2024 Tesco Assessment Test Study Guide & Practice Test
If Tesco is on your radar for your future career, then you have to prepare for a demanding recruitment process.
Whether you are interested in an internship with the company, a post in their graduate scheme, or a post in their school leaver programme, you can expect to go through a rigorous testing process in your search for the ideal job.
Not only will you have to prove you possess the skills required by the company, but you will also have to overcome intense competition from other applicants for those coveted jobs.
Tesco receives a flood of applications for their open positions. In order to select the people best suited for the positions, pre-employment assessments, interviews, and a day at an assessment centre are used. These narrow down the number of applicants and ensure Tesco selects only those who can give the best service to their customers.
Read on to discover how to prepare for the assessments and land the role.
Table of Contents
What are the Tesco Assessments?
The Tesco assessments are a series of psychometric and aptitude tests that job applicants must take when applying to a role at Tesco. The tests help Tesco recognise employees who have the necessary on-the-job competencies but also people who have the preferred personal skills for their workforce.
If you have applied for a job and are invited to an interview or assessment day, assessors and recruiters will be checking if you have the personal qualities necessary to work for them.
Among the qualities they value highly are:
- Leadership talents
- The ability to work as part of a team
- Good decision-making skills
- Strong awareness of customer service
Is the Tesco Recruitment Process Hard?
Yes, the process is demanding.
Expect to have to pass through a series of stages before you reach the point where a job offer is made.
With psychometric testing beginning immediately after you submit your application, it is essential you begin preparing for the process before you apply.
How Can I Prepare for the Tesco Assessments?
When applying for any job, it is advisable you use the services of a job test preparation company that is familiar with the process and will help you prepare for the various stages you have to follow.
For this, we recommend using the services of Job Test Prep, leaders in the field of preparing applicants for pre-employment testing.
From them, you will get accurate information on the recruitment process as well as a test prep pack with sample tests mirrored on the real assessments.
The pack comes with study guides, explanations for questions and answers as well as a means of checking your scores as you work through the sample tests.
You will also be provided with interview preparation guides and guides to the assessment day role play and group exercises.
To get an idea of the type of job test preparation material, try your hand at the following free sample general ability test.
What is the Format of the Recruitment Process?
Here’s what to expect in the recruitment process.
Job Application
Tesco advises submitting your application for a job as soon as a position you are interested in is advertised and warns that you can only apply for one position. As the recruitment process is ongoing, you need to be on the alert for job postings.
Submitting your application is the first step to a job at Tesco and your first opportunity to make an impression on the recruiters.
Your application is done online, and you will need access to a webcam, microphone and the internet to complete your application.
Psychometric Tests
As part of your application, you will be asked to complete four game-based psychometric tests. Tesco stress in their application details that playing these games gives the company an opportunity to get to know you better.
The games are designed to measure your cognitive skills, your behavioural preferences, and your numerical and abstract reasoning abilities.
Your performance in the games will allow the company to assess your abilities when presented with challenges and your decision making abilities.
Be careful that you carry out the games in an environment where you are comfortable and can perform to your best.
Interview
If the company accepts your application, you can expect to undergo interviews in the next stages of the process. A video interview will determine if you progress further in the hiring process.
The video interview aims to judge if you have the leadership qualities necessary to work on the Tesco programme you have applied for.
Tesco’s list of the qualities they are looking for in applicants includes:
- Collaboration
- Resilience
- Responsiveness
- Innovation
- Empathy
Note that collaboration and empathy are looking at your people skills, while resilience is looking at your ability to deal with difficulties. Tesco like their employees to be innovative and open to new ideas and having the quality of responsiveness will allow you to respond to any new or unpredictable situation that comes your way.
To assess if you have these qualities, you will be asked a series of questions with approximately three minutes to answer each question.
Many applicants find video interviews challenging. Make sure when doing the interview that you are in a distraction-free environment where you can give your best. Try to speak slowly and clearly to overcome any nervousness you may be feeling.
You are allowed to have notes to hand, and the company allows you to take a practice run through the questions before the interview proper begins.
Tesco Assessment Centre
A successful interview will see you being invited to the next stage of the process, which is a day at an assessment centre or Discovery Centre as the company terns it.
The day at the assessment centre has two purposes. It allows you to find out more about the company and their work practices and allows the company to find out more about you.
Tesco states it will be assessing your suitability to the programme you have applied for throughout the day and encourage applicants attending at the assessment day to decide if the company is a match for their career ambitions.
Further preparation with your test prep pack is recommended before the day as you will be asked to complete a number of assessments and exercises as the assessors decide on your suitability.
