Learner worksheet
Each item describes a workplace situation and four responses that a reasonable person might choose. Pick the one you would rate most effective, then read the explanation. It names the principle behind the best answer and shows what the most tempting alternative costs. Nothing here is timed or scored against a norm.
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.
Reading the situation before acting
Warm up on the first decision in every scenario: what do you actually know, and who needs to know it before anything can be fixed?
1. situational-judgement-applied-s01-q01
You have taken over a report at short notice. One figure in it looks wrong to you, and the report is due tomorrow. What is the most effective response?
- Check the figure against its source, and if it is wrong tell the report's owner what you found and what the corrected figure should be, in time to change it
- Submit it unchanged, since you did not produce that figure
- Quietly change the figure to the value you believe is correct
- Add a footnote saying the figure may be unreliable
Answer:
2. situational-judgement-applied-s01-q02
A colleague has interrupted you several times in team meetings over the past month. It is starting to affect how your contributions are received.
- Interrupt them in the same way so the pattern is balanced out
- Raise it at the start of the next team meeting so everyone hears it
- Say nothing; meetings are short and the work matters more
- Speak to them privately, describe the specific behaviour and the effect it has, and agree how you will both handle it next time
Answer:
3. situational-judgement-applied-s01-q03
You have been assigned a task whose instructions you only partly understand. The person who assigned it is away for two days and the work is needed by the end of the week.
- Start on your best guess; anything wrong can be redone later
- Complete the part you are certain about, write down the specific questions blocking the rest, and put them to the next best-informed person or to the absent colleague
- Wait until they are back so the work is done to the right brief
- Ask a colleague to take the task instead
Answer:
4. situational-judgement-applied-s01-q04
It is Monday. You realise a piece of work promised to a client for Thursday will now not be ready until Monday week.
- Work extra hours to try to catch up, and say nothing unless you fail
- Tell your manager on Thursday, with a complete explanation of what happened
- Tell your manager today with the revised date, the cause, and what you would need to hold the original one
- Ask a colleague to take the work over
Answer:
5. situational-judgement-applied-s01-q05
A new team process has just been introduced. You can see a case where it will produce a worse outcome than the way you worked before.
- Keep using the old process, which you know produces better results
- Follow the new process and say nothing; it was not your decision
- Tell the colleagues around you why the new process will not work
- Follow the new process while recording a concrete example of where it fails, and take that example to whoever owns the process
Answer:
Working with colleagues
Scenarios where the fastest route runs through another person. Watch for options that protect the outcome by damaging the relationship you will need next week.
6. situational-judgement-applied-s02-q01
A teammate's deliverable is two days late and your own task cannot start without it. They have not mentioned it.
- Raise it with your manager straight away to protect the deadline
- Ask them directly what is holding it up and when they expect it, then decide together whether help or escalation is needed
- Keep rearranging your own work around it for as long as it takes
- Do their part yourself without telling them
Answer:
7. situational-judgement-applied-s02-q02
Your team has debated a decision fully and chosen an option you still believe is wrong. You were heard; you did not persuade them.
- Keep making the case at every subsequent meeting until the team reconsiders
- Implement it without enthusiasm so the weakness becomes obvious
- State your objection once for the record, implement the decision properly, and agree what evidence would justify revisiting it
- Implement it and tell others you were overruled
Answer:
8. situational-judgement-applied-s02-q03
A colleague made a mistake that has now been noticed. They ask you to describe it, if asked, as a shared oversight so their appraisal is not affected.
- Decline to misdescribe it, offer to help put the error right, and encourage them to report it themselves
- Agree, since the error was small and they are usually reliable
- Report the request to their manager without telling them
- Say nothing either way and avoid the conversation
Answer:
9. situational-judgement-applied-s02-q04
A new team member is visibly struggling with a task you know well. Your own workload is heavy this week.
- Take the task off them and complete it yourself
- Point them to the documentation and let them work it out
- Leave it; their manager will notice and arrange support
- Book a short, specific slot to walk them through the part they are stuck on, and point them to the reference for the rest
Answer:
10. situational-judgement-applied-s02-q05
In a meeting, a senior colleague credits someone else for a piece of work you led. It is probably an honest mistake.
- Correct it there and then so everyone present hears the right version
- Let it go; the work is done and arguing about credit looks petty
- Note it, then afterwards set out factually who did what to the person concerned and, if needed, to whoever keeps the record
- Raise it as a formal grievance
Answer:
Speaking up and escalating
Harder items, where staying quiet has a cost and escalating badly has one too. Look for the option that keeps the issue moving without spending goodwill you will need.
11. situational-judgement-applied-s03-q01
You discover an error in a data table that was sent to a client yesterday. It changes one of the conclusions.
