After an initial screening stage where you may be interviewed, an handful of the best candidates will be invited to a selection of activities, normally a who day, in which they will be able to assess your skills, but more importantly measure your performance against other potential candidates.
Psychometric testing
This will normally entail answering a lot of questions in multi choice format to determine your basic personality traits, the ways in which you normally behave. There are no right and wrong answers it's simply a matter of them building up a picture of your behavioral patterns to understand who you are and how you are likely to behave. They will also use this as the basis of questioning in your interview. So, for example, if you tests reveal you prefer working in a team to on your own, you may get questions asking for examples of how you cope when you are working on your won.
The best advice here is not to try and second guess what they are looking for, but simply to answer them all quickly without too much thought. Questions can seem ambiguous, but they will ask the same sort of questions over and over again to get a consistent picture, so one individual answer simply isn't worth getting caught up on.
Verbal and numerical reasoning
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Verbal reasoning tests your ability with language and words, numerical you ability with numbers. As a general rule, people will normally be stronger at one than the other. In this sense rather than showing good or bad people who fall into different categories here are likely to solve problems in different ways rather than be good or bad depending on which side of the fence you fall. That said, in most graduate recruitment processes they will be looking to compare you against norms and expectations for the role, so performance is important.
A common mistake is to take too long on each question. They are often ambiguous so reading and re reading can actually make you more uncertain and waste time. Read then question carefully, then answer and move on. Your more likely to get them right and you'll get through more questions. You can practice these types of questions and this technique so have a look for books on these to improve your performance.
Presentation
The trend for most graduate recruitment processes is not to alert you to the topic in advance, but hand you the task on the day and allow maybe half an hour to prepare. As a result, nobody expects highly polished content. They are more looking at structure and the way in which you present. Clear diction involving all members of the audience through scanning are vital, along with a clear beginning with objectives, followed by the body and a conclusion plus invitation for questions. Also, ensure you stick to any time constraints provided.
Group exercise
Having sat as an assessor on many graduate recruitment days, this exercise can be quite amusing as most assume that the person who says and dominates most is the winner! What follows is a bunch of competitive people all trying to get their point across in front of others. At best it seems like a polite argument, at worst a row. What you should focus on is listening to what others say and building on it, rather than simply waiting for someone to finish, ignoring their contribution and carrying on with your own thoughts, look for opportunities to praise others contribution and add to them. It shows your capable of operating productively in a group.
Panel interview
Most graduate recruitment processes will have a panel of at least 4 or maybe 5. Perhaps the biggest error here is that one or tow interviewers may dominate, but yo still need to involve all the panel in your answers, even if it is simply through spreading your eye contact. One of the 'quiet ones' may actually be the decision maker.
Try to provide clear examples of how you have been successful in the past.
In summary, the aim of assessment centres in the graduate recruitment process is to remove guess work. They want to see who you 'really' are, not some mask you have put in for an hour long interview. Try an enjoy the day, smile lots, and remember your being watched in coffee and lunch breaks too.
Good luck
