A&O Shearman says its online assessment is untimed and takes about 45 minutes. Know the four ingredients

A&O Shearman says its London online experience includes situational judgement questions, verbal and numerical reasoning items and two short video answers, all untimed and around 45 minutes. Our reasoning test covers the verbal and numerical items, with tables, charts and passages.

A&O Shearman describes its assessment as untimed, while ours is timed, and the situational judgement and video parts have no counterpart in our test. The firm does not say how many reasoning items there are or how they are scored. Treat our test as a skills check, not a replica.

A&O Shearman puts its early screening into one online experience. Inside it you meet situational judgement questions, verbal reasoning items, numerical reasoning items and two short motivation questions that you answer on video. The firm says the experience is untimed and should take around 45 minutes.

Four ingredients, one sitting. That means the preparation is four small jobs rather than one big one: judgement, reading, numbers and speaking to a camera.

When a firm says an assessment is untimed, candidates relax. But 45 minutes of attention is still 45 minutes, and the time you take on each item is likely to be measured even if it is not limited. The pages we read do not say whether speed counts.

Behave as if it does. Move at an unforced pace, avoid long pauses on single items and do not leave the page. The best preparation for a long, untimed task is to do a long, timed one first: try our 45-minute reasoning test once and note whether your attention drifts in the last third.

A&O Shearman does not say how many reasoning items there are. Both skills are ones you can improve in a fortnight. For numerical items, read tables and charts, then work with percentages and ratios. For verbal items, read the passage once and decide on the evidence, not on what seems reasonable.

Use the numerical reasoning questions and verbal reasoning questions pages, which show the method for each. Then run the free test above to see where you are.

The A&O Shearman careers site warns that a number of websites purport to provide free samples of its application forms and assessment materials, and tells candidates to be cautious. We take that seriously. Our practice test does not claim to contain the firm's items, and no one outside the firm can know them.

The firm's own pages point to tips on situational judgement tests and to a practice test. Start there, and use us only for general practice of the underlying skills.

For the March 2028 London intake the firm gives an application window of 1 September to 5 October 2026 and assessment days in the week of 9 November 2026. The window had closed when we checked, so the next relevant round is a later cycle.

The London entry criteria ask for AAB (136 UCAS points) or equivalent at A-level and on track for or achieved a 2:1. Check the current page before you plan, because windows move from year to year. Our law firm assessment guide compares the process with other firms.