Are you trying to prepare for an EPSO competition but don’t feel like investing in EPSO test preparation package from various prep services like ours? Maybe you are on a budget or don’t know yet if you actually will sit the test? Relax, we have you covered. Below we have compiled 11 completely free and trusted resources that will help you prepare for the EPSO exam.
We recommend you going through each resource as all of them will help you in their own way. Also, if you know of any other resources that you think we should include, drop us an email at [email protected] so that we can make this list even more extensive.
EPSOs own sample question database also called self-assessment test. Do not miss this website. It holds a great deal of valuable information and among them is the sample test part that can be accessed at the EPSO website. The number of questions included in the samples is mostly limited to 10 per category which doesn’t provide a lot of material to practice with but as it is directly from the source it should not be underestimated.
The tests are also available in all EU official languages, giving you the opportunity to practice in your native language. Expert tip: some of the questions included in the EPSO sample tests are known to show up on the real EPSO tests.
Unfortunately, EPSO doesn’t provide the correct answers or explanations to the questions but does inform you how many correct questions you had in each category. If you would like to know the correct answers and the explanations login on EPSOprep.com and find the videos containing the answers and explanations under the “Lessons” section.
Facebook is the biggest social network where applicants to various concourses create groups and discuss questions, share tips, example questions and solutions, news & concerns. Some of these groups have been active for several years and hold very valuable materials that will give you great insights in how the competitions work. Users post comments about their experiences, what kind of questions they encountered and help each other out. This is especially valuable for those that are new to the competitions and have never sat an EPSO test or applied for a job through EPSO. Links to some of the biggest groups:
Administrator Generalist Exams (AD5)
All users that sign up on www.epsoprep.com for free get 70 questions with full explanations across 7 categories. After each test you can see the correct answer and read the explanations. Several abstract reasoning questions also have video explanations. It is also useful to analyze how you performed compared to other users and see how fast you answered each question in comparison to others. Click here to log in and get started with your EPSO training
Other articles
EPSO Verbal reasoning test guide
EPSO Abstract reasoning test guide
EPSO Numerical reasoning test guide
All EU countries actively encourage their citizens to apply for EPSO jobs. For that reason, many of them offer free offline and sometimes online material and seminars across their country. They will usually invite ESPO employees or experts to share their experience but also tips and actual test material. This can be a very useful source as the information is usually coming straight from EPSO and can offer helpful info especially for those applying to an EPSO competition for the first time. The best way to find your country resource is to get in touch with the country specific EU careers Facebook page or local EU Parliament and Commission pages and websites.
The Swedish University Board for example holds annual seminars where they invite EPSO experts to share tips and experiences and hands out free material across some categories.
On the below link you can find free questions and although verbal reasoning test is in Swedish there are more then 50 EPSO test online questions in English.
The Irish Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade similarly arranges training sessions to help Irish candidates prepare ahead of the main EU Concours. They also provide free sample questions for EPSO exam in English on the link below.
The Irish Department of Foreign Affairs
Here you can find example questions with video explanations and watch introduction videos to various categories. Our psychometric test experts share their knowledge and show what methodologies to apply to maximize your score. You will also find the correct answers and video explanations to real EPSO test sample questions. Visit our YouTube channel to view the channel
The national EU Careers and their Ambassadors usually offer sample material in either physical form like printouts or leaflets or online. The amount of questions and the format can vary significantly between each countries local EU Careers offices, but it often serves as a good introduction into an EU career in general as well as giving you a good picture of the nature of the tests and giving you a helping hand in your EPSO preparation.
How do I get in touch with the EU careers? The fastest way is usually to email them directly or message your local EU Careers Facebook page directly. The “ambassadors” working are also often out on various events and visiting universities to inform students and others about the advantages of working for the EU organizations and some might even bring the preparation material with them at these times.
One of the most important factors in succeeding at the numerical reasoning tests is time management. A big part of the time is lost on typing the numbers in a calculator and performing the calculations. Mastering mental calculus skills will save you from performing some of the easier calculations and thus save valuable time. Practice your mental calculus skills on the below websites.
Practice with these quizzes that test your mental calculus speed.
Another aspect of numerical reasoning tests that takes time to master quickly identifying the needed data from tables and learn what data to disregard. Quia.com offers a tool to test your ability to quickly find the needed data from tables. The tests remind very much of the EPSO numerical reasoning tests.
EU’s own statistics agency hold an ocean of EU related data and statistics. Browse through the various data and practice interpreting the tables and finding various data. The data from Eurostat is especially relevant as the themes in EPSOs own numerical reasoning tests often resembles the one you will find in Eurostat although in much smaller format.
Test takers often find EPSOs verbal reasoning tests a bit intimidating. Being overwhelmed by the language and the amount of data in the text on top of the time pressure can be a stressful experience. There is however a way of preparing for the test. Try building up your reading skills by finding suitable reading material with a similar topics and difficulty level.
Find a text with similar reading complexity: make sure that the complexity of your reading resources resembles the one of EPSO. The readability score of EPSOs questions usually vary between 12 and 15 on the Flesch-Kincaid scale which is used to measure the reading difficulty of a text. Use the Datayze tool to check how the texts you are reading rank on the scale. Simply copy and paste the text into the tool to find out how it rates on the scale.
Find the relevant topics: EPSO verbal reasoning texts cover a wide range of topics from science, current news, studies, history, literature and so on. Make sure to diversify your reading accordingly. Obviously, you would need to adjust the reading sources to the language you are taking the test in but generally speaking business or science oriented newspapers tend to use appropriate complexity of language. Suggested English language resources are The Economist, Scientific American, National Geographic.
Jump into an unknow passage: EPSO verbal reasoning text passages are often excerpted from longer articles or texts which adds to the difficulty. For that reason, try to find a passage of about 150-250 words from the middle of the text and only read that passage. While you are reading, try to understand the main point of each passage.
EU´s own websites contain data heavy articles where the reader needs to sort through to find relevant data. The advantage of reading these articles is two-fold.
Firstly, the topics and the language are often similar to the ones encountered in the real test making it easier for you to familiarize with the terminology and the subject. Additionally, even though no outside knowledge is needed apart from what the test question contains, it does help if you are knowledgeable in the topic of the question particularly in verbal reasoning and E-tray tests. Being familiar with the language and topics saves time understanding and reading the questions.
Secondly, it gives insight into the workings and the terminology of the organization, something that can prove very valuable in the later stages of the selection process such as E-tray and case study.
The most important factor for success in verbal reasoning tests is of course understanding the text but if that comes at the cost of slow reading then you might have problems making it through the very time limited EPSO tests. That is why you need to make sure that you are reading at a competitive speed that doesn’t lose you too much time but also allows you to retain and understand what you have read.
Measure you speedreading skills on Freereadingtest and aim at performing at a level of at least 400 words per minute. There you can chose between numerous texts with varying difficulty and get a score that measures how many words per minute you read and your comprehension level. A very useful tool indeed! On Accelareader you can also input your own text and have the tool present the word one by one so that you find the right tempo.
EPSO Verbal reasoning test guide