How to interpret your verbal aptitude test score

Your verbal aptitude test score is interpreted in ways similar to that of other aptitude tests (verbal and abstract reasoning). Your test score is given as a percentile (out of 100%), as your number of correct answers is compared to a benchmark that includes scores of others at an organisational level and occupation similar to the one you are applying for. For example, if you are applying for a job in commerce and are given a verbal aptitude test to complete, your raw score (or the number of correct answers) is then compared with a large number of scores from people who either work in commerce or have applied for jobs in commerce. This enables employers to learn how good your verbal reasoning skills are in comparison to those of others in the area you have applied for. Though there is no 'passing' score for the verbal aptitude test, companies tend to have a threshold that they expect their candidates to pass.

How you may have a low verbal test score after correctly completing many test questions

As your verbal aptitude test result is calculated relative to that of others, you may find that even if you correctly answered most of the questions in the test, you may still get a low mark (or a low percentile score). How can this happen? Let’s look at the following example. You correctly answered 26 of 30 questions, and you interpret this to be a ‘good result’. However, other people in roles similar to the one you applied for also have very strong verbal reasoning skills and, on average, answered 27 of 30 questions correctly. This means that your ‘good result’ is actually a ‘bad result’ because it’s lower than the average for people who work in a similar job to the one you applied for.