Critical Reasoning is a skill senior executives need to have to enable them to think strategically and solve particularly complex problems often in an environment with a high level of uncertainty.
There are critical thinking tests available that break down critical thinking into different components of the reasoning process.
Niche Consulting has the following two critical thinking ability tests available:
Watson Glaser Critical Thinking Test
- 40 minutes in length.
- 80 test items.
- Administration needs to be supervised.
- Paper based version only.
- This ability test provides a full breakdown of a person’s critical thinking and decision-making processes.
- This ability test looks at logical thinking and reasoning skills when dealing with written and verbal information.
- Clarifies whether an individual will make sound logical decisions by seeing the wider consequences as opposed to becoming too narrowly focused or influenced by emotional reactions to topics.
- Useful in identifying key areas for development as it has 5 sub-test scores to analyse where critical thinking ability may be less strong.
- The five sub tests are: Inference, Recognising Assumptions, Deduction, Evaluation of Arguments and Interpretation.
- Most often used at the senior management level.
Hogan Business Reasoning Inventory – HBRI Critical Thinking Ability Test
- This critical thinking test has no time limit.
- 36 test items.
- Administration needs to be supervised.
- Online administration only.
- The HBRI is an ability test designed to evaluate Critical Reasoning, Strategic and Tactical Reasoning using three categories of business data.
- These categories are 1) verbal information based on conversations, e-mails, and written reports; 2) quantitative information that comes from tables, data in financial reports and statistical analyses: and 3) graphic information that comes from charts, graphs, and figures.
- The Strategic and Tactical Reasoning constructs work to explain an individual’s capacity to process many kinds of dense and complex information that may be found in the real world (Critical Reasoning).
- Most often used at the middle to senior management level.
