Pre-Employment Vocabulary Assessment Test

Find out whether your candidates have the vocabulary skills needed for the job.

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Adequate language skills are vital for communication, collaboration, problem-solving, and team motivation. In addition, understanding the difference between words with similar meanings or spellings can be key in avoiding mistakes and misunderstandings. When selecting applicants for jobs that rely on strong vocabulary knowledge, hiring managers can ensure that candidates have basic language skills by using a pre-employment vocabulary assessment test.

What is a pre-employment vocabulary test?

A pre-employment vocabulary test is an exam given to job applicants to determine their familiarity with English words and their respective definitions. When used as part of the hiring process, this test can help you speed up the process of selecting top candidates.

The benefits of testing your job applicants

By requiring a pre-employment vocabulary assessment test, you can ensure that everyone you bring in has the language skills needed for a particular role at your company. You can also create custom aptitude and skills tests that include questions tailored to the job you’re hiring for.

Occupational roles that would benefit from a pre-employment vocabulary test:

  • Writers/editors
  • Marketing professionals
  • Administrative assistants
  • Communications associates
  • Public relations specialists
  • HR associates
  • Sales representatives
  • Healthcare professionals
  • Project managers
  • And more
Hire Success pre-employment vocabulary test

What does the Hire Success® Vocabulary Proficiency Test include?

The Hire Success® Vocabulary Proficiency Test consists of 30 multiple-choice questions. For each question, a word is listed along with four possible definitions. The applicant chooses the definition that best describes the word. An overall score is provided as well as scores by academic grade range (fourth grade to college level); the majority of questions are at the middle school or high school level.

Sometimes the test taker must choose the best of two or three options that could be correct. Because of this, administrators may want to weight some questions and answers more than others (see below).

Number of questions

30

Test type

Skills test

Time limit

Not timed

You will receive up to 3 separate reports:

Hire Success accounting test summary report screenshot

Vocabulary Proficiency Summary Report

The Hire Success® Summary Report is broken down into sections.

  • High-level summary - Get information specific to the test taker, such as overall score, weighted score, and number of questions correct.
  • Summary of statistics by cohort - Incorporating campaign, position, location, and account, this section shows you how the applicant compares to other cohorts.
  • Distribution of people - A graph shows you the distribution of people within the applicant’s campaign.
  • Scores by category - Examine summary scores by category.
Detail report for academic test

Vocabulary Proficiency Detail Report

The Detail Report for the vocabulary assessment test gives a breakdown of how the candidate answered questions on the test:

  • Section 1 — incorrectly answered questions
  • Section 2 — correctly answered questions

Grouping the candidate's test answers in this way not only provides you with an easy way to gauge where the candidate made mistakes but also helps you get an idea of the candidate’s areas of strength or weakness. You may want to follow up on some concepts in an interview if the candidate is selected for the next step in the hiring process.

Hire Success accounting test audit report

Candidate Audit Report

If you activate the cheating mitigation feature for your vocabulary assessment test, you’ll receive a Hire Success® Audit Report showing you a timeline that reveals:

  1. When the test taker selects answers within a question.
  2. When the test taker moves to the next question.
  3. If or when the test taker leaves/returns to the test.

The report also shows whether the test was automatically submitted because the candidate left the testing window for too long (possibly to look up an answer) or ran out of time.

This feature doesn’t just help you find out whether applicants know the test answers — it uncovers how well they know them. With the Audit Report, you’ll have added confidence in your hiring decisions.

Frequently Asked Questions

How will I receive each job candidate’s test results?

For every vocabulary assessment test that’s submitted, you’ll receive two reports (or three, if you activate cheating mitigation). You’ll receive an email notification immediately upon submission, and test results will be available in your online Hire Success® account within minutes. You can view the results and reports securely in your online account from any internet-connected device, and print or share results if needed.

Can I customize the pre-employment vocabulary test?

Yes! With our Custom Test Builder, you can start with our pre-designed questions and combine them with any questions you want, creating an exam that’s specific to your industry and to the job you’re hiring for. You can also include questions on other topics, such as spelling or reading comprehension.

Learn about the Hire Success® Custom Test Builder

How much does the vocabulary proficiency test cost?

Hire Success® offers much more than just a single test — we offer a complete system that helps you improve your entire recruiting, interviewing, and hiring process. Our pricing model depends on factors specific to your company and industry, so the best way to get accurate pricing information is to contact us for a tailored quote.

Request a customized quote from Hire Success®

Ready to take your hiring to the next level?

Take a free test run of our whole system — from the vocabulary assessment test to the personality profile to the integrity test and more — and find out why thousands of companies have turned to Hire Success® to build stronger, more organized, and more consistent hiring systems.

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