BNP Paribas Situational Judgement Test

BNP Paribas looks for employees with an ability to judge and react to certain situations according to their values, logic and principals. Most applicants have to pass a Situational Judgement Test (SJT) before being offered a job, depending on the field and position that they are applying for.

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Ben Hopgood Updated:

About BNP Paribas Situational Judgement Tests

BNP Paribas Group is one of Europes' leading banks, with international reach. It employs over 190,000 people and is active in 73 countries worldwide.

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Situational Judgement Tests are a fair and objective way for BNP Paribas to assess a wide range of applicants, each having different experiences and different qualifications. By analysing the results of a standardised situational judgement test, BNP Paribas are able to quickly see which candidates are suitable for the role and which are not. This sort of information about candidates’ skills is difficult to glean from interviews and qualifications alone, so they use professional psychometric tests.

BNP Paribas Application Process Stages

Stage 1

Online Application

The first step, when applying to BNP Paribas, is to complete an online application. You will be asked to upload your CV and list your skills, experience and extracurricular activities. You will also normally need to complete a Situational Judgement Test.

Stage 2

Online Aptitude Test

Once the application has been received, candidates will be asked to complete ability tests, published by Cut-E. These tests can be, depending on the field you applied to, numerical, verbal or logical.

Stage 3

Interview

Successful applicants will be invited for a competency based interview. Ambition, Creativity, Commitment & Responsiveness are the core competencies that are valued at at BNP Paribas.

Stage 4

Assessment Center

Candidates who are invited to the final stage of the application process - the assessment centre - will complete a combination of the following tasks: a manager presentation, group competency interviews, group exercise and presentations as well as a final individual interview.

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BNP Paribas Situational judgement Test Questions

Like most situational judgement tests, the one used by BNP Paribas looks at how you would handle and respond to typical and rare situations and scenarios that occur in the workplace. The situational judgement test will be assessing your speed and accuracy. The answers are multiple choice and you should try to work quickly within the time limit, but also accurately. Negative marking is unlikely to be used but do not guess answers, as this will show up in your accuracy score. With practice you will become familiar with the type of situational judgement tests used by organisations such as BNP Paribas.

Situational judgement tests and who uses them

Companies are using situational judgement tests more and more in their application process that candidates must go through. A person's score in a situational judgement test is a good indicator of how closely their attitudes and responses to situations mimics those of the company they've applied to. This is important in any sector or position.

BNP Paribas use situational judgement tests as part of their recruitment process to help them select the best candidates for a particular role.

So as a graduate or senior candidate applying for a job at BNP Paribas you might feel like the situational judgement test is an unnecessary hoop to jump through. But you should bear in mind that BNP Paribas are asking you to complete the logical test as much for your own benefit as theirs; if you are not suitable for the role, a psychometric test will usually identify this. Research has shown that psychometric tests, such as those used by BNP Paribas, are a better predictor of job performance than traditional selection metrics such as level of degree achieved.

What you should know before taking your situational judgement test

The situations described in standardised situational judgement tests are ones which applicants can expect to face whilst performing the job they've applied for. The difficult aspect comes with identifying the details in the situation, which would help you to choose the appropriate courses of action to take, quickly and accurately within the time limit. Here are a few examples of the most common situations you can expect in your situational judgement test:

  • Unsatisfied customer
  • Stock-related problems, such as delivery
  • Disagreements between work colleagues

Different types of situational judgement tests

Most questions in most situational judgement tests follow a standard format displaying a passage of text, the question and answer options on screen. These can be arranged differently, but each test will stick to the same layout throughout. The question text may contain extra information which adds to what's given in the sequence of images, this might also be necessary to answer the question correctly. You might have to guess which answer option is the next in the sequence, or which options represents a missing step in the sequence. Lastly, the answer options are almost always multiple choice. Multiple choice answers can vary, however. You may have 2 options to pick from, 4, maybe 5, and these will have to be ranked too. The more answer options to pick from, the slimmer the chances are that you can obtain the correct answer by guessing.

Answered questions

Are these tests suitable for BNP Paribas?

Yes. BNP Paribas use SHL's SJT reasoning tests to assess applicants in the recruitment process. The practice tests we provide have been designed to mimic SHL's style to create an environment similar to the real assessment. This provides you with confidence that the questions you practice with us now are an accurate reflection of the real assessment.

How difficult are your tests?

The same difficulty as real tests. Generally real employer selection tests don't differ that much in terms of difficulty which is why they compare your score against norm groups. Our practice tests are pitched roughly at graduate level, but this means they are actually suitable for preparing for all levels of job: entry; apprentice; graduate; senior; director.

Are they compatible with my Mac / Tablet / Phone?

Yes, and PC, and Linux and smartphone and Android and...everything. Our practice tests will run on all systems and they are responsive so they will work well on tablets and smartphones too!

How many times can I take the tests?

Unlimited. You can take our practice tests as many times as you like; there is no limit. But to be honest, after taking the same test a few times you start to remember the answers, so that’s why we have lots of tests.