Hi there,
Looking to prepare for the Harver Cognitive Ability Assessment or Brain Game? You’ve come to the right place!
- Learn all you need to know about the Harver Cognitive Ability Assessment and the Harver BrainGame with sample questions.
- Take a free Harver practice test.
- Get links to useful, free practice resources for your Harver assessment.
- Understand your test score.
What is the Harver Cognitive Ability Assessment?
Harver’s Cognitive Ability Assessment is a five-part test used to measure a broad spectrum of cognitive abilities, to produce a holistic understanding of your general intelligence through three known perspectives: learned knowledge, or “crystal intelligence”; ability to apply knowledge in new situations, or “fluid intelligence”; and speed and accuracy.
The assessment is broken down into five optional subtests, and can take anywhere from 6 to 24 minutes per section. Since some skills are more important than others for different jobs, an employer can customize the test to include or exclude certain subtests.
Test Content – 5 Subtests
The five subtests on the Harver Cognitive Ability Assessment are analyzed below, with sample questions to make it clearer. But just before we review these subtests in detail, remember that each employer can choose a different selection of subtests, depending on the job. You will be notified in advance what is the exact selection of tests you’re expected to take.
The Logical Reasoning subtest measures your ability to recognize and interpret patterns and details in figures and shapes. This ability is closely tied to problem-solving and decision-making, and as such is a good predictor for jobs that need people to have those skills. It is also a good predictor of how well a potential employee may handle abstract concepts and ideas.
The Verbal Reasoning subtest measures your reading comprehension skills. It also assesses your ability to think abstractly, problem solve, and to be able to connect verbal concepts. This section includes questions that involve reading a passage and answering questions about it, as well as verbal analogies. The Verbal Reasoning subtest is useful for jobs across all industries, as it can help to predict something as simple as how well you would be able to read and follow instructions.
The Perceptual Speed and Accuracy subtest measures how quickly and efficiently you can work on unfamiliar tasks. It also measures how well you can work under pressure. This subtest is often used as a predictor in specific jobs that require the ability to sort and order information in a quick and efficient manner. Questions in this section require you to be able to quickly learn, memorize, and process information. As such, a large part of what this section measures is related to short term memory and the ability to quickly learn and remember specific details.
The Numerical Reasoning subtest assesses your ability to work with numbers. More specifically, it asks you to recognize patterns and systems in numerical sequences. The topics covered include number sequences, ratios and percentages, with questions that often include graphs and tables to be analyzed as part of the question. This subtest is useful for jobs that require you to be able to think analytically and work well with numbers, such as positions in banking or finance.
The Spatial Ability subtest assesses your ability to work with and manipulate shapes. Questions on this subtest present you with shapes and ask you to be able to move, rotate, or otherwise manipulate a shape accordingly. These abilities are often important for jobs in fields like architecture and engineering, but are also linked to strategic thinking abilities, as they reveal how a potential employee is able to perceive the bigger picture.
Harver Brain Game
Harver also offers a BrainGame, which is a gamified version of the Cognitive Abilities Test. Some companies may use this version in their hiring process, and while it is similar to the Cognitive Abilities Test, there are some differences.
In all, the test takes 30 minutes, with a total of 68 questions. You will be given 40 seconds per question. If you don’t answer the question in time, it will automatically skip to the next question.
This section of the BrainGame will present you with 23 questions that will test your ability to find simple figures within larger complex patterns. This question style was developed by psychologists Ruth B. Ekstrom, John W. French, Harry H. Harman, and is part of an assessment they named Factor-Referenced Cognitive Tests.
You will be presented with a complex shape, followed by five simpler shapes. You will have to choose which of the five options would fit within the original image.
Source: Manual for Kit of Factor-Referenced Cognitive Tests (1976)
Ruth B. Ekstrom; John W. French; Harry H. Harman; with Diran Dermen
This section consists of 20 questions that will test your ability to work with number sequences. You will be presented with a sequence of numbers and will have to determine what the next number in the sequence will be.
This section consists of 25 questions that will test your abstract and logical reasoning abilities, and more specifically, your ability to work with matrices. You will be presented with a 3×3 matrix with the bottom right square missing, and will have to figure out which of the five choices best completes the matrix. You will have to find the pattern in the matrix, both across the rows and down the columns, to determine which choice is correct.
Free Harver Assessment Practice Resources
There’s a lot more out there to help you be prepared for your Harver Assessment, from helpful information directly from their website to a variety of practice materials from around the web. Find more information about the Harver Cognitive Abilities Test at these helpful links:
How Is Your Score Calculated?
As with any pre-employment assessment, your performance is benchmarked (norm-referenced) with a certain population of employees. In the case of Harver’s Cognitive Ability Test, there are two configurations:
- Medium: questions and norming group are configured for secondary vocational level.
- High: questions and norming group are configured for higher vocational & academic level.
The total norm-referenced score on the Cognitive Ability Test gives an indication of your general cognitive ability compared to the group configuration your employer decided on.
level.
The employer will receive a graphical representation of your performace which looks like this:
What we see in the above example, is that the candidate scored 29% in the Medium norm group (secondary vocational level). We can also see that they scored 32% on the numerical section (black) , 33% in the spatial section (light blue), and 24% in the logical section.