Aptitude tests demystified: how Stanbic, MTN, and Equity actually score them

The test that decides whether you ever meet a person

For graduate-trainee programmes at most large African employers, you take an aptitude test before you ever speak to a human. Stanbic, MTN, Equity, Safaricom, GTBank, KCB, Standard Bank, Centenary, Unilever, Nestlé — all of them use some flavour of psychometric pre-screening to filter the application pool from thousands of candidates down to the few hundred who get a real interview.

The test is the gate. If you fail it, the most polished CV in the country will not save you. If you pass it, your CV stops mattering as much as you think it does.

This guide is for candidates who have an aptitude test coming up, especially for African graduate programmes, and want to understand what's actually being measured, how it's actually scored, and what preparation actually moves the needle.

What's in the test

There are four sections that show up in almost every African graduate-trainee assessment. The vendor varies (SHL, Talent Q, Cubiks, Saville, Aon Cut-e, Hudson are the most common, plus a long tail of homegrown systems). The format varies. The four sections are stable.

### 1. Numerical reasoning

You are shown a chart, table, or paragraph with numbers. You are asked a question. You compute the answer.

Example: "Sales in Q3 were 18% higher than Q2. Q2 sales were $4.2M. Q4 sales declined by 7% from Q3. What were Q4 sales, rounded to the nearest $0.1M?"

Time per question: typically 60-90 seconds. There are usually 18-25 questions in 18-25 minutes.

What it actually measures: not your maths. It measures your ability to read a question carefully, extract the right numbers, and apply two or three operations under time pressure without making a careless error. Most candidates can do the maths. Most candidates cannot do the maths in 60 seconds while reading the chart correctly.

### 2. Verbal reasoning

You are shown a passage of text. You are asked whether a statement is true, false, or "cannot say" based on the passage.

Example: "Passage: 'The bank has expanded into 4 new African markets in 2025, bringing its total country presence to 18.' Statement: 'The bank operates in more African countries than European countries.' [True / False / Cannot say]"

Time per question: 45-75 seconds. There are usually 16-22 questions.

What it measures: not your reading comprehension. It measures your discipline to answer only what the passage says, not what you think you know about the bank. The "cannot say" answer is the one that catches most candidates — the passage simply doesn't tell you whether the bank operates in Europe at all.

### 3. Abstract reasoning (or "diagrammatic" / "logical")

You are shown a series of shapes that follow a pattern. You pick the next shape in the sequence, or the shape that doesn't belong, or the rule that governs the transformation.

Time per question: 45-60 seconds. Usually 18-24 questions.

What it measures: pattern-recognition speed. It is the most "raw IQ" of the four sections, in the sense that you can't easily prepare your way past your underlying capacity. But you can absolutely prepare your way past poor pattern-spotting habits.

### 4. Situational judgement (SJT)

You are given a workplace scenario and four possible responses. You are asked to rank them, or pick the best and worst, or rate each one.

Example: "You notice that a colleague is using customer data inconsistently with company policy. The colleague is more senior than you and has been with the firm for 12 years. What would you do? A) Discuss your concern with your colleague directly. B) Inform your manager. C) Speak to HR. D) Wait until you see clearer evidence."

Time per question: typically untimed but with a soft cap.

What it measures: not your "judgement" in any real sense. It measures whether your responses align with the competency framework the employer has chosen. The "right" answer at one bank is the "wrong" answer at another. SJTs are competency tests dressed up as ethics tests.

The norm-referenced scoring trick

Here is what most candidates don't know: your raw score doesn't matter.

Aptitude tests at the major African employers are norm-referenced. That means your score is compared against a reference group — usually graduates from the same year, sometimes graduates from the same university tier, sometimes the previous year's full applicant pool. You are scored on your percentile, not your absolute correct count.

A raw score of 14/20 might be the 78th percentile against the previous year's applicant pool. The recruiter doesn't see "14/20"; they see "78th percentile" and apply their cut-off (typically the 50th to 70th percentile depending on the employer).

This has two implications. First, you are competing against the cohort, not against the test. The test getting "easier" doesn't help if everyone else also finds it easier. Second, the cut-off is set by the recruiter — and at the most competitive employers (Big 4 in South Africa, Stanbic IBTC in Nigeria, Equity Bank in Kenya, Unilever Future Leaders Programme), the cut-off is around the 70th percentile of the applicant pool.

That means you don't have to be brilliant. You have to be better than 70% of other graduates applying for the same scheme. That's a different challenge — and a different preparation strategy.

