The Watson Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal is a verbal ability test and considered to be the industry standard measure of critical thinking ability.
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As businesses look for new ways to engage, develop, and innovate for the future, employees who demonstrate good critical thinking skills are sought after. But what is critical thinking ability and why are organisations keen to assess candidates for this skill, as part of their recruitment processes?
Critical Thinking is the ability to look at a situation and clearly understand it from multiple perspectives whilst separating facts from opinions and assumptions; helping a person to reach the right, rational decisions. It is recognised by the World Economic Forum as a key 21st Century skill and is a job requirement for many roles.
Many organisations now expect staff to be competent in four core skills or the Four Cs:
Critical Thinking is seen as the raw material that underpins a number of core skills and competencies.
Both problem solving and critical thinking are cognitive abilities, they are governed by how you think and reason. However, critical thinking is also linked to behaviour and by changing or modifying this we are able to develop our ability to evaluate information and make decisions.
Research supports the fact that Critical Thinking is an excellent predictor of job performance, making the difference between a good leader and an excellent leader. Assessing critical thinking ability can help employers from a recruitment and development perspective.
The Watson Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal published by Pearson TalentLens, is the industry standard used by businesses for more than 40 years to measure the critical thinking and verbal critical reasoning skills of job applicants and employees.
Critical thinking involves both cognitive (thinking and reasoning) skills as well as behavioural tendencies and biases. As such it is often difficult to discern Critical Thinking skills through a resume or job interview, and many employers choose to use psychometric assessments as part of their recruitment process, to help them evaluate candidates.
One of the most widely used psychometric assessments is the Watson-Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal, from Pearson TalentLens. The Watson-Glaser Critical Thinking Test offers a hard-skills appraisal and detailed test, used primarily in the context of recruitment to measure critical thinking ability levels in job, university, and business school applicants.
Each Watson-Glaser test is composed of scenarios similar to those typically found in a variety of settings, including the workplace, the school, and other organisational settings. Other organisations use the Watson Glaser critical thinking assessment and resulting Development Report to identify where an individual’s strengths and development areas lie and provide suggestions for coaching activities and exercises.
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One of the most established and reputable global tests, the Watson Glaser™ Critical Thinking Appraisal is designed to be a quick, consistent, and accurate measure of the ability to: Analyse, reason, interpret and draw logical conclusions from written information.
The test is suitable for appraising adults (16 years and above), and has been revised and improved many times since its launch several decades ago.
The Watson-Glaser test has five scales that are the building blocks of critical thinking and reasoning. The questions are of varying difficulty and format to measure all areas of critical thinking ability.
The five subtests, listed here, require different, though interdependent, applications of analytical reasoning in a verbal context.
Once the WG-III test is completed, the report depicts an overall percentile score as well as scores in three individual areas, – the RED model – (infer, deduce and interpret scores are combined into Draw Conclusions).
Research also demonstrates a correlation of Watson-Glaser test scores with creative thinking ability.
Explore the format of the Watson-Glaser by completing a free practice Critical Thinking Test.
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Join the thousands of global businesses that use Watson Glaser as part of their recruitment and development processes. Complete the following form to:
Students and candidates are invited to complete a practice Critical Thinking Test.
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TalentLens is part of Pearson PLC, the world’s learning company and global market leader in assessments. We are an international talent assessment business. Using psychometric tests to help organisations select and develop top performers and high potential.
Supported by over 70 years of research, our psychometric tests, such as the Watson Glaser test, are used by hundreds of companies around the world for their employee recruitment and development projects. As experts from the business world, our primary objective is to provide you with ongoing assistance to review your practices, understand and define your needs, and support you in choosing and using our assessment solutions.
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