The Civil Service tests have no timer. Here is how to use that

The Civil Service verbal test is a passage followed by a True, False or Cannot say statement, and its numerical test is a table or graph followed by a multiple-choice question. Our reasoning test is built from the same two kinds of question, so the reading and data skills transfer directly.

The Civil Service tests have no time limit and adapt to your answers; our practice test runs on a 45-minute clock and every candidate sees the same questions. Use ours to build speed and accuracy, then use the free practice versions on GOV.UK to learn how the real interface behaves. Neither covers the Judgement test.

Most employer reasoning tests are a race. The Civil Service verbal and numerical tests, according to the candidate guide, are not. That moves the pressure rather than removing it. You cannot skip a question, and you cannot go back to change one, so the only way to protect your score is to get each answer right the first time.

That suits a particular habit: read the whole passage before you look at the statement, find the line that settles it, and only then answer. Candidates who rush an untimed test are throwing away the one advantage it gives them.

It also means your practice should look different from practice for a speed test. A timed set is still useful, because it forces you to find the deciding sentence quickly and trains you to read tables without panic. But the habit you are really building is care. After each practice question, write down in one line why the answer was right. If you cannot, you guessed, and the real test will find that out.

The candidate guide says the verbal and numerical tests give harder questions after a correct answer and easier ones after a wrong answer. Two things follow, and both are worth knowing before you start.

First, a run of difficult questions is not a sign you are failing. If the guide is right, it is what getting things right looks like. Second, it makes the first answer the only answer, which is why the guide advises treating each one as your best.

We have not found a published description of exactly how the score is calculated, so do not trust anyone who tells you how many questions you can afford to miss. What GOV.UK does say is that your result is shown as a percentile, meaning how you performed relative to a comparison group.

The verbal test trips people who know the subject. Here is a made-up passage to show the discipline it asks for. It is not from the Civil Service.

Passage: "The library opened a weekend reading club in March. Forty people joined in the first month. The club meets in the main hall, which seats sixty." Statement: "The reading club has grown since March." The right answer is Cannot say. The passage tells you forty people joined in the first month. It does not say what happened after.

The pull to answer True is strong because it sounds plausible. The test is asking only what the passage supports. When you catch yourself reasoning from what is likely, stop and ask which sentence you could point to. Our verbal reasoning questions page works through this method one statement at a time.

A calculator takes arithmetic off the table and leaves the harder part: working out what is being asked. Most lost marks in this kind of test come from using the wrong row, the wrong year or the wrong unit, not from bad sums.

• Say the question in your own words before you touch the table: "total for region B across all years, as a share of the grand total."
• Read the units on every axis and column heading. Thousands against millions is the classic slip.
• For a percentage change, divide the change by the starting figure, not the finishing one.
• Because charts also arrive as tables, you can copy the figures you need onto paper and cross them off as you use them.
• Check the answer is the right order of magnitude before you commit. A 12 percent rise cannot take 400 to 4,000.

Evening one: take the free test above in full and note which half cost you points, the numerical questions or the verbal ones. Evening two: do GOV.UK's practice versions of the real tests so the interface is familiar, then drill your weaker half. Evening three: a short mixed set from our numerical reasoning questions, then stop. A rested head matters more than a fourth session.

Our guide to how to pass reasoning tests covers the formulas worth having at your fingertips for the numerical test.

GOV.UK says reasonable adjustments are available for the online tests, including paper-based alternatives for the verbal and numerical tests. Its guidance asks you to request them at least two working days before the deadline, so ask early rather than the night before.

The candidate guide also gives the technical rules: if you are inactive for more than 25 minutes the test times out, and you can close the browser and reopen the test where you left off twice after starting. Start somewhere quiet with a stable connection and keep a charger handy.

These come from anonymous reviews, university careers pages and prep guides. They often disagree, and Civil Service has not confirmed them. Read them as leads, not rules.

• Commercial prep sites report that Fast Stream candidates sit SHL-style verbal and numerical tests online, but the 2016 GOV.UK announcement said the online stage moved to situational judgement tests, with the reasoning tests later in the process. We could not settle this from a current GOV.UK page, so read your Fast Stream invitation.
• A university careers page lists work style questionnaires, multimedia situational judgement questionnaires and a numerical test for Fast Stream applicants, and points candidates to the numerical practice material on GOV.UK.