Learn by Novus · Open practice pack v1

In-tray and e-tray exercises: applied practice: open practice pack: learner worksheet

20 untimed questions across 4 authored sections.

This is untimed educational practice for one applied skill. It is not a clinical, diagnostic, employment, or professionally recognized assessment, it does not produce a score or credential, and for the judgement and safety families it is not a substitute for your employer's own policies, training, or legal duties.

Learner worksheet

Each item describes what is sitting in your tray and asks what you would do. Choose the most effective response, then read the explanation. It names the triage principle and shows what the most tempting alternative costs. Nothing here is timed; a real exercise adds a clock, but the reasoning is the part worth practising.

Choose one answer for each item. On a judgement item, more than one option is often defensible. Pick the one you would rate most effective, then check the worked explanation for why the runner-up is weaker.

Triage: what to deal with first

Warm up on ordering. Look for the item whose option disappears, not the item that shouts loudest.

1. in-tray-applied-s01-q01

You have thirty minutes before a meeting. Your tray holds: a supplier asking you to confirm a delivery slot by noon today or lose it; a colleague wanting feedback on a draft due Friday; an all-staff notice about parking; and a customer complaint received yesterday with no stated deadline.

  1. Confirm the delivery slot, because it is the only item whose option disappears today
  2. Answer the customer complaint, because it has waited longest
  3. Give the draft feedback, because a colleague is blocked on you
  4. Read the all-staff notice first, in case it changes the other items

Answer:

2. in-tray-applied-s01-q02

One email is marked URGENT and states no deadline. Another, unmarked, asks for something needed for a meeting in two hours.

  1. Deal with the one marked urgent; the sender has told you it matters
  2. Work on both in parallel
  3. Reply to the urgent one asking what the deadline is, then start the other
  4. Deal with the two-hour item; a sender's flag describes their priority, not the actual deadline

Answer:

3. in-tray-applied-s01-q03

A message in your tray can be dealt with completely in about two minutes. Several substantial pieces of work are also waiting.

  1. Always start with the substantial work; small items can always wait
  2. Clear it now if it releases somebody else or removes a deadline; otherwise schedule it with the rest
  3. Always clear anything that takes under two minutes as soon as you see it
  4. Batch every small item to the end of the day

Answer:

4. in-tray-applied-s01-q04

Reading through your tray you notice two separate messages, from two different people, that are really about the same underlying problem.

  1. Answer each of them separately, as each was sent
  2. Answer the more senior of the two and let the answer filter down
  3. Answer them together with one consistent account, and tell each of them that the other is involved
  4. Wait for the two of them to discover each other

Answer:

5. in-tray-applied-s01-q05

An item arrives in your tray that plainly belongs to another team.

  1. Deal with it yourself to save the sender the trouble
  2. Delete it; it is not yours
  3. Reply to the sender explaining that it is not your area
  4. Forward it to the right owner, tell the sender who now has it and why, and keep a note until you see it acknowledged

Answer:

Deadlines, dependencies, and delegation

Order work by slack and by what it unblocks, not simply by the nearest date. Notice which items other work is waiting on.

6. in-tray-applied-s02-q01

Task A needs three days of work and is due in four. Task B needs one day and is due in two. Task C needs one day, is due in six, and cannot start until A is finished. What do you start now?

  1. B, because it has the nearest deadline
  2. A, because it has the least slack relative to its length and C cannot start until it is done
  3. C, to get the dependency out of the way early
  4. Split the time evenly across all three

Answer:

7. in-tray-applied-s02-q02

You can hand exactly one of four items to a capable colleague. Which should it be?

  1. The one you least enjoy doing
  2. The one that only you have the background to do
  3. The one with a clear, checkable output that they already have the information to produce
  4. The most urgent one, to get the pressure off your own list

Answer:

8. in-tray-applied-s02-q03

A meeting invitation lands on the only remaining slot in which you can finish something due that same day.

  1. Say you cannot attend, explain why, ask what input is needed, and offer it in writing or attend only for the part that concerns you
  2. Attend, and let the deliverable slip
  3. Decline without explanation
  4. Attend, and work on the deliverable during the meeting

Answer:

9. in-tray-applied-s02-q04

A request arrives with no deadline stated at all.