- Wait to see whether the client notices before raising it
- Correct the internal copy so the record is right from now on
- Mention it to your manager only if the client comes back with a question
- Tell your manager now, with the size of the error, what it changes, and a proposed correction to send the client
Answer:
12. situational-judgement-applied-s03-q02
A supplier whose bid you are currently evaluating offers you two personal tickets to a sporting event.
- Decline, and tell your manager or the procurement lead that the offer was made, so it is on the record
- Accept, and make sure you score the bid strictly on its merits
- Accept, and withdraw from the evaluation panel
- Decline politely and say nothing further about it
Answer:
13. situational-judgement-applied-s03-q03
Someone considerably more senior than you asks you to do something you believe breaches a company policy.
- Do it; they are senior and the accountability is theirs
- Refuse, and leave it there
- Say precisely what concerns you and which policy, ask for the instruction in writing, and use the escalation route if it still stands
- Raise it on an internal discussion channel to see what others think
Answer:
14. situational-judgement-applied-s03-q04
A near-miss happens on your shift. Nobody was hurt, nothing was damaged, and no one else saw it.
- Make a private note of it in case something similar happens again
- Report it through the normal reporting route, because near-misses are the evidence used to remove the hazard before it causes harm
- Mention it informally to a colleague on the same shift
- Do nothing; there was no harm and no damage
Answer:
15. situational-judgement-applied-s03-q05
You escalated a risk to your manager. They considered it and decided not to act. You still believe the risk is real.
- Ask what evidence would change the decision, gather it if you can, and use the next formal route only if the risk is serious and remains unaddressed
- Accept the decision and drop it
- Take it straight to the most senior person you can reach
- Put the same argument to your manager again next week
Answer:
Integrity and follow-through
Finish with the quieter judgements: what you report when nobody would check, and what you do with feedback and with rules you disagree with.
16. situational-judgement-applied-s04-q01
You committed to something you now know you cannot deliver as promised. The person expecting it has planned around it.
- Deliver the part that is finished and describe it as complete
- Say nothing until they ask; they may not need it as soon as they said
- Tell them as soon as you know, with what you can deliver, by when, and what would help
- Explain in detail why circumstances made it impossible
Answer:
17. situational-judgement-applied-s04-q02
You are asked for a status update on work that has barely started, though the deadline is still some way off and you expect to recover.
- Report it as on track, because you still expect to finish on time
- Report the actual position, the reason for it, and how you intend to recover
- Report it as blocked, without specifying by what
- Delay the update until there is more progress to report
Answer:
18. situational-judgement-applied-s04-q03
A required step in a documented process adds twenty minutes to every job and appears to achieve nothing.
- Skip it and see whether anything actually goes wrong
- Skip it only on the days when the workload is heaviest
- Complain about it to colleagues who share the frustration
- Keep following it while finding out what risk it was introduced to control, then propose a change that still controls that risk
Answer:
19. situational-judgement-applied-s04-q04
You receive critical feedback. Part of it lands and is fair; part of it describes something you do not recognise in your own work.
- Act on the part that is accurate, and ask for the specific examples behind the part you do not recognise
- Reject the feedback, since some of it is demonstrably wrong
- Accept all of it without argument so the conversation ends well
- Ask other colleagues privately whether they think it is true
Answer:
20. situational-judgement-applied-s04-q05
A repetitive manual task takes a large share of your week. You are fairly sure it could be automated.
- Carry on; it is part of the role you were hired for
- Measure how long it actually takes, then propose the change with that figure and an estimate of the effort to build it
- Build the automation quietly and start using it
- Stop doing the task and see whether anyone still needs the output
Answer:
Worked explanations
situational-judgement-applied-s01-q01
Checking first turns a suspicion into a fact, and telling the owner leaves the decision with the person accountable for the report while there is still time to act. Quietly correcting it is the tempting alternative because it looks decisive and fixes the number, but it removes the owner's chance to catch an error in your reasoning, and nobody afterwards can tell which figures were changed or why.
situational-judgement-applied-s01-q02
Private, specific, and forward-looking gives the person a realistic chance to change something they may not have noticed. Raising it in the meeting is the strong alternative (it is direct, and the behaviour did happen in public), but an audience turns a correctable habit into a status contest, and the most likely response is defensiveness rather than a different meeting next week.
situational-judgement-applied-s01-q03
This makes real progress on the certain part while converting the vague unease into questions someone can answer in a sentence. Waiting is the plausible safe option and the expensive one: it spends two of the five days you were trusted with, and the questions would still be unanswered on the day they return.
situational-judgement-applied-s01-q04
Told on Monday, the slip is still a choice: someone can add help, cut scope, or reset the client's expectation. Absorbing it privately is the tempting answer because it shows ownership and effort, but it converts a manageable problem into an unavoidable one, and the client hears about it later rather than sooner.
