Updated April 2026 · 13 min read · UK psychometric provider · Adaptive testing
| Provider | Korn Ferry (acquired Talent Q in 2014) |
|---|---|
| Headquarters | Los Angeles, USA (with Talent Q UK operations) |
| Test families | Elements (adaptive), Aspects (non-adaptive), Drives (motivation), Dimensions (personality) |
| Format | Adaptive item-response, ~12-15 min per cognitive test |
| Used by | Bank of England, Allianz, KPMG, Mott MacDonald, Standard Chartered, Capgemini |
| Defining feature | Adaptive difficulty — questions get harder as you answer correctly |
Korn Ferry's cognitive assessments (originally branded Talent Q before the 2014 acquisition) are best known for their adaptive testing engine. Unlike SHL Verify G+ or Cut-e scales which give every candidate the same questions, Korn Ferry's Elements suite calibrates each question to your demonstrated ability level. Answer correctly and the next question gets harder; answer wrongly and it gets easier. The result is a more precise ability estimate from fewer questions.
Korn Ferry runs two parallel cognitive families. Your invitation email will name the specific test.
The premium adaptive suite. Three tests: Elements Numerical, Elements Verbal, Elements Logical. Each contains roughly 12 questions that adapt to your performance. Time per question varies but typically 60-75 seconds. Used for senior roles, leadership pipelines, and competitive graduate schemes.
Designed for high-volume screening. Three tests: Aspects Numerical, Aspects Verbal, Aspects Inductive. Fixed difficulty, fewer questions (typically 12-15), tighter timer. Often used for early-stage screening at large employers.
The personality questionnaire bundled with Aspects. Forced-choice format — you rank statements rather than rate on a scale. Designed to reduce socially-desirable answering.
You receive a short scenario (a sales report, a procurement contract, a logistics summary) with embedded data — a chart, table, or set of figures. Each question asks for a calculated answer based on the data. Common operations: percentage change, weighted averages, ratio comparisons, currency conversion, growth rate calculation.
The adaptive engine adjusts in two dimensions: difficulty (harder calculations, more steps) and complexity (more data, more distractors). A candidate scoring at the 90th percentile sees questions with multi-step compound calculations across two charts; a candidate at the 50th percentile sees direct lookup-and-calculate questions.
True / False / Cannot Say format on a short business passage. The adaptive engine introduces longer passages, more nuanced statements, and more "Cannot Say" trap statements as you score higher. The most common mistake is selecting "False" when the passage simply doesn't address the topic — that's "Cannot Say." False requires direct contradiction.
Sequence and pattern recognition with shapes. Identify the rule governing a sequence, then select the next item from five options. Patterns include rotation, reflection, addition/removal, and combination rules. As you progress, sequences become longer (4-5 visible elements rather than 3) and rules combine multiple operations.
Because Elements is adaptive, your score is an item-response-theory ability estimate, not a raw count. Two candidates can answer the same number of questions correctly and receive different scores depending on which questions they answered correctly. Hard-question correct answers count more.
Reports use sten scores (1-10 with 5.5 average) or percentiles. Most graduate cutoffs are at sten 7+ or 70th percentile.
| Employer | Typical cutoff |
|---|---|
| Bank of England graduate scheme | ~75th percentile |
| Standard Chartered analyst | ~70th percentile |
| Allianz commercial graduate | ~65th percentile |
| Strategy / consulting roles | 80th+ percentile |
Bank of England, Allianz, KPMG (some regions), Standard Chartered, Capgemini, Mott MacDonald, Aviva, Centrica, Network Rail, Aon. The mix is heaviest in UK financial services, infrastructure, and energy.
Practice on adaptive platforms specifically. Adaptive tests feel different from fixed tests. The first 2-3 questions are calibration — they're medium difficulty regardless of who you are. After that, the difficulty curve accelerates. Practising on fixed tests doesn't prepare you for the rapid difficulty escalation.
Don't gamble on early questions. Early questions weigh disproportionately because they determine the entry difficulty for subsequent items. Take 5-10 extra seconds on questions 1-3 to be sure.
Skip strategy is different. On Elements, skipping has a complex impact on the adaptive engine. Default to attempting every question — the engine handles wrong answers more gracefully than skips.
For Aspects (non-adaptive), the standard rules apply: pace yourself, never leave blanks, eliminate two options if you don't know.
TestSolve handles all three Elements and Aspects formats. The adaptive nature is invisible from a candidate-input perspective — each question still has one correct answer, and TestSolve identifies and solves it like any other. Press F8, get the answer on your phone in 4-6 seconds. Current accuracy: Elements/Aspects Numerical 94%, Verbal 96%, Logical/Inductive 76%. Try free with 3 captures.
Related: SHL test guide, Cubiks/Talogy guide, KPMG assessment.
TestSolve delivers AI-powered answers to your phone in seconds. Invisible to all test platforms.
Try a free solve Buy question packagesNumerical reasoning on Korn Ferry tests is almost always table-based: two or three small tables of financial, sales, or operational data, followed by a question that requires a multi-step calculation and a unit conversion.
Q. A retail chain sells three product lines. Units sold last quarter were 660 (Line A), 1,140 (Line B) and 310 (Line C). Average selling price was £1.00, £1.00 and £1.00 respectively. Total revenue to the nearest £ was:
A) £1,780 B) £1,950 C) £2,048 D) £2,110
A. Sum the units: 660 + 1,140 + 310 = 2,110. Answer: D.
The actual Korn Ferry question adds distractors: prices in pence rather than pounds, mixed currencies, unit ambiguity (per pack vs per item). Candidates who rush the unit check pick C or B despite nailing the arithmetic.
Standard Korn Ferry Verify numerical assessments give 18 questions in 18 minutes — about 60 seconds per question. That sounds generous but each question has 3–5 numbers to read, a calculation (often multi-step), and a unit conversion.
If you're past 75 seconds and still unsure, flag and move on — you can't recover four lost minutes from one stubborn question.