  1. Assume it is urgent and do it now
  2. Assume it is not urgent and put it at the back of the queue
  3. Tell them you will get to it when you have time
  4. Ask when it is needed by and what it is for, then schedule it and say when it will be done

Answer:

10. in-tray-applied-s02-q05

Adding up the week's commitments, you can see that they exceed the time available. Nothing has slipped yet.

  1. Work longer hours to absorb the overload
  2. Do everything, to a lower standard
  3. List the commitments with their deadlines, agree with whoever owns the priorities what moves, and confirm the revised plan
  4. Let the least important item slip without raising it

Answer:

Stakeholders and competing demands

Harder items, where two reasonable people both want your next hour. Decide on consequence, and make the decision visible.

11. in-tray-applied-s03-q01

Two colleagues at the same level each need something from you today, and each has told you theirs is the priority.

  1. Deal with whoever asked first
  2. Deal with the one you work with most closely
  3. Do part of each so neither is left with nothing
  4. Tell both what you can do today, ask each what happens if theirs waits until tomorrow, and decide on the consequences

Answer:

12. in-tray-applied-s03-q02

A senior stakeholder emails you directly asking you to drop your current priority for theirs, without involving your manager.

  1. Acknowledge it, say what it would displace, and confirm with your manager before changing the plan
  2. Reprioritise as asked; they are considerably more senior
  3. Decline, and tell them to take it up with your manager
  4. Reprioritise now and tell your manager at the next catch-up

Answer:

13. in-tray-applied-s03-q03

You have to turn down a request from a colleague whose help you are likely to need next month.

  1. Agree to it and deliver late, which is softer than refusing
  2. Decline without giving a reason
  3. Decline the specific request, say what you could do instead or when you could do it, and be exact about both
  4. Say you will try, and leave it open

Answer:

14. in-tray-applied-s03-q04

An angry escalation email arrives about your team's work, copied to four other people. Some of its claims look wrong to you.

  1. Reply to all immediately with the facts as you understand them
  2. Establish the facts first, then reply to the sender with the correction and a plan, copying the same people once
  3. Reply privately to the sender and leave the copied group as they are
  4. Leave it for your manager to answer

Answer:

15. in-tray-applied-s03-q05

A stakeholder keeps adding small extras to a piece of work whose scope you agreed a fortnight ago.

  1. Treat each addition as a change: state its effect on the date or on what gets dropped, and get that confirmed
  2. Refuse any change to the agreed scope
  3. Absorb the extras; individually they are all small
  4. Escalate the behaviour to their manager

Answer:

Replies that close the loop

Finish on what you send back. A reply that does not say who does what by when creates another item in somebody's tray.

16. in-tray-applied-s04-q01

What should a reply intended to close an exchange contain?

  1. All the relevant background, so the reader can reach their own conclusion
  2. An apology for the delay and an assurance that it is in hand
  3. The answer or decision, what happens next, who does it, and by when
  4. A clarifying question, so you do not answer the wrong thing

Answer:

17. in-tray-applied-s04-q02

Answering one question properly needs information from four different people.

  1. Email all four asking for anything they have on the topic
  2. Ask each one the specific question only they can answer, with the deadline and why it is needed
  3. Ask the most senior of the four to collect it from the others
  4. Raise it in a group thread so everyone can see the whole picture

Answer:

18. in-tray-applied-s04-q03

A twenty-message email chain is still running, and a new person needs to join it.

  1. Forward the whole chain so they have everything
  2. Bring them up to speed verbally when you next see them
  3. Ask them to read through it before contributing
  4. Send a short summary of what has been settled, what decision is outstanding, and the specific question for them, with the chain attached for reference

Answer:

19. in-tray-applied-s04-q04

You are away for a week and several items in your tray are live.

  1. Hand each live item to a named person with its current state and deadline, and say in your absence message who to contact for what
  2. Set an out-of-office message giving your return date
  3. Try to clear everything before you leave
  4. Check your email each morning while you are away

Answer:

20. in-tray-applied-s04-q05

You discover that a figure you sent out yesterday was wrong. Several people have it and at least one is already using it.

  1. Correct it in the next regular update, which is due on Friday
  2. Send a correction now to exactly the people who received the original, saying plainly what was wrong and what the right figure is
  3. Correct it privately with the person you know is using it
  4. Say nothing; the difference is small

Answer: