SHL Verify G+ General Ability Test: Adaptive, Long, Unavoidable
SHL is the biggest vendor in cognitive assessment that most candidates have never heard of. The Verify G+ is the flagship. It is adaptive, which means the test calibrates to your ceiling rather than counting your correct answers. Prep that ignores the adaptivity scores worse than prep that embraces it.
What the SHL Verify G+ is and is not
SHL Verify G+ is a computerized adaptive cognitive ability test published by SHL (formerly CEB SHL). It runs 30 questions in 36 minutes across numerical, inductive, and deductive reasoning. SHL says "roughly half of the Fortune Global 500" uses some SHL assessment, which makes Verify G+ one of the three most-encountered cognitive tests globally.
Unlike the CCAT, PI, or Wonderlic, Verify G+ is fully item-response-theory (IRT) adaptive. Your current ability estimate after each question drives the difficulty of the next one. Two candidates can take the same test, answer different questions, and end at different difficulty bands. Your score is not just "how many you got right," it is "how high did the difficulty climb before you stopped getting them right."
The three sections appear interleaved, though SHL reserves the right to shuffle them by role family. Numerical tends to dominate questions 1 through 12. Deductive appears most in the middle. Inductive, which SHL calls "pattern-following," often finishes the test.
The three reasoning families
SHL Verify G+ weights each family roughly equally. The adaptivity means your weakest family pulls your score down disproportionately.
Numerical Reasoning
Tables, charts, and multi-step calculations with percentage changes, ratios, and unit conversions. Calculator is allowed. Most candidates rely too heavily on it. Mental estimation keeps you faster than typing.
Inductive Reasoning
Pattern completion in shape sequences and matrix-style grids. Not traditional Raven-style. SHL inductive items typically have 5 panels with one missing, with less ambiguity than Raven's but tighter timing.
Deductive Reasoning
Rule-based logic puzzles and syllogisms. Given a set of premises, what follows. Some items involve relational ordering (Alice is older than Bob, Bob younger than Clara).
The adaptivity trap
A wrong answer drops you to an easier question. Two wrong in a row drops you faster. If you get the first three wrong, the ceiling on your score is capped before you reach the middle of the test.
How SHL Verify G+ scores work
SHL does not report a raw score to you. Your result is a Sten (1-10 standardized score) and/or a percentile against a norm group (usually global Fortune 500 or UK graduate).
Percentile cutoffs vary wildly by employer. Big Four professional services (Deloitte, PwC, EY, KPMG) typically require the 60th to 70th percentile for graduate roles, 80th percentile for consulting streams. Bulge-bracket investment banks (JPMorgan, Barclays, Citi, Deutsche) run 80th to 90th percentile cutoffs. Unilever, the original pioneer of mass-market cognitive testing, holds at around the 70th percentile across graduate intake.
Because the test is adaptive, target questions "at your edge" during prep. Drilling easy questions teaches you nothing about your ceiling. Drilling impossibly hard questions wastes time.
Who uses the SHL?
SHL Verify G+ is heaviest in professional services, banking, and FMCG graduate hiring. If you are applying to Deloitte, PwC, JPMorgan, Unilever, or any Magic Circle law-adjacent consulting stream, expect it.
An SHL-specific prep plan (10 to 14 days)
Phase 1 (days 1-3): Build accuracy, not speed
Drill untimed in the weakest family. SHL punishes wrong answers through adaptivity, not through a raw-score penalty. Accuracy beats speed here.
Phase 2 (days 4-7): Match SHL pacing, not general aptitude pacing
Verify G+ gives roughly 72 seconds per question on average, but harder questions eat more. Drill numerical at 75 seconds, inductive at 60, deductive at 70. If you blow through a question in 20 seconds and get it wrong, the adaptivity punishes you disproportionately.
Phase 3 (days 8-11): Simulated adaptive practice
SHL-licensed or SHL-style adaptive mocks are worth paying for. The prep experience of getting progressively harder questions is what non-adaptive practice can't give you.
Phase 4 (days 12-13): Two full-length simulations
Compare your Sten across both. If you jumped more than 2 Sten, accuracy is unstable, slow down.
Phase 5 (day 14): Rest
Sleep, hydration, normal caffeine. The test rewards cold clarity, not adrenaline.
SHL-specific traps that cost percentile points
Rushing early questions
The first 5 questions set your trajectory. Wrong early answers cap your ceiling. Slow down on questions 1 through 5 even if you feel confident.
Overusing the calculator
Calculator time adds 10 to 15 seconds per numerical question. Mental estimation catches 70 percent of numerical items faster. Use the calculator only for the final arithmetic step.
Prepping with non-adaptive mocks only
Non-adaptive practice builds the wrong instinct. You walk into Verify G+ expecting a fixed-difficulty run and get caught off-guard when question 8 is much harder than question 4.
Related reading
SHL FAQs
The adaptive test rewards adaptive prep.
Adaptive-style SHL practice with Sten and percentile reporting.
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