Situational Judgement Test (SJT): How to Prepare and Pass

A situational judgement test presents you with a series of hypothetical but realistic workplace scenarios. For each scenario, you are given several possible courses of action and asked to identify the most and least effective responses - or to rank all options from best to worst.

SJTs do not test legal knowledge. Instead, they measure the behavioural competencies that law firms consider essential for trainees: client focus, commercial awareness, teamwork, integrity and communication.

Most SJTs used in legal recruitment are designed by providers such as Cappfinity, SHL or the firm's own in-house psychometric team. The scenarios are tailored to situations a junior lawyer might face, such as managing competing deadlines, handling confidential information or navigating a disagreement with a colleague.

SJTs are increasingly common across the legal sector. The following firms are among those known to include an SJT as part of their training contract application process:

Firms update their processes regularly, so always check the specific application guidance on each firm's careers page before applying. Some firms label the assessment a "situational strengths test" or "behavioural assessment" rather than SJT, but the format is fundamentally the same.

Understanding the question format is half the battle. Here is a typical SJT scenario you might encounter:

Scenario: You are a trainee solicitor working on a deal that is due to complete on Friday. On Wednesday afternoon, a partner from a different team asks you to help draft a client memo urgently, saying it will take roughly three hours. Your supervising partner has not mentioned any flexibility on the Friday deadline.

Options: - A) Agree to help immediately and work late to catch up on your own deal. - B) Explain that you have a Friday deadline and suggest the partner ask another trainee who may be less busy. - C) Agree to help but first speak to your supervising partner to flag the potential conflict and ask how to prioritise. - D) Decline the request, explaining that your current deal takes priority.

The ideal response here is C. It demonstrates initiative (you are willing to help), communication (you flag the issue proactively) and professionalism (you seek guidance rather than making assumptions about priorities). Option A shows willingness but poor communication. Option B passes the problem to someone else without engaging. Option D is too rigid.

In a ranking-style SJT, you would order all four from most to least effective. Partial credit scoring means ranking C first and A second still earns you most of the available marks, even if you reverse B and D.

SJTs are not about trick answers - they reward the response a well-rounded professional would give. Keep these strategies in mind:

1. Communicate before acting. The best answer almost always involves speaking to the relevant person (your supervisor, the client, or a colleague) before making a unilateral decision. Firms value trainees who flag problems early.

2. Avoid extremes. Options that involve ignoring a problem entirely or escalating aggressively to senior management are rarely the best response. Look for the balanced middle ground.

3. Think about all stakeholders. Consider the impact on clients, colleagues and the firm. The ideal response protects the client's interests while maintaining good working relationships.

4. Apply the "front page" test. If the action would look inappropriate on the front page of a newspaper, it is probably not the right answer. Integrity and confidentiality are highly valued.

5. Do not overthink. SJTs are designed to be answered relatively quickly. Your instinctive professional judgement is often correct. If you find yourself agonising, go with the option that involves open communication and measured action.

6. Read every option before deciding. Some responses look good in isolation but are clearly second-best once you see all the alternatives. Always read the full set before ranking.

Unlike verbal or numerical reasoning tests, you cannot revise factual content for an SJT. However, structured preparation makes a genuine difference to your score.

Practise with realistic scenarios. The more scenarios you work through, the faster you recognise the patterns that underpin good answers. Free and paid practice resources include:

• AssessmentDay - free SJT practice tests with worked explanations
• JobTestPrep - paid SJT question packs tailored to legal recruitment
• Cappfinity practice portal - some firms provide direct links to practice versions of their actual test
• SHL sample tests - available on the SHL website if the firm uses SHL as its provider
• Your Legal Ladder question bank - SJT-style questions mapped to law firm competency frameworks

Study the firm's competency framework. Most firms publish the qualities they look for in trainees (e.g. "commercial thinking", "teamwork", "resilience"). Read these before sitting the test - they tell you exactly what the SJT is designed to measure.

Review the SRA Principles. The Solicitors Regulation Authority's seven Principles (integrity, independence, best interests of clients, etc.) underpin many SJT scenarios in legal recruitment. Familiarise yourself with them.

Debrief your practice attempts. After each practice test, review the explanations for every question - including the ones you got right. Understanding why an answer is best embeds the reasoning for next time.

Candidates lose marks on SJTs for predictable reasons. Avoid these pitfalls:

• Choosing the heroic option. Staying until midnight to do everything yourself sounds impressive but ignores communication, delegation and realistic workload management. Firms want trainees who manage expectations, not martyrs.
• Being too passive. Options that involve doing nothing, waiting to see what happens or hoping someone else will sort the problem are almost always ranked lowest.
• Ignoring confidentiality. If a scenario involves sensitive client or firm information, any response that risks disclosure to the wrong person is a poor answer - even if it is otherwise helpful.
• Applying personal preferences. SJTs assess professional judgement, not personality. The question is not "what would you do?" but "what is the most effective professional response?" Separate your personal instincts from the competency framework.
• Rushing the scenario. Misreading a detail in the scenario - who asked the question, what the deadline is, whether the client has been informed - leads to choosing an answer that is technically correct for a different situation.
• Changing answers repeatedly. Research on SJTs consistently shows that first-instinct answers are more often correct than changed answers. Unless you spot a clear misread, trust your initial ranking.