The Department for Education should lower standards in examinations to make it fairer for less able students.

  1. Yes – top grades are too hard for lower-income students
  2. No – less fortunate students are not capable of higher standards
  3. Yes – making the standards lower will benefit all students
  4. No – private school students will suffer if grade standards are lower

Answer

  1. The strongest argument is the right answer, not the one that you might personally believe.

In this case, we need to assess which argument is most relevant to the statement. Both 1 and 4 refer to students in particular situations, which isn’t relevant to the statement. The same can be said about 2, so the strongest argument is 3, since it is relevant and addresses the statement given.

Sample Critical Thinking Tests question Test your knowledge!

What implication can be drawn from the information in the passage?

A company’s internal audit revealed that departments with access to advanced analytics tools reported higher levels of strategic decision-making. These departments also showed a higher rate of reaching their quarterly objectives.

  • Strategic decision-making has no link to the achievement of quarterly objectives.
  • Access to advanced analytics does not influence a department's ability to make strategic decisions.
  • Advanced analytics tools are the sole reason for departments reaching their quarterly objectives.
  • Departments without access to advanced analytics tools are unable to make strategic decisions.
  • Advanced analytics tools may facilitate better strategic decision-making, which can lead to the achievement of objectives.

After reading the passage below, what conclusion is best supported by the information provided?

A company’s internal audit revealed that departments with access to advanced analytics tools reported higher levels of strategic decision-making. These departments also showed a higher rate of reaching their quarterly objectives.

  • Job satisfaction increases when employees start their day earlier.
  • Starting early may lead to more efficient task completion and less job-related stress.
  • Workers who start their day later are more efficient at completing tasks.
  • There is a direct correlation between job satisfaction and starting work early.
  • The study concludes that job-related stress is unaffected by the start time of the workday.

Based on the passage below, which of the following assumptions is implicit?

A company’s internal audit revealed that departments with access to advanced analytics tools reported higher levels of strategic decision-making. These departments also showed a higher rate of reaching their quarterly objectives.

  • Inter-departmental cooperation is the sole factor influencing project completion rates.
  • The increase in project completion rates is due entirely to the specialized team-building module.
  • Team-building exercises have no effect on inter-departmental cooperation.
  • The specialized team-building module may contribute to improvements in inter-departmental cooperation.
  • Departments that have not undergone the training will experience a decrease in project completion rates.

What is the flaw in the argument presented in the passage below?

A company’s internal audit revealed that departments with access to advanced analytics tools reported higher levels of strategic decision-making. These departments also showed a higher rate of reaching their quarterly objectives.

  • The assumption that a casual dress code is suitable for all company types.
  • High-tech companies have a casual dress code to increase employee productivity specifically.
  • The argument correctly suggests that a casual dress code will increase employee morale in every company.
  • Morale and productivity cannot be affected by a company's dress code.
  • A casual dress code is more important than other factors in determining a company's success.

Which statement is an inference that can be drawn from the passage below?

A company’s internal audit revealed that departments with access to advanced analytics tools reported higher levels of strategic decision-making. These departments also showed a higher rate of reaching their quarterly objectives.

  • Telecommuting employees are less productive than on-site workers.
  • The reduction in operational costs is directly caused by the increase in telecommuting employees.
  • Telecommuting may have contributed to the decrease in operational costs.
  • Operational costs are unaffected by employee work locations.
  • The number of telecommuting employees has no impact on operational costs.

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Critical Thinking Tests Tips

1Practice

The most important factor in your success will be practice. If you have taken some practice tests, not only will you start to recognise the way questions are worded and become familiar with what each question is looking for, you will also be able to find out whether there are any parts that you need extra practice with.

It is important to find out which test you will be taking, as some generic critical thinking practice tests might not help if you are taking specific publisher tests (see the section below).

2Fact vs fallacy

Practice questions can also help you recognise the difference between fact and fallacy in the test. A fallacy is simply an error or something misleading in the scenario paragraph that encourages you to choose an invalid argument. This might be a presumption or a misconception, but if it isn’t spotted it can make finding the right answer impossible.

3Ignore what you already know

There is no need for pre-existing knowledge to be brought into the test, so no research is needed. In fact, it is important that you ignore any subconscious bias when you are considering the questions – you need logic and facts to get the correct answer, not intuition or instinct.

4Read everything carefully

Read all the given information thoroughly. This might sound straightforward, but knowing that the test is timed can encourage candidates to skip content and risk misunderstanding the content or miss crucial details.

During the test itself, you will receive instructions that will help you to understand what is being asked of you on each section. There is likely to be an example question and answer, so ensure you take the time to read them fully.

5Stay aware of the time you've taken

This test is usually timed, so don’t spend too long on a question. If you feel it is going to take too much time, leave it and come back to it at the end (if you have time). Critical thinking tests are complex by design, so they do have quite generous time limits.

For further advice, check out our full set of tips for critical thinking tests.

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Critical Thinking Tests FAQs

What are the basics of critical thinking?

In essence, critical thinking is the intellectual process of considering information on its merits, and reaching an analysis or conclusion from that information that can be defended and rationalised with evidence.

How do you know if you have good critical thinking skills?

You are likely to be someone with good critical thinking skills if you can build winning arguments; pick holes in someone’s theory if it’s inconsistent with known facts; reflect on the biases inherent in your own experiences and assumptions; and look at problems using a systematic methodology.

Reviews of our Watson Glaser tests

What our customers say about our Watson Glaser tests

  • United Kingdom

    April 05, 2022

    Doesn't cover all aspects of Watson-Glaser tests but useful

    The WGCTA uses more categories to assess critical thinking, but this was useful for the inference section.

  • Canada

    April 01, 2022

    Just practicing for an interview

    Good information and liked that it had a countdown clock, to give you that real feel in the test situation.

  • United Kingdom

    March 31, 2022

    Aptitude test

    It was OK, I didn't understand personally whether or not the "cannot say" option was acceptable or not in a lot of the questions, as it may have been a trick option.

  • Indonesia

    March 15, 2022

    Different

    I like the test because the platform is simple and engaging while the test itself is different than most of the Watson Glaser tests I've taken.

  • Canada

    March 02, 2022

    Some of the ratios were harder than I thought!

    I like how clear the design and layout is - makes things very easy (even if the content itself is not!)

  • United Kingdom

    February 17, 2022

    Mental arithmetic

    I enjoyed the fact that there were multiple questions pertaining to one passage of information, rather than multiple passages. However I would've appreciated a more varied question type.

  • India

    February 16, 2022

    Analytics are the best questions

    I like the test because of its time schedule. The way the questions are prepared makes it easy to crack the original test.

  • United Kingdom

    February 02, 2022

    Interesting

    I haven't done something like this for ages. Very good for the brain - although I certainly experienced some fog whilst doing it.

  • United Kingdom

    January 04, 2022

    Population/exchange rates were the hardest

    Great test as it felt a bit time pressured. Very different types of questions in terms of difficulty.

  • United Kingdom

    January 02, 2022

    More attention to detail + be more time conscious

    It was asking about daily stuff we all deal with, but as an assessment it's scrutinising how we approach these problems.