Clevry numerical reasoning test: rules, levels and practice
If your invitation says Clevry and numerical, expect a timed multiple-choice test on figures you are given. Clevry lists 16 questions with 15, 18 or 20 minutes, depending on the level your employer picks. Your instruction page confirms your time limit and question count, and says if a calculator is not allowed. Below you can try a worked question and untimed practice, free to use.
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Your time limit, question count and calculator rule sit on the instruction page that opens when you click your assessment link. The timer does not start until you click Start test, and until then you can use Suspend and come back later. Once the test is running, you can change an answer only while you are still on that page. Leave the page, and you cannot go back.
Want to practise first? Try the worked question below, or go straight to our weighted-average practice.
Your level decides the clock
Clevry’s help centre lists three levels of its numerical test. Each has 16 questions, and the time limit goes up with the level.
| Level | Time limit | Average time taken |
|---|---|---|
| Essential | 15 minutes | 13 minutes |
| Enhanced | 18 minutes | 16 minutes |
| Expert | 20 minutes | 18 minutes |
Your employer picks the level, and can set a longer time limit if you need extra time because of a disability. So plan from your own instruction page rather than from any one published figure.
A Clevry test is not always numerical. Clevry also offers verbal, abstract, mechanical and checking tests, and employers can add personality questionnaires or scenario-based tests, so your invitation may include more than one. This page covers the numerical test.
What the numerical test asks
Clevry describes it as multiple-choice questions answered from number-based reference material, covering arithmetic, averages, percentages and ratios. The questions use very few words, so it is not a reading test with numbers attached.
You may use your own calculator unless the instruction page says otherwise. There is no calculator on screen, so have yours on the desk before you click Start test, with some paper for your working.
Try this before you open the answer
Work it out before you open the answer. A calculator will happily give you the wrong result if you feed it the wrong average.
Practice question
Two depots sold the same product in one week.
| Depot | Units sold | Average price |
|---|---|---|
| North | 60 | £9.00 |
| South | 140 | £6.50 |
What was the average selling price across both depots?
Our question, written for Testonome practice. Nothing you decide here is recorded.
Check your answer
B, £7.25. Each average price stands for a different number of units, so turn both back into takings first.
- Takings: 60 × £9.00 = £540, and 140 × £6.50 = £910. Together £1,450.
- Units: 60 + 140 = 200.
- Average price: £1,450 ÷ 200 = £7.25.
C, £7.75, is the trap a calculator makes easy. It averages the two prices, (£9.00 + £6.50) ÷ 2, and ignores that South sold more than twice as many units as North.
D, £8.25, swaps the weights. It puts North's 60 units against South's price, and South's 140 against North's.
A, £6.50, is South's price on its own, as if North sold nothing.
E, £15.50, adds the two prices. An average price cannot be higher than both of them.
You can also check an answer without redoing it. The average must sit between the two prices, and nearer South's £6.50, because South sold more units. Only B does.
The weighted average page works the same numbers step by step, as a customer rating question.
That is the job in a Clevry numerical question. Read the table, decide what the question is asking, then calculate. The calculator does the division. It does not choose the formula.
If you landed on £7.75, or needed a while to see why South counts for more, that is the skill to drill.
The button below opens the weighted-average drill. It has five multiple-choice questions, untimed and free to use, with no account and no payment. Each one gives two groups of different sizes and their average ratings, and every wrong option is one of the four slips worked through above. If you pick one, the review tells you which slip it was. It practises the calculation rather than Clevry’s screens, and the target time in each explanation is our own pacing for this skill.
Start the weighted-average drill
If percentages or shares of a total feel shakier than averages, pick that skill in our numerical section instead.
What Clevry’s own practice will and will not do
Every Clevry ability test starts with a set of practice questions before the timed part. Work through them properly. They show you Clevry’s own screens and question style, which our drill cannot.
Do not read a result into them. Clevry tells employers not to reveal how the test is scored or whether there is a pass mark, so there is no published cut-off to aim for. It also reminds them that the result is one part of the selection process.
Before you click Start test
- Read the instruction page carefully. Note the time limit and the number of questions, and divide one by the other for a rough pace. Treat it as a guide rather than a target for every question.
- Check the calculator line on that page. Clevry’s help centre says you may use your own calculator in numerical tests unless the instructions say otherwise.
- Check your browser and connection. Run the browser compatibility check in your assessment portal. If the page misbehaves, Clevry suggests clearing the browser cache or trying another browser or device.
- Plan to finish in one go. Suspend is offered on the instruction page, before the clock starts. If something goes wrong part-way, contact the employer rather than Clevry, because the employer decides whether to reset the test.
- If a question sticks, give your best answer and move on. Clevry advises against guessing blind, and once you leave a page you cannot go back to it.
What you need is your instruction page, one clean method for tables, and the practice questions at the start of your test. Work the drill above first, then open the Clevry link in your email and read the instructions before you click Start test.