If you’re applying for a position in a bank or consulting firm, you might be prompted to take an aptitude test for finance. These pre-employment psychometric tests are designed to assess your numerical and verbal reasoning skills as they pertain to the world of finance.
So, unlike other standard cognitive ability tests, this test will expect you to have a background in finance. Not only will you have to know the terminology, but you’ll also to how to analyse a text and pull out the relevant information.
What Is a Finance Aptitude Test?
A finance aptitude test is an online screening test for anyone applying for a position in a financial firm. Because large firms receive so many applications, it’s impossible for them to look through each resume carefully. By requiring every candidate to take an aptitude assessment, HR managers can easily eliminate unqualified or uninterested candidates therefore vastly limiting the number of potential hires.
How to Prepare for a Finance Assessment Test?
If you have a finance test for a job interview, you should make sure that you prepare with questions that are finance related. While it is, essentially, a numerical reasoning exam, practising with a test designed for general mathematics won’t really help you that much. Many of the questions are word problems, and all of the questions will require you to analyse financial data. You will need to calculate percentages and estimate probability, but the assessment is really designed to test your ability to apply numerical reasoning to the world of finance.
Tips for Finance Test Questions:
Make sure to check out our top tips for financial reasoning exams before heading out for the assessment centre.
1. Identify the Important> Information:
The FSA Financial Reasoning Assessment is both a verbal and a mathematical test. You’ll first be given a passage detailing the situation, and then you’ll be asked to find certain information. Half of the struggle is understanding the passage though. Unless you can identify the relevant pieces of information, you won’t be able to even start the calculations. Read through the text very carefully and pull out the relevant figures. Because many of the questions include graphs and tables, you’ll have to wade through a lot of data, but don’t let that information overwhelm you. Chances are likely you’ll only need a few numbers for any given equation.
2. Figure Out What They’re Really Asking:
Again, because these written finance test questions include so much information, it can be easy to lose track of the actual question. If you’ve worked on this kind of material in college and in graduate school, you might be tempted to jump right in immediately. However, double check to make sure you’re actually solving for the answer that they’ve requested.
3. Don’t Panic:
While you are expected to be familiar with the world of finance, you are not expected to solve differential equations. Most of the equations are fairly simple. You just need to make sure that you’re isolating the correct pieces of information. In fact, the time limit won’t allow for intricate, involved questions. As a general rule of thumb, if you think solving the question is more work than it’s worth, you probably aren’t answering it correctly. Understanding the question is really half the work. As long as you’re comfortable working with numbers, you shouldn’t have enormous difficulties with the mathematical component.
Final Thoughts on Financial Controller Test:
As a job-seeker, it’s important that you pass these tests if you want to move to the next stage in the interview process and eventually land the job. So, if you’re concerned, it’s imperative that you devote some time to practising. If you’re still worried about your FSA aptitude assessment, make sure to click over to our second tab to check out our free finance test questions and answers today.
