The Wonderlic Personnel Test is a very popular test used by companies, universities, sports organizations, and schools, to test the abilities of an individual in relation to a job role. It is also used to test how they fit into the job role. It assesses cognition and problem-solving, while also testing how well candidates can manage time. It consists of 50 questions to be answered in 12 minutes—what other speed tests do candidates need? The Wonderlic test basically does the job.
However, if you clicked on this article, you were not looking to see practice tests for the Wonderlic exam. What you are really looking to know is what the 50 questions in the Wonderlic test entails. First things first, this is a test with 4 sections that were set to cover math, reasoning, and vocabulary. These sections include: Verbal Reasoning, General Knowledge, Numerical Reasoning, and Abstract Reasoning. Since the questions were set to gauge the cognitive ability of its taker, this is not surprising.
The questions in themselves are not tough; they only require a bit of thinking to come up with answers. However, with only 12 minutes to come up with these answers, the test becomes more challenging. Typically, some of these questions are also time traps. Hence, a test taker who has no idea about this can be trapped on questions 13-15 (for instance) until time is up. Whereas, the next set of questions may end up being far easier and take a less amount of time to answer. Now, let’s see a bit more on the various sections of the question.
The Question Categories
The four different categories are:
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General Knowledge/Facts
This section requires the candidate to show their general knowledge. These are the kind of questions that require the candidate to identify patterns, work on shapes in 2D and 3D, and quickly arrange dates. They also require that the candidate is quick enough to recognize certain facts. Hence, just like the other sections, there must be judicious use of time here.
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Verbal Reasoning
These are questions that help assess the vocabulary of a person, as well as their reasoning. Questions on verbal reasoning include analogy questions, questions to pick out synonyms, anagrams, metaphors, word groups, work with sentence scrambles, and those to compare proverbs. These are the kind of questions a person set to take the Wonderlic test should expect for this section.
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Abstract Reasoning/Logic Questions
These are questions that are focused on logic in every sense of the world. This is achieved by assessing components like deductive thinking. There are also questions around spatial recognition. These questions would help to objectively gauge the logic (and partly, the reasoning) of the candidate being examined. These questions may require you to work on shapes that can come as folded pieces of paper or even tiles.
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Mathematical Word Problems/ Numerical Reasoning
They are easily referred to as “Word Problems”, so do not be surprised that the word problems here actually involve numbers. Typically, the questions here require one to check for ratio, average, as well as percentage. There are also various operations involving decimal points, as well as algebra (which can be called algebraic word problems).
Conclusion
The Wonderlic test can be the only thing standing between you and your dream job, so aiming to score high is non-negotiable. In the end, what really makes many people consider the test to be challenging are the time traps that come in the way of answering the questions. If one master the time tips and tricks for the Wonderlic test, their chances of getting a high score definitely improve.