Critical thinking skills are the separate abilities that together let you judge information well. The main ones are interpreting information, analysing arguments, evaluating evidence, recognising assumptions, drawing sound inferences, explaining your reasoning and reflecting on your own thinking. Alongside these sits a set of attitudes, such as open-mindedness and a willingness to change your view, that make the skills useful in practice.
Employers often test several of these skills at once in a critical thinking test. You can try the format in a free critical thinking test in the style of the Watson Glaser, with a full explanation for each answer.
The seven core critical thinking skills
1. Interpreting information
Interpretation is working out what something actually means. That includes the plain meaning of a statement, the significance of a figure, and the difference between what is said and what is implied. A report that says sales “held up well” may mean they fell, just less than expected. A good interpreter notices that.
2. Analysing arguments
Analysis is breaking an argument into its parts: the conclusion, the reasons offered for it, and how they connect. Many arguments are buried in long passages, so the first job is to find the claim being made and the reasons that support it. Once you can see the structure, it becomes much easier to judge.
3. Evaluating evidence
Evaluation is judging how good the evidence is. Useful questions include: where does it come from, how large is the sample, is it recent, and could the source have a reason to present it in a particular light? Strong evidence is relevant, reliable and sufficient for the conclusion drawn from it.
4. Recognising assumptions
An assumption is something an argument takes for granted without stating it. “We should hire more sales staff, because demand is rising” assumes the current team cannot meet the extra demand. Spotting unstated assumptions is often the quickest way to find the weak point in an argument.
5. Drawing sound inferences
Inference is reaching a conclusion from the information you have. The skill lies in matching your confidence to the evidence. Some conclusions follow with certainty. Others are only probable, and some cannot be reached at all from what you know. Being clear about which is which is central to critical thinking, and to critical thinking tests.
6. Explaining your reasoning
A conclusion is more useful when other people can follow how you reached it. Explaining your reasoning means setting out the evidence, the steps and any limits clearly, so that others can check it or build on it. It also exposes gaps in your own thinking.
7. Reflecting on your own thinking
Sometimes called self-regulation, this is the habit of checking your own conclusions as carefully as you would check someone else’s. It includes noticing when you want a particular answer to be true, and looking for evidence that might prove you wrong.
The attitudes behind the skills
Skills on their own are not enough. Someone can be good at finding flaws in arguments and still only use that ability on views they dislike. Critical thinking also depends on attitudes such as:
- open-mindedness: being willing to consider views you do not share
- fair-mindedness: applying the same standards to every argument, including your own
- curiosity: wanting to know why, not just what
- intellectual humility: accepting that you might be wrong
- persistence: keeping going with a hard problem instead of settling for the first answer
How the skills work together
In practice you rarely use one skill alone. Take a simple workplace claim:
“Staff turnover in the warehouse fell from 24 leavers to 18 after we raised pay, so the pay rise has solved our retention problem.”
- Interpretation: the number of leavers fell by 6, which is 6 ÷ 24 = 25% fewer.
- Analysis: the conclusion is that the pay rise solved the problem. The reason is the fall in leavers.
- Evaluation of evidence: is this one year compared with the last? Did the headcount change? If the warehouse employed fewer people, fewer leavers is expected.
- Assumption: the claim assumes nothing else changed, such as a new shift pattern or a weaker local job market.
- Inference: the pay rise probably helped, but “solved” goes further than the evidence allows.
- Explanation: a fair summary would be “leavers fell by a quarter after the pay rise; we need to check headcount and other changes before crediting the pay rise alone”.
You can see more examples like this in our guide to examples of critical thinking.
How employers assess critical thinking skills
Employers look for these skills in three main places.
- Tests. Critical thinking tests such as the Watson Glaser turn the skills into short questions. Its publisher describes what it measures with the RED model: Recognise assumptions, Evaluate arguments and Draw conclusions. Our guide to critical thinking models and theory explains this and other frameworks.
- Interviews. Questions like “tell me about a time you made a difficult decision” are often looking for evidence of these skills.
- Work tasks. Case studies and in-tray exercises at assessment centres ask you to weigh information and recommend a course of action.
How to show critical thinking skills on a CV
Claiming the skill is not convincing. Showing it is. Instead of “excellent critical thinker”, describe something you did that required it, such as “reviewed three years of supplier data and found that a cheaper supplier also had the lowest defect rate”. In an interview, pick examples where you questioned an assumption, used evidence to change a decision, or found the real cause of a problem.
How to develop these skills
Each skill improves with deliberate practice, and the most effective practice gives you feedback on whether you were right. Our guide on how to improve critical thinking skills sets out practical exercises for each one.
If you have a test coming up, the best place to start is with questions in the same format. A timed critical thinking practice test shows you which of these skills you are strongest in, and which need more work.
