RBS graduate scheme assessment - what does the numerical reasoning section actually look like?
I've got an RBS graduate scheme assessment coming up in about 3 weeks and I'm trying to get a realistic picture of what the numerical reasoning test actually involves. I've been doing SHL practice tests and I'm scoring around 65-70% on those, which feels okay but I genuinely don't know if that translates well to what RBS actually uses. Has anyone done this recently and can give me a feel for the format and difficulty level?
My background is a 2:1 in economics so I'm comfortable with the math itself - percentages, ratios, profit margins, that kind of thing. What worries me more is the time pressure. I tend to work accurately but slowly, and I've heard that graduate-level numerical tests are designed to be very time-constrained. I've been doing timed practice sets every other day and I'm getting faster, but I'm still running out of time on about 20% of questions.
Does anyone know if the verbal reasoning section at RBS is as challenging as the numerical? I've been putting most of my prep into the numbers but I don't want to get caught out by the verbal component if it's equally weighted or harder.
One thing that helped me was doing practice tests at the same time of day I was scheduled to take the real one. Sounds silly but my brain performs differently at 10am versus 8pm and I wanted to be calibrated for when it actually mattered. Made a noticeable difference in my mock scores.
I did the RBS grad scheme last cycle and the numerical section was broadly SHL-style, so your prep is on the right track. The time pressure is real though - get your per-question time under 90 seconds consistently. Practice skipping and returning rather than getting stuck on any one question.
The verbal reasoning was not easier than the numerical for me - if anything I found it trickier because the true/false/cannot say format has genuinely ambiguous passages. The trap is bringing outside knowledge into answers when you're only supposed to use what's in the text. Strict discipline on that is essential.
Your 65-70% on SHL practice is a reasonable place to be 3 weeks out. I'd focus less on accuracy at this point and more on speed - accuracy tends to hold under time pressure once you've built the habit of moving quickly. The goal is to attempt every single question.
Just went through this a few weeks ago and passed, so hopefully this helps. The format is pretty similar to SHL but the time pressure is genuinely brutal -- you get about 65 seconds per question and the tables are dense. The one thing that actually made the difference for me wasn't doing more practice tests, it was learning to scan the table headers first before reading the question. Sounds obvious but I was wasting like 20 seconds every question just orienting myself to the data layout.
Your 65-70% on SHL is fine as a baseline but don't read too much into the raw score. What matters more is whether you can maintain that accuracy when you're racing the clock on question 18 of 20. I'd suggest doing timed runs with no pauses and tracking where you lose time, not just where you get answers wrong. That's what shifted things for me.
Honestly I nearly quit after week one because I was scoring around 60% on SHL practice and thought I just wasn't cut out for this. The RBS numerical reasoning is harder than standard SHL in one specific way: the tables are dense and the questions are designed to waste your time if you don't already know which numbers to ignore. Once I figured that out my scores jumped fast. If you haven't tried it yet, the free rbs numerical reasoning test on here is actually closer to the real format than the generic SHL stuff I was using before.
65-70% is a decent starting point but you'll want to get that to 80%+ consistently before the real thing. The trick isn't knowing more maths, it's getting faster at scanning. I started setting a timer for 75 seconds per question and forcing myself to move on even when I wasn't sure. Sounds brutal but it genuinely works. You've got three weeks which is enough time if you practice daily rather than cramming at the end.
Honestly, I nearly quit after my first two practice sessions because I thought I was just too slow. SHL scores in the 60s felt fine until I realised the RBS format is a bit different — less about raw calculation and more about reading charts and tables under real time pressure. I found a free rbs numerical reasoning test that actually mimicked the style closely, and drilling that specific format made a bigger difference than any SHL prep I'd done.
Three weeks is enough time if you focus right. Don't just do questions and move on — go back and understand why you got the wrong ones wrong, because the same traps repeat. I passed in December and my practice scores weren't much higher than yours going in, so you're not as far off as it probably feels.