Prepare Un Assessmet

Preparing for
Assessment
Centres

Career Development Service © 2011 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced without the written permission of the copyright holder.

Contents Page…
What is an Assessment Centre?
General Tips.
Types of exercises -Written exercises, Presentation exercises.
One-to-one role plays.
Group exercises.
Facilitation exercises.Career Development Service © 2011 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced without the written permission of the copyright holder.

What is an Assessment Centre
The term Assessment Centre is usually used to describe a process not a place. The process involves a number of candidates
completing a series of job simulation exercises (written, group, one-to-one role plays etc)assessed by multiple assessors.
The reason for the use of a number of different assessors is to increase objectivity. Important competencies (or attributes) ,
such as oral communication and analysing, are usually assessed in more than one exercise, as a result, no one exercise is
‘make or break’. This pack outlines some general tips for Assessment Centres and then outlines some of thedifferent types
of exercise you might encounter and gives specific tips for approaching each type of exercise.

Health warning!
These tips are based on many years’ experience of design and delivery of Assessment Centres for a range of organisations.
However each Assessment Centre is different so do follow the instructions and advice given at the particular Centre you are
attending.

GeneralTips...
Preparation

During the Centre

 Get plenty of sleep before the Assessment Centre, so
you can be ‘at your best’. There is a limit to how much
you can prepare, so sleep counts as good preparation!

 For candidates the assessment days are usually quite
intensive and tiring, but if you feel one exercise has
not gone very well, don’t be put off, just put it behind
you and focus on thenext one.

 Do consider feedback from previous Assessment
Centres and interviews. What did you do well, that
you would do again? What learning points did you
identify for yourself?
 If you have been through the Cranfield MBA
Assessment/ Development Centre, looking at the
marking guides will give you an understanding of the
sort of behaviours that are typically assessed.
 Consider whatyou know about the organisation and
what they will be looking to assess, e.g. refer to their
values, person specification and competency framework if available.

 When being given instructions, do ask any questions if
things are not clear. The exercises are designed to be
stretching, and are usually conducted under tight time
constraints, so don’t be overly worried if you have not
doneeverything to the standard you might normally
want to.
 Assessors can only assess what they see and hear – so
for group and one-to-one exercises, you need to
make sure you say enough to give sufficient evidence.
For written exercises, again get down as much of
your thinking as you can.

Career Development Service © 2011 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproducedwithout the written permission of the copyright holder.

1

Types of Exercises
1. Written Exercises...
Formats for these vary, but you may be given some
information to read and analyse and then asked to produce a
written response showing your interpretation of the
information (and possibly recommendations). Sometimes
you will be asked to give an oral presentation based on your
analysis.Another common format is the ‘in-tray exercise’.
Here you will need to prioritise and recommend actions
based on the issues contained within a (senior) manager’s
in-tray.
Keep an eye on the time and give
yourself enough time to write your
response (i.e. don’t spend too long reading).
This sounds obvious, but do remember that
someone else will need to be able to read
and make sense of...