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In-Tray Exercises
Psychometric Success

Version 2.1
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Introduction
The in-tray exercise is a major component of most assessment centres because of the variety of skills, knowledge and attitudes that can be tested. It is vital that you practice this exercise to improve your chances of achieving a maximum score. With practice, you can learn to see which specific in-tray items are testing which of your skills and learn how best to respond to the problems and issues they raise. Remember, if you have not practiced an in-tray exercise before it is easy to be overwhelmed by the amount of material you are expected to work through in the time available. At the very least you should practice working through items and classifying them according to their urgency and importance. You will invariably find that there are one or two ‘major issues’ hidden among the intray items and if you miss these you will struggle to remain a credible candidate. The reason that the in-tray exercise is so widely used is that it allows the assessors to see how candidates actually behave during the exercise. This is fundamentally different to an interview in which candidates are predominantly judged on what they say. The behaviour shown during the intray exercise will then be compared to the key behavioural criteria which have been specified for that role. Always remember that in-tray exercises are designed to judge how well you exhibit the required behaviours of the job you are applying for. This is by assessing to what extent you are able to: Exhibit the correct level of knowledge, Display the right type of skills, and Demonstrate the attitudes of the role. Within the human resources industry these are commonly abbreviated to KSA's – Knowledge, Skills and Attitudes. As a candidate, you can't afford to leave anything to