It is advisable also to check back on the qualities Tesco are looking for in their employees before your assessment day.
Tesco Assessment Day Exercises
Expect to do some or all of the following assessments during your day at the assessment centre:
- Aptitude Tests
- Tesco Presentation
- Role Play Exercise
- Group Exercise
- In-Tray Exercise
- Written Exercises
- Interview
Aptitude Tests
Aptitude tests you may be asked to take should generally be like the tests you took when applying. If so, expect your cognitive skills, behavioural preferences and numerical and abstract reasoning skills to come under scrutiny again.
Preparation with your sample tests is essential for this section of your assessment day. To get a head start on your preparation, try your hand at this free sample abstract reasoning test. This test is used to assess your ability to learn new skills, sort out problems and handle new information.
For a test that assesses your numerical abilities try this free sample numerical reasoning test.
Expect a behavioural test to look at how you would deal with different work-related situations and give the employer an indication of your workplace personality.
Tesco Presentation
This is another assessment that repays good preparation.
Expect to be given the topic for presentation on the day. In fact, you may only be told you are required to make a presentation on the day, so come prepared.
You may find yourself presenting a topic along the lines of the opportunities and difficulties associated with working in the role you have applied for.
While you are giving your presentation, assessors will be in a position to evaluate your communication skills as well as how knowledgeable you are about Tesco.
Role Play Exercise
Expect to have to play a role where you imagine yourself as a Tesco employee.
You may be asked to imagine yourself in a managerial position and faced with the task of convincing a reluctant team member to adopt new work practices.
A good brush up on the company’s work practices will help you with this section. Your test prep pack will have practice exercises on doing role plays.
Group Exercise
You will work with a group for this exercise. As a group, you will be given a task to collaborate on.
The task may be something as simple as a game or as complex as devising a sales pitch for a product. This exercise allows assessors to evaluate your teamwork and leadership skills as well as communication skills.
The group exercise can be challenging. You want to get your point across without being either too dominant or too passive. Striking a middle balance is important.
You also need to show you have good communication and listening skills as well as respect for the opinions of people you are working with.
In-Tray Exercise
If you are asked to do an in-tray exercise the company are assessing your organisational skills, time-management and your abilities to prioritise tasks.
Expect to be presented with a number of tasks that might arrive on an employee’s desk on any given day. You have to show you can complete the tasks, respond to emails etc. in a timely and efficient manner.
To get some in-tray practice try the following free in-tray exercise.
Written Exercises
Some but not all assessment days may require you to do written exercises.
Some centres will refer to the exercise as a case study exercise and others as an analysis. However, in both cases, you are presented with information that you are asked to analyse.
The purpose of the exercise is to assess your ability to deal with information, to decide on what is important and come to logical conclusions. Above all, they need to know if you have good judgement.
Expect to be working under time pressure if you have to do written exercises. Adequate practice on sample tests before the real assessment will help you to hone your skills and teach you how to do the task quickly and without sacrificing the quality of your answering.
The Interview
The type of interview you are asked to do will depend on the interview you have had prior to this.
It may be an interview to get a sense of your competencies. Or it may be an interview where you will be asked about your reasons for wanting to work in the particular role you have applied for. Expect to be asked about your reasons for wanting to work at the company.
The interviewer will be trying to get an idea of your values and the ambitions you hope to realise in your role at Tesco.
As with all interviews, thorough preparation is essential. Use the interview guides in your test prep pack and continue to brush up on your information about the company.
To show your enthusiasm, have a few questions of your own prepared.
Preparing for the Tesco Assessments
As the information above has shown, getting through the process and becoming a Tesco employee is no mean achievement.
Study Tips
To make your preparation for the process more effective, try taking the following steps:
- Work to a timetable ensuring everything is prepared before each step of the process.
- If possible, designate a space as your job test preparation area. We all work better when we work with a routine.
- Build adequate breaks into your preparation routine. We learn more efficiently when we work in short chunks of time. Aim to take a 10-minute break after every 50 minutes of preparation
Use your sample papers
Your sample papers should form part of every preparation session to ensure you:
- Become familiar with the assessment process
- Become familiar with any questions that might trip you up in the real assessments
- Can monitor your progress with every test you do
Mindset for approaching the interviews and assessments
- Well rested and clear-headed
- With the confidence of knowing you have done the work and deserve this!
If you are applying for a role at Tesco, you will find all the resources you need to ace the recruitment process here.
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With 25+ years’ experience as a teacher and state examinations corrector, Elizabeth now writes for the education and careers industry. Her experience preparing students for examinations and running an academy for supplementary education give her invaluable insights into what it takes for job seekers and graduates to succeed in assessments.
