Most Civil Service job applications send you to an online test before anyone reads your application form. If the invitation mentions the Civil Service Judgement Test — or CSJT — and you have never sat one, the format is genuinely unlike a normal multiple-choice exam. Here is what it actually asks, how it is scored, and how to prepare for it properly.
What is the Civil Service Judgement Test?
The CSJT is one of eight official online tests GOV.UK lists for Civil Service recruitment: the Verbal and Numerical tests, the CSJT itself, the Management Judgement Test for line-management roles, the Work Strengths Test, the Styles Assessment for Behaviours, and the Customer Service Skills and Casework Skills tests used for operational roles.
It is a situational judgement test — you are given a workplace scenario and asked to judge how effective different possible actions would be, rather than picking a single "correct" fact.
- Format Self-assessment (15%) plus workplace scenarios (85%)
- Scenarios per behaviour Three, each with four possible actions
- Rating scale Four points, from Counterproductive to Effective
- Timing Not timed — GOV.UK suggests allowing about an hour
- Result A percentile, not a raw score
- Pass mark Set by the recruiting department after the closing date
How the test is structured
The CSJT has two distinct parts:
- Part one is a short self-assessment of how you typically behave at work. It makes up 15% of your score.
- Part two is the workplace scenarios, worth the remaining 85%. Each Success Profiles behaviour being tested has three separate scenarios, and each scenario presents four possible actions that you rate individually on a four-point scale: Counterproductive, Ineffective, Fairly Effective, Effective.
Because you rate every option rather than choosing one, there is no way to guess your way past a scenario you have not thought through — the test is measuring whether you can tell a genuinely effective response from a plausible-sounding but weaker one, across all four options at once.
What "Success Profiles behaviours" means
Every scenario is built around one of the Civil Service's Success Profiles behaviours: Making Effective Decisions, Working Together, Communicating and Influencing, Delivering at Pace, Managing a Quality Service, Changing and Improving, Seeing the Big Picture, Leadership, and Developing Self and Others. Sitting behind all of them is the Civil Service Code — integrity, honesty, objectivity and impartiality — which is really what separates an "Effective" rating from a "Fairly Effective" one.
Practise real CSJT-style scenarios. PassNova's bank is 120 free questions across all the behaviours tested, plus the Management Judgement and Customer Service & Casework Skills tests, with every answer explained — no sign-up.
How is it scored?
Unlike most tests, your result is not a raw mark out of a total — it is a percentile, showing how your responses compared with other candidates. There is no fixed pass mark published by GOV.UK: each recruiting department sets its own pass mark after the closing date, based on the applicant pool for that specific role. This means the same percentile could pass for one vacancy and not another — there is no single number to "aim for" in advance, only the goal of judging every scenario as accurately as you can.
What the test is really looking for
The most effective action in a CSJT scenario is usually the one that:
- Deals with the issue directly, rather than delaying or avoiding it
- Involves the right people at the right point
- Is honest about problems rather than covering them up
- Keeps the decision-making process transparent
The counterproductive option, by contrast, usually ignores the problem, shifts blame onto someone else, or quietly breaks a rule to make the immediate issue go away. Once you can spot that pattern, most scenarios become much faster to judge — you are pattern-matching against the Code, not guessing at office politics.
How to prepare
- Practise explaining your reasoning, not just picking an answer. Because you rate all four options, you need to be able to say why each one sits where it does on the scale — not just which one "feels right".
- Learn the behaviours, not just the test format. Once you recognise which Success Profiles behaviour a scenario is testing, the effective response becomes much easier to spot.
- Use GOV.UK's own practice test to see the real screen. The official practice test shows you the genuine four-point rating interface, which is worth doing once you have built up your judgement with topic practice.
- Do not rush the self-assessment section. It is only 15% of the score, but it is still part of the profile the department is scoring you against — answer it honestly and consistently with how the scenario answers position you.
Frequently asked questions
Is the Civil Service Judgement Test timed?
No. GOV.UK does not impose a time limit, but suggests allowing about an hour to complete it comfortably.
What is a good score on the CSJT?
There is no fixed pass mark. Your result is a percentile compared with other candidates, and each recruiting department sets its own pass mark after the vacancy closes — so the same percentile can pass for one role and not another.
Is the CSJT the same as the Management Judgement Test?
No, but they are closely related. Both are official Civil Service online tests using the same style of scenario-and-rating format; the Management Judgement Test is aimed specifically at line-management roles, while the CSJT is used more broadly across administrative and executive officer recruitment.
Can I fail the CSJT and still get the job?
The test is a sift stage in most application processes. Because the pass mark is set per department and per vacancy, there is no universal "fail" — falling below the mark set for that specific role typically means not progressing to the next stage for that application, but it has no bearing on other applications.
One point of clarity: PassNova is a practice and revision site, not the Civil Service Commission — the official test is booked and sat through your application process on GOV.UK. Details in this article come from GOV.UK's own guidance and were checked in September 2026; confirm current details on the official Civil Service online tests page.