Hogan Lovells names the Watson-Glaser, and its 2027 vacation schemes close on 10 December

Hogan Lovells says it uses the Watson-Glaser Critical Thinking Test to assess analytical and reasoning ability. Our reasoning test trains the careful verbal reading that test rewards: deciding whether a statement follows strictly from a passage, without help from what you already know.

Our questions are not Watson-Glaser items and do not reproduce its five sections. Hogan Lovells does not publish a pass mark, a time limit or a question count on the pages we read. Its own practice test, linked from the early careers site, is the closest preview of the format.

Many firms say only that you will sit an online assessment. Hogan Lovells names the Watson-Glaser Critical Thinking Test and offers a practice version, which removes the guesswork about what kind of thinking it wants: deciding what follows from a passage, what it assumes, and whether an argument holds.

Because the test is named, the preparation is clear. Work through critical reasoning items in which the passage is the only evidence allowed. Our verbal and critical reasoning guide compares how other firms use the same family of tests.

Hogan Lovells has said that attending its First Year Insight Scheme means you will not have to complete the Watson-Glaser for a vacation scheme application. That page carried older dates, so check it still applies before relying on it.

Campus Ambassadors are offered a fast track to a vacation scheme assessment day, with applications listed from 1 February to 30 April 2027. HL Lift Off applicants are considered for the summer scheme automatically, without a separate application, though the page we saw described the 2025 cycle.

The 2027 spring scheme runs from 12 to 23 April and the summer scheme from 21 June to 9 July. Both opened on 1 September 2026 and both close on 10 December 2026, so there is no reason to hold back an application for the later scheme.

The schemes are open to penultimate and final year students and to graduates of any discipline, and they pay £500 a week. The winter 2026 scheme has already closed, on 5 October.

Hogan Lovells states an academic bar for the London training contract: at least AAB at A level or equivalent, and a 2:1 predicted or obtained. Law students must be at least in their penultimate year, and non-law students in their final year.

If your grades sit at that line, use the application to explain any context. Most firms of this size use contextual recruitment tools, and the form is where mitigating circumstances belong, not the interview.

Day one, take the firm's practice test cold and note which question type cost you most. Days two to four, do 15 minutes a day on that type, writing one line on why each wrong answer was wrong. Day five, retake a full practice under the conditions in your invitation.

Prep guides commonly report that the invitation arrives within about 48 hours of applying. If that is right, the test is better prepared before you press submit than after. Our free Watson-Glaser-style practice test covers all five sections, and our reasoning test is a free warm-up for the verbal side.

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

• Prep guides commonly report that the test invitation arrives within about 48 hours of submitting the application, and that the required score is not disclosed.
• One guide says candidates take a different version of the critical thinking test at the assessment day.
• Guides disagree on whether there is a recorded video stage: one lists one, and another says the decisive steps are a live interview and the assessment day.