Real cut-offs at the major employers in 2026

These are based on what employers publicly publish, what graduates report after the fact, and what I have seen working with HR teams setting these thresholds. Treat them as orientation, not gospel.

• Stanbic Bank Uganda (Graduate Trainee Programme): ~65th percentile cut-off across all four sections. Numerical and verbal weighted higher.
• MTN Pulse / MTN Foundation Programme (multiple markets): ~60th percentile, with SJT weighted heavily — they look for cultural fit as much as analytical skill.
• Equity Bank (Equity Leaders Programme): ~70th percentile. They take fewer candidates from a wider pool, so the bar is higher.
• Safaricom Graduate Programme: ~70th percentile, with abstract reasoning weighted heavily — the engineering and product roles dominate the cohort.
• GTBank (Entry-Level Recruitment): ~75th percentile. The single most competitive aptitude bar in West Africa.
• Unilever Future Leaders Programme (UFLP, Africa): ~75th percentile. The cohort sizes are tiny relative to the applicant pool.
• Big 4 (KPMG, PwC, Deloitte, EY) graduate programmes (South Africa, Kenya, Nigeria): ~70-75th percentile, with case-study round added on top.

The cut-offs move year to year and market to market. Don't trust any specific number from any source — treat the range as your target, and aim above it.

Six preparation strategies that actually move the needle

### 1. Build your reading speed before you build your maths speed

Most candidates lose numerical questions not because the maths is hard, but because they re-read the chart twice. Practice reading a chart once, extracting the numbers you need, and starting the calculation. The eye discipline matters more than the calculator discipline.

### 2. Memorise common ratios and percentage equivalents

10% of X is X/10. 20% is X/5. 25% is X/4. 33% is X/3. 50% is X/2. 75% is 3X/4. 12.5% is X/8. Internalise these and you cut 5-10 seconds per question. Across 20 questions, that's 1-3 minutes of breathing room.

### 3. For verbal, default to "Cannot say"

When in doubt on a verbal question, "Cannot say" is more often correct than candidates expect. The test deliberately includes statements that are plausible but not supported by the passage. If you cannot find the supporting sentence in the passage, the answer is "Cannot say".

### 4. For abstract, learn the five common transformation types

Most abstract sequences use one of: rotation, mirror flip, colour/fill change, count change, or shape addition/removal. Train yourself to scan for which of the five is at play, then look at the second sequence to see if it confirms.

### 5. For SJT, research the employer's competency framework before the test

Most large African employers publish their leadership competencies somewhere — annual reports, careers pages, learning and development pages. Read them before the test. The "right" answer in an SJT is the answer that aligns with the employer's framework, not your personal ethics.

### 6. Pace yourself, don't sprint

Most aptitude tests don't expect you to finish. The best candidates leave 1-3 questions unanswered because they're spending more time on the questions they're confident on. The worst candidates rush all 20 and answer half of them wrong. Better to finish 17 of 20 with 90% accuracy than 20 of 20 with 65% accuracy.

What MJC Assess does differently

There are dozens of free aptitude practice sites. Most have two problems: their questions don't match the actual test difficulty (too easy), and their scoring isn't norm-referenced (so a 14/20 means nothing).

[MJC Assess](/ai-tools/aptitude-test-prep/) runs the same item formats real employers use, in the same time pressure, with norm tables built from the actual graduate applicant pool data we have access to. Your score is reported as a percentile, not a raw count. The report tells you which section pulled you down and what to drill before the real test.

It's not magic. The test you take in two weeks at Stanbic, MTN, or Equity will not be identical to ours. But the format will be close, the time pressure will be close, and your percentile against our cohort is a meaningful predictor of your percentile against theirs.

Three things to do before your test

1. Find out which test vendor the employer uses. Stanbic uses SHL. MTN uses Talent Q. Equity uses a custom platform. The format varies. Knowing the vendor in advance lets you practise the right item format. 2. Take a full timed practice test on [MJC Assess](/ai-tools/aptitude-test-prep/). One full session under real time pressure tells you more than ten practice questions in calm conditions. 3. Identify your weakest section and drill it specifically. Most candidates spread practice evenly. The right strategy is to lift the weakest section — that's where percentile gains are largest.

The test is unfair in the same way the seven-second CV scan is unfair. It's not measuring everything you bring. It's measuring a narrow slice of capability under artificial constraint. The candidates who pass are not the candidates who are best at the job — they are the candidates who took the test seriously enough to prepare for the format.

Next in this series: [The honest interview-prep playbook for Big 4 graduate programmes in Africa](/career-guides/) — what comes after you've passed the aptitude test.