Grant Thornton tells you not to prepare for its first test. Prepare for the second one instead

Grant Thornton's second stage is a written case study in which you review data and write a short report. The data-reading half is the skill our reasoning test trains with tables and charts, and the verbal half rewards careful reading of a passage.

The first stage is a short Neurosight assessment that Grant Thornton says you should not prepare for in the usual way, and our test does not replicate it. We also cannot rehearse the writing in the case study. Use our test for the data-reading muscle only.

Most employers say little about their first online test. Grant Thornton says the Neurosight assessment typically takes less than five minutes, was designed to be free of bias, and should not be prepared for in the usual way. The firm tells candidates to go in with an open mind and trust their instincts rather than overthink.

That advice deserves to be taken at face value. If a drill cannot help you, the only controllable things are the conditions: a quiet room, a device that works, and no rush before it starts. Spend the saved preparation time on stage two.

The second stage takes about twenty minutes on a computer or laptop. You review data, then write a mini report. That is two skills in one sitting: reading numbers accurately, then turning them into a short written judgement.

Grant Thornton recommends using its own practice assessment and top tips guide, and you should do that first. Our reasoning test is a complement: its first half is tables and charts, so it builds speed on the data-reading half.

A multiple-choice question asks for one number. A report asks what the numbers mean. After each table in our practice test, ask yourself the extra question: if I had to say one sentence about this to a partner, what would it be? That habit is the bridge between a reasoning test and a case study.

A good mini report is short. It states the main finding first, backs it with two figures, flags one limit or risk, and ends with a recommendation or next step. Three short paragraphs beat one long one.

With about twenty minutes in total, you cannot read slowly and write slowly. A workable split is to spend roughly the first third looking at the data and making notes, the middle third drafting, and the last few minutes checking that every figure you quote matches the source.

Practise once on any public dataset: a table of local statistics or a company results summary. Time yourself, write the three paragraphs, then look for the most common slip, which is quoting a number correctly but drawing a conclusion the table does not support.

The firm's FAQs say it does not base decisions on one test and instead weighs performance across its full assessment process. That is reassuring about a bad five minutes, and it is also a reason not to coast on the later stages.

If you need adjustments, such as extra time or a different format, Grant Thornton says you can request them at any stage. Do it before the stage in question rather than after.