situational-judgement-applied-s01-q05
Complying keeps the team's output consistent while you gather the one thing that can actually change a decision: a real case. Carrying on with the old process is the tempting option because you may well be right, but two processes running silently in parallel make the team's output inconsistent, and the owner never receives the evidence that would have improved the new one.
situational-judgement-applied-s02-q01
One short conversation usually surfaces a blocker somebody else can clear, and it keeps the decision to escalate a joint one. Going to the manager first is the strong alternative because the deadline is real, but it skips the fastest available fix, and it teaches the colleague that a problem with you arrives via their manager.
situational-judgement-applied-s02-q02
Committing to a decision you argued against, with an agreed trigger for review, keeps the team moving and keeps your dissent useful. Continuing to argue is the tempting response, because conviction feels like integrity, but the objection is already on the record, so repeating it stalls the work and spends credibility you will want for the next disagreement.
situational-judgement-applied-s02-q03
You keep your own account accurate, you help with the thing that actually matters, and you leave them the chance to self-report, which is nearly always treated better than being found out. Going straight to their manager is the option that feels most rule-abiding, but it removes that chance without protecting anyone further, and it makes the next colleague less likely to tell you anything.
situational-judgement-applied-s02-q04
A bounded amount of your time unblocks them and leaves them able to do it alone next time, which is the only version of help that scales. Doing it for them is the generous-looking alternative: it fixes today, leaves the gap in place, and hides from their manager that support was needed at all.
situational-judgement-applied-s02-q05
Afterwards and in private you can be precise, and the record, which is what counts at review time, actually gets corrected. Correcting it in the room is the tempting response because the error was public, but it turns a probable oversight into a visible dispute and still leaves the written record untouched.
situational-judgement-applied-s03-q01
The client is currently making decisions on a wrong conclusion, so speed matters more than comfort, and arriving with a proposed correction makes it a five-minute decision rather than a crisis. Fixing the internal copy is the plausible half-measure, it feels like putting things right, but the only copy that matters is the one the client is reading.
situational-judgement-applied-s03-q02
Declining protects your judgement; disclosing protects the procurement, because the organisation can then see whether this supplier makes such offers routinely. Declining quietly is the near-miss and is the one most people choose: you did the right thing personally, but the pattern stays invisible, and if the offer surfaces later your silence is harder to explain than the offer itself.
situational-judgement-applied-s03-q03
Naming the specific policy often resolves it immediately, because most such requests are a misreading rather than an instruction to break a rule; asking for it in writing changes the incentive if it is not. Deferring to seniority is the intuitive answer, but accountability does not transfer upward simply because the instruction came from above, the person who acts is still one of the people who acted.
situational-judgement-applied-s03-q04
A near-miss is a free warning, and it only works if it reaches the people who can change the equipment, the layout, or the procedure. A private note is the well-intentioned alternative, you have recorded it, but it is invisible to everyone with the authority to act, so the hazard is still there on the next shift.
situational-judgement-applied-s03-q05
Asking what would change their mind either produces the missing evidence or tells you the disagreement is about values rather than facts, and it keeps a legitimate route open if the risk is severe. Going over their head is the option that feels proportionate when you believe harm is coming, but the same unchanged argument usually gets the same answer one level up, and you have spent the standing you would need if the risk does escalate.
situational-judgement-applied-s04-q01
The value of the warning falls with every day it is delayed, and offering a partial delivery and a revised date lets them replan rather than simply absorb the news. Leading with the explanation is the natural instinct, but a detailed account of why it happened does not tell the other person what they now have to work with.
situational-judgement-applied-s04-q02
A status report is an input to somebody else's decisions about people and sequencing, so it has to describe the position rather than the forecast. 'On track' is the tempting answer precisely because it may turn out to be true, but it hides the only fact that would let a manager move help now, while moving help is still cheap.
situational-judgement-applied-s04-q03
Most pointless-looking steps are controls for a failure you have not seen yet, so finding out what it guards against is what turns a complaint into a proposal somebody can approve. Skipping it to test the theory is the tempting empiricism, but the experiment only fails when the rare event it prevents finally happens, and by then it is the incident rather than the experiment.
situational-judgement-applied-s04-q04
Splitting the feedback lets you improve on the accurate half immediately and turns the disputed half into something checkable rather than a matter of opinion. Accepting all of it is the option that feels gracious and low-friction, but it leaves an inaccurate characterisation standing in the record and gives you nothing concrete to change.
situational-judgement-applied-s04-q05
A measured number turns 'this is annoying' into a decision with a payback period, which is the form a manager can approve or decline on its merits. Building it quietly is the initiative-flavoured alternative, and it is how organisations acquire undocumented tools that only one person can run, audit, or fix when they are on leave.