--- title: "Pre-Employment Assessment Test: How to Create One | Formswrite Blog" description: "Build a pre-employment assessment test from a job description: pick skills to measure, write fair questions, set scoring and send it as a self-grading form." canonical: https://formswrite.com/blog/pre-employment-assessment-test-create last-updated: 2026-10-08 --- # Pre-Employment Assessment Test: How to Create One In short To create a pre-employment assessment test, list the three to five skills the job really depends on, write four or five questions for each skill from real work situations, give every question a points value, and send the test as a self-grading form so every candidate is scored the same way. This guide is written for HR teams, hiring managers and the corporate trainers who are often asked to build the test. This guide walks through that process with sample questions for an office role, a scoring method, and notes on keeping the test fair. It is general guidance for hiring teams, not legal advice. Rules on testing candidates differ by country and state, so check them with your HR or legal adviser before you roll a test out. ## What a pre-employment assessment test should measure A good test checks skills a person needs on day one and cannot easily fake in an interview. Start from the job description and underline the tasks that matter most. For an operations coordinator these might be: - Reading and following written procedures - Basic arithmetic and spreadsheet logic - Prioritising when several requests arrive at once - Written communication - Attention to detail Skip anything you could teach in the first week. If the company uses its own ticketing system, do not test knowledge of it. Test whether the person can read a process and apply it. ## Step by step: build the test 1. **Write a one-line purpose.** For example: "Screen operations coordinator candidates for procedure-following and basic data checking." Everything in the test has to serve that line. 2. **Choose the skills.** Three to five is plenty. More than that and the test runs long, and candidates drop out. 3. **Draft the questions.** Use short scenarios taken from real work. Aim for four or five per skill, so a test of 20 questions should take about as long as your pilot shows (time it). 4. **Add an answer key and points.** Give each question the same weight unless a skill clearly matters more. Decide in advance what a strong score and a borderline score look like. 5. **Turn it into a form.** Build it by hand in Google Forms, or generate it from a document as shown in the Formswrite steps below. 6. **Pilot it.** Ask two or three current employees to take it. If your best performer scores poorly, the test is wrong, not the employee. 7. **Review the results the same way every time.** Look at the total score and at the skill breakdown, then use the score as one input next to the interview. ## Sample questions you can adapt ### Following a procedure _A request arrives with three attachments. The procedure says to log the request, rename each file with the request number, and send a confirmation. Which step comes first?_ - A. Send the confirmation - B. Log the request - C. Rename the files - D. Ask the sender to resend the attachments Correct answer: B. ### Checking data _A purchase order lists 12 units at 8.50 each and a total of 112.00. What is the correct total?_ - A. 102.00 - B. 112.00 - C. 96.00 - D. 120.50 Correct answer: A. The point of this one is to see whether the candidate recalculates or trusts the printed number. ### Prioritising _You have four tasks due today. Which should you do first if a client call starts in 30 minutes and you need one document for it?_ Offer four options and mark the one that unblocks the call as correct. Scenario questions like this are easy to write and hard to guess. ### Written communication Use one short-answer question, such as "A customer writes that a delivery is late. Write a two-sentence reply." Short answers need a human or an AI-assisted read, so keep them to one or two per test and score them with a simple rubric of 0 to 2 points. ## Scoring and what to do with the result Add up the points and look at three numbers: the total, the score per skill, and the time taken. A candidate who scores well overall but poorly on the one skill that matters most for the role is a different case from one who scores evenly. Avoid a single hard cut-off set by instinct. Instead, run the test with a handful of current employees first and use their range as a reference. Then write the thresholds down before the first candidate sees the test. ## Keeping the test fair - Test only job-related skills, and keep the questions in plain language. - Offer the same time, the same device options and the same instructions to every candidate. - Make a reasonable adjustment available when a candidate asks for one, such as extra time. - Do not collect more personal data than you need. The form only has to ask for a name and an email address. - Review results for patterns that disadvantage a group, and fix or drop any question that does. Employment testing rules vary, so treat this list as a starting point and confirm the details with your own adviser. ## Build it in Formswrite, step by step This is the path for a hiring manager or HR lead starting from a skills checklist or job description. 1. Open the [Google Form quiz maker](/tools/google-form-quiz-generator) and upload a skills checklist or job description. It accepts a PDF, a Word file or a Google Doc, or you can type a topic instead. 2. Choose the question types you want, such as multiple choice, true or false and short answer, and generate the quiz. It comes with an answer key. 3. Read every question. Fix wording, delete anything your source does not state and check each marked answer. 4. Edit the answer key until every question has exactly one clearly correct answer. 5. Share the quiz link, or export it to Google Forms or your learning platform. Exports are part of the paid plans, and the free plan lets you create 5 Formswrite Forms a month. For longer source documents, see our guide to [turning a PDF into a quiz](/blog/convert-pdf-to-quiz), and for release-of-score settings see [how to create a Google Form test](/blog/how-to-create-a-google-form-test-a-step-by-step-guide). [Build the assessment as a Google Form](/tools/google-form-quiz-generator) ## FAQ Should the test come before or after the first interview? Some teams send it after a short screening call, so effort goes only to plausible candidates. Whichever order you choose, use it for every candidate. Can I use multiple choice only? Yes, and scoring stays objective. Add one or two short-answer questions if the job needs writing, since multiple choice cannot show how someone writes. Are pre-employment tests legal? In many places they are allowed when they relate to the job and are applied consistently, but rules differ by country and state. This is general information, so confirm the requirements with an HR or legal professional. What should I tell candidates before they start? Say what the test covers, how long it should take, how the result is used and who to contact for an adjustment. Clear instructions make results more comparable.