Checking information

What it measures

Whether you can compare two versions of the same detail, a name, a code, an address, a figure, and spot every difference quickly. It is a test of attention under a very fast clock, not of reasoning. The errors are small by design: a swapped pair, a dropped letter, a digit that looks like a letter.

How it appears

• Original against copyOne correct entry and one or more copies; you say whether a copy is identical, or how many differences it has, or which of several copies is the exact one.
• Table checkA handwritten or typed table and a transcription of it; you find the cells that were copied wrongly.

Timing

50 questions in 5 minutes.

practiceaptitudetests.com describes the SHL checking test as 5 minutes long without a count. Six seconds a comparison is the pace; expect not to finish, and expect that to be normal.

How to tell it apart

• Working with informationWorking with information asks you to apply a rule to a table. Checking asks only whether two things are the same.
• Inductive reasoningInductive asks how one figure becomes the next. Checking asks whether two are identical, with no rule to find.

The method

Chunk, compare, and never trust the shape of a word.

1. Break each entry into chunks of three or four characters and compare chunk by chunk, not word by word. A word's shape hides a swapped pair.
2. Say the copy in your head as characters, not as a word, while your eye is on the original. Zero, capital O; one, lower-case L, capital I; five, S; eight, B.
3. Check the ends. Attention drops at the end of a string, and that is where the dropped or doubled character usually is.
4. For numbers, check the count of digits before the digits themselves. A missing digit changes the count; a wrong digit does not.
5. For "which copy is exact", find one difference in each copy and cross it out. Stop looking at a copy the moment it fails.
6. Do not linger. At six seconds an item, a second look costs more than a wrong answer.

Traps to know

• Look-alike characters

  The copy swaps a character for one with the same shape: 0 for O, 1 for l, 5 for S, 8 for B, rn for m. Read as a word, the copy looks right.

  Setup Original: Unit 14B, postcode B98 7HQ. Copy: Unit 148, postcode B98 7HO.

  The trap Passing the copy because the address reads the same at a glance.

  The escape Read the characters: B against 8 in the unit, Q against O in the postcode. Two differences.

• The transposed pair

  Two adjacent characters change places. The copy has the same characters as the original, just not in the same order, so a count of letters finds nothing.

  Setup Original: Thurgood. Copy: Thrugood.

  The trap Reading both as the name and passing the copy.

  The escape Chunk it: Thu / rgo / od against Thr / ugo / od. The second and third characters of each chunk are swapped.

• The end of the string

  Attention is highest at the start of an entry and lowest at the end. Copies that differ only in the last character or two are the ones most often passed.

  Setup Original: invoice 2024-00871. Copy: invoice 2024-00817.

  The trap Confirming the year and the leading zeros and stopping there.

  The escape Check the last chunk first, then the rest.

• Matching the shape, not the characters

  A copy with the same length, the same capitals and the same punctuation looks identical because the eye compares outlines. Only character-level reading catches a changed letter in the middle.

  Setup Original: Marlowe Industrial Estate. Copy: Marlowe Industrail Estate.

  The trap Passing the copy because the words have the same length and shape.

  The escape Chunk the long word: Ind / ust / ria / l against Ind / ust / rai / l.

Worked examples