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Brainbench Test

Hi everyone,

I'd applied to the role of Technology Analyst at Barclays capital and have been invited for a brainbench test after giving a telephonic interview. I've planned to give a C++ test (other options were c#, java and sql). All i could gather from net and friends is that there will be around 40 questions, but brainbench's site gives a vast array of topics that'll be impossible to cover. (i've got 3 days to give the test)

can anyone offer tips regarding the test? like which books to read, or which topics are important? and what should be the cutoff score to make it to the next level?

thanks
Nishant

ps. my first post ever. the forum has been extremely resourceful so far.

Reply 1

cf609

I am having the same test coming before AC and I chose c++ as well. anybody any idea? :biggrin:

Reply 2

MdSalih

I'd assume they won't be programming specific - they are more likely to be numerical reasoning/verbal reasoning/spatial awareness type questions.

I was required to do one for MER via Brainbench not too long ago for a position in the tech division - I ended up doing it at 2:00 am and found it pretty difficult (some how managed to pass it though and get to the final round... it was the one bank i had completely lost hope on :-/) - Anyway, I had questions like:

- You get a start image, an initial set of transformations (90 degree rotation, horizontal flip etc), a final set of transformations and the final image... you have to work out what the missing transformations in the middle are.

- Also had a couple of questions with a table with a list of 15 odd names with their respective scores in a given activity - the list ordering was random. I had to visually work out who would be at a certain position if the names were ordered in descending alphabetical order and then ascending numerical order on name clashes (this was one of the hardest questions I got)

- Also some kinda verbal reasoning tests - where the give you a sentence... and then give you a set of statements and you have to state which one is wrong or sometimes, which one is right. The statements are things like "If the sentence has more than 10 words, it only has 3 capitalised words" or "3 words start with the letter 'g' and the sentence has an odd number of letters"

And other similar type of question.

But bare in mind, the test I did was for MER and not Barcap (haven't applied there). I know people who have done brainbench tests for other banks (UBS i think) where they've only had to deal with a standard numerical test (tables, graphs etc). So it could be either.

Don't expect it to be a programming test if that hasn't explicitly been stated. What they normally want to see is that you have a good/excellent level of competency when it comes to analytical thinking and working with numbers.

Let me know how it goes.

MdSalih

Reply 3

cf609

I have done the C++ Brainbench Test....It was indeed very hard....