One of the best ways to prepare for the TSA is to know what kind of questions you might face. Here, we’ll be taking a look at the two main types of question.
The Question Types of the Thinking Skills Assessment – Thinking Skills Assessment Question Types
The types of question in the TSA fall into the following main categories:
- Critical thinking/comprehension;
- Numerical reasoning/mathematical problem-solving;
- Non-verbal/spatial reasoning.
Let’s take a look at these general categories in more detail.
Critical Thinking Questions – Thinking Skills Assessment Question Types
Critical thinking questions in the TSA test your ability to think critically and evaluate a body of text. In these questions, you’ll often be asked to analyse or evaluate an argument or discussion. The passages aren’t especially long. They’re usually between 5 and 10 lines long. However, they are are dense with information. These questions are extremely common in the TSA. They usually contribute a significant chunk of the questions to the overall test.
Numerical reasoning or mathematical problem-solving questions ask you to solve a mathematical problem. These questions are almost always scenario-based, so you will need to carefully read the passage and/or images, find the relevant mathematical information, and then answer the question. While you won’t need to do any advanced maths, these questions can be quite complicated and need to be followed carefully.
Non-Verbal Reasoning Questions – Thinking Skills Assessment Question Types
Non-verbal or spatial reasoning questions will examine your ability to think both laterally and logically about physical objects, patterns, and three-dimensional space. This question type can manifest in a range of ways. Some questions will require you to use spatial reasoning to solve cube-net puzzles, whilst others will have you spotting and matching patterns. While these questions are less common than the numerical and verbal reasoning questions, they still appear frequently enough for them to be worth preparing as much as possible for.
If you’re interested in more TSA test tips, advice, guidance, and practice questions, check out our guide: TSA Test Practice Papers.
