BP (British Petroleum) is a leading international energy company. It has pledged to cut oil and gas production by 40% by 2030, shifting its focus to be a force for the evolution of clean, renewable energy.
BP’s recruitment cycle includes a variety of tests designed to assess different competencies relevant to their graduate programs. Depending on the program, this can include aptitude tests, technical knowledge assessments, and psychometric evaluations.
From application to final assessment. The process varies slightly by programme and office.
Practising the right publisher's style matters more than practising more.
A question in the style BP sets. Pick an answer and the keyed option is shown.
One question tells you the style. A pack gives you the hour: blended, marked, with the working shown.
BP offers a range of career options for those interested in the business, engineering, science, supply and trading sectors. It also offers a variety of graduate schemes within these areas, which provide an opportunity to work alongside key experts within the global energy industry.
Unsurprisingly, competition to work at this prominent global company is strong, meaning that as a potential candidate, you will need to seriously compete with thousands of others for a position.
Recruitment for careers at BP requires candidates to sit through a multi-stage recruitment process, which will involve various psychometric tests, a technical interview (which will require a role playing scenario between the candidate and interviewing panel), and a day at a BP assessment centre, where you will be given a mix of individual and team activities to complete.
For graduate and intern opportunities, any application to BP will start with matching your degree qualification to the disciplines, roles and opportunities that you are entitled to apply for at this stage in your career.
Each year, there are approximately 300 places available on different BP graduate schemes, with other professional positions appearing as the need arises at the company.
For recent graduates, there is also a specific 2–3 year ‘Challenge’ programme which will act as a gateway to more opportunities within BP. This is not specific to any particular field of specialism, so whatever your field of interest, you will be able to extract skills and experience from this programme.
BP currently operates across the board with its Core Values at its heart. These are:
This is the first part of the recruitment process, and is therefore also the first impression that you will be presenting to the recruiter. Therefore, it is important to remember the Core Values of BP, and to keep them at the forefront of your mind when you are answering the various questions on the application form.
This means that when referring to specific achievements, projects or job roles that you have been involved in, it is important to link them in some way to the Core Values.
A commonly used technique for communicating yourself to a recruiter in a positive way that is conducive to showing yourself in your best light is STAR (Situation, Task, Action, Result). Further information on this technique can easily be found online.
Once you have completed and submitted the online application form, you will be contacted by the recruiter to progress the rest of your application, depending on whether you have so far been successful in your submission.
The next stage of the process depends on your performance in BP’s own specialised aptitude tests. These may include a numerical reasoning test, a verbal reasoning test, and a logical reasoning test. The difficulty level of the tests will be reflected in the area of business, and the level of the role that you have applied for within the company.
There will be information and instructions about the aptitude tests on the invitation email sent from BP to you. These aptitude tests are carried out online and are provided by the Saville Consulting group.
BP’s verbal reasoning test functions as a reasonable indicator of a candidate’s ability to make rapid sense of a previously unseen piece of text, and to extract the key information from it. As part of this test, your competence regarding word meanings and written comprehension will also be assessed.
The test centres on a paragraph of information that you will be given to understand and deduce the relevance from. Once you have read the passage of text, you will be asked a series of questions regarding it. You will be given the choice of answering ‘True’, ‘False’, and ‘Cannot Tell’ to these questions.
You will have roughly 45 seconds to answer the questions given, so make sure that when you are practicing that you do so under timed conditions to get used to answering accurately and rapidly.
To be at your most adept and proficient during the numerical reasoning test assigned to you, it is paramount that you practice under the same timed conditions as the real test itself.
You will have less than a minute to answer each question; therefore the focus for this particular test is less on your actual numerical ability, and more on your speed of approach.
Although the test will be multiple choice, it is also advised that you do not try to randomly guess the answers in a show of rapidity, as it will show up on your accuracy score. However, it will be possible for you to make a best guess estimate by putting the answers that are clearly incorrect to one side.
The numeracy level required for this test is of a general standard, involving common calculations involving addition/subtraction, multiplication/division, percentages and fractions.
You will be allowed a calculator for the test, so remember to practice with this too.
