The Saville Swift Executive Test (2024 Guide)

When it comes to taking a test that you are not familiar with, do not underestimate the value of using practice papers or past assessments.

They will be formatted with the style of question you might expect during your psychometric assessment and will enable you to familiarise yourself with the layout of the assessment.

Practice papers and example questions will also give you an opportunity to identify your strengths and weaknesses ahead of the main assessment. This will enable you to spend time on improving any areas that need extra attention.

Remember: The style and format of the questions may vary, so it is important to familiarise yourself with as many different styles as possible. This will help you to understand what the questions are asking and enable you to answer them quickly and accurately.

Preparation Guides and Practice Tests

Here is a website that you may find useful when preparing for the Swift Executive Test:

• TestHQ

It would be easy just to focus on the areas that you know you are good at. This may help to boost your confidence, but may in fact lull you into a false sense of security.

Your scores will be based on the test as a whole, not just the sections you enjoy or feel more comfortable with, so it is important to focus on all areas during your practice sessions.

Practicing areas you find more difficult will help to improve your overall confidence and may help you to perform better on the day.

This test is timed, and you will be assessed on the number of questions that you complete within the time limit. Therefore, it is important to practice answering questions within the six minutes allocated for each section.

Practicing against the clock will help you to become aware of how long you should spend on each question and will gradually lead to an improvement in competition time.

However, you should remember that this isn’t just a test of speed. Accuracy is vital in being able to secure a good score on the Swift Executive Test.

Therefore, the focus should be on both answering the questions within the time limit, as well as answering them correctly.

The Verbal Analysis section of the assessment is designed to look at how well you are able to understand, evaluate and draw conclusions from text.

There are a few things which you can do ahead of the test to help boost your performance:

• Read a variety of different texts on a wide range of subjects. This will help to improve your familiarity with the various styles in which written information can be presented.
• Always look up any words you are unsure of or do not understand.
• Practice identifying the main points in any texts that you read, such as newspapers and articles.
• Have a look at texts you have written and consider how they could be improved or shortened without losing any of the meaning or key points.

During the Numerical Analysis section of the Swift Executive Test, the focus will be on assessing your mathematical understanding.

If you are unfamiliar with data handling and analysing, then this section may be more challenging for you.

There are, however, a few things that can be done to help boost your skills and improve your performance on the day:

• Make a point of noticing how data is presented in everyday life, such as magazines, newspapers, news reports and other publications.
• Practicing answering mathematical questions both with and without a calculator. This will help to improve your mental arithmetic skills.
• If possible, try to work more with numbers in your everyday life. Whether this is at work or at home, more exposure will help you to familiarise yourself with different varieties of data.
• Consider looking at other people’s mathematical work so you can see how they have reached their conclusions.

For the Abstract Reasoning section of the assessment, employers will be looking at your ability to understand and evaluate the relationships between patterns and sequences.

This is a difficult skill to build, but there are some things that may help to familiarize yourself ahead of the test:

• Make sure you do plenty of practice tests.
• Try logic puzzles to experience a wider variety of examples.
• Look for and identify information in books, magazines and newspapers that is presented in an abstract way.

It has been well-documented by scientific studies that whether or not we get enough sleep can have an impact on every aspect of our lives.

From our general health, to our ability to concentrate and focus on tasks, getting enough sleep is vital to ensuring that we are functioning at our best.

The average adult needs approximately seven hours of good-quality sleep per night, with some needing closer to eight. Making sure you get enough rest, particularly sleep, ahead of an assessment can genuinely improve your performance.

Ensuring that you are well rested can improve focus, concentration, response times and memory.

If you are someone who feels that they panic under pressure or are particularly anxious ahead of a test situation, then it may help to use calming techniques such as meditation, mindfulness and breathing exercises.

Simple techniques such as breathing exercises can help you to remain calm and focused in stressful situations and can even be used during the test if you find that you are feeling anxious.

You should never underestimate the value of a balanced diet. When stressed or preparing for an assessment, it would be easy to put all of your energy into that and forget to eat properly, reaching for the snacks instead.

But, when it comes to improving mental clarity, concentration and focus, there is scientific evidence that suggests eating protein-rich foods and slow-release carbohydrates can be incredibly beneficial.

Even if you feel that you already have a healthy diet, there are some things you can do to help boost your focus.

Foods such as natural yogurt, berries, porridge, fish and nuts are all high in nutrients that help to keep you feeling fuller for longer and provide long-term energy release.

It is also important to remember to stay hydrated. A recent study looked at students who drank water before exams. It found that they performed 5% higher on average compared to those who had no change to their fluid intake.

Water consumption is also believed to help reduce feelings of anxiety, which may benefit those who are nervous when taking tests.