Watson Glaser

What are Watson Glaser tests?

The Watson-Glaser evaluates your ability to analyse and make a decision. It focuses primarily on your ability to draw conclusions based on limited information. It is an opportunity for you to show creative flare and ‘outside the box’ thinking, and is often used by Law firms and other professional practices.

It is a verbal-style assessment and consists of 40 questions that need to be completed within 20-30 minutes. There is an older version, that consists of 80 questions that need to be completed within 60 minutes, but this is rarely used by current employers – but just be aware it does exist!

The Watson Glaser test

The test itself is split into five sections, which we have explained below:

Section 1 – Inference

In this section you will be presented with a short passage containing information and a subsequent statement. You will be expected to decide whether the statement is true, false or cannot say, provided on the information you have been given.

Section 2 – Recognising Assumptions

In this section you will also be presented with a short passage containing information and a subsequent statement in the form of an assumption. You will be expected to decide whether the assumption can be made from the information provided. This part of the text will test your ability to avoid taking for granted things that are not necessarily true.

Section 3 - Deduction

In this section you will need to weigh information presented, to decide whether the conclusions provided are justified. You will need to determine whether the conclusion follows, or doesn’t follow, what is contained within the short passaged provided.

Section 4 - Interpretation

In this section you will be expected to understand the weighting of various arguments relating to a particular question or issue. The passage of text presented to you will follow with a conclusion, and you will need to determine whether this conclusion is accurate, given the information provided

Section 5 – Evaluation of Arguments

In this section you are expected to determine the strength, or weakness of an argument. You will be presented with a question followed by an argument, and you will need to decide whether the argument is both important and directly related to the question.