BP’s diagrammatic reasoning test may also be referred to as a logical reasoning test, or an inductive test. This test will be different to the previous numerical and verbal reasoning tests in that you will not be required to make sense of data or text; this time it will be all about understanding abstract patterns.
During the test, the nature of how abstract these patterns and trends can be is unlimited; this task is designed to challenge you. The best way to prepare is to familiarise yourself with practicing.
Over time, it will feel more and more natural to be able to find patterns within size, arrangement, movement and colour of different shapes.
It is also strongly advised that you also practice under timed conditions, as your time during the tests will be limited.
The penultimate step in the application process will be a phone or video interview. This is often considered the most daunting part of the process, as it can be difficult to establish a quick rapport with someone you can’t necessarily see.
During the course of the interview, you will be required to demonstrate key competencies and technical knowledge required for the role, with evidence-based examples.
The best way to prepare for this is to do a practice run with a friend or a family member (i.e. someone that you feel comfortable with). This way, you will feel more comfortable when it comes to the real thing.
It is also a good idea on a practical level to make sure that your phone or PC/laptop is fully charged, you have a strong internet/phone signal, and that you are in a quiet space where neither you nor the interviewer will be distracted by any outside noise or disturbance.
Complementary to your competency-based phone or video interview is a technical interview, which will involve role play. This role play exercise will assess your response to a typical business scenario, so it’s a good idea to research as much as you can on the company, and consider what different scenarios could come up during the course of the job role that you have applied for prior to this part of the application process.
Strong acting skills are definitely not a priority, so when you are practicing for the role play, direct your focus on thinking quickly and practically on your feet.
Finally, visiting an assessment centre for a day of in-person individual and team exercises will need to be completed, depending on the role that you have applied for.
The following exercises may come up at your assessment day, so be prepared to face some, or all of these: a group exercise, a presentation exercise, and a reflective review.
Being part of a group exercise is a great opportunity to show your ability to work as a member of a team. It will be a problem-solving assignment, based on a fictional business scenario.
You will be working with other candidates attending the assessment centre. During the given time period, all candidates will be observed by representatives from BP.
The individual presentation involves a case study that you will be given to read and review. This case study will focus on the area of business that you are applying for, and will typically require a decision and an explanation of it.
You should also be prepared to confidently back your decision, as you may need to take questions on it.
Your presentation should last around 10–15 minutes, and will be a chance to demonstrate your ability to comprehend information given, as well as how confidently and clearly you can express yourself.
A reflective review is usually placed within the final part of the day, usually taking the form of a relaxed discussion with a BP representative about how the candidate felt about their individual performance over the course of the day at the centre.
What candidates ask us most often
The difficulty of BP’s tests will vary by individual and role. Some might find them challenging due to the competitive nature of the roles and the technical expertise required. A solid preparation routine can help alleviate the difficulty.
Preparing for BP tests is all about practice. Taking practice tests, which you can find abundantly on Practice Aptitude Tests, helps familiarize you with the question types and sharpens your answering skills.
The duration of BP’s recruitment process can vary, but it typically unfolds over several months from the initial application to the final decision. Early application is advisable due to the rolling basis of the vacancies.
BP’s core values center around safety, respect, excellence, courage, and one team. These values are integral to its operations and are sought after in candidates throughout the recruitment process.
Rated 5.0 out of 5 across 8 reviews. A selection:
It was really helpful in the preparation of my online assessment for my campus placements. I really got some valuable insights from the test and learned a lot about the company's pattern of questions and assessment requirements.
I am pleased with this test, as it forces you to work faster and more accurately with numbers. It can help you in emergency situations when the speed and accuracy are all that is required. However the is a one big problem: it is difficult to take given test with big diagrams.
I liked the questions, they made me think fast, I had no idea what to do for most of them. I think try and provide the data and the question in one space, I had to repeatedly scroll between them and lost my train of thought and some time there.
BP is a trademark of its respective owner. Practice Aptitude Tests is not affiliated with BP and our practice tests are not endorsed by them. Visit BP careers.
Take a free test in any format, then upgrade when you know which one you need.
