SITUATIONAL JUDGEMENT TEST - example ranking question

Example Ranking Question

 You are in charge of a large national organisation responsible for assessing the abilities of all the country's newly qualified doctors and matching them to appropriate employment. Shortly before distributing the results and final allocations you become aware that there is a problem with the marking system which you have outsourced.

Rank in order the following actions in response to this situation (1= Most appropriate; 5= Least appropriate)

A. Cross your fingers and hope it will all be OK. Probably nobody will mind too much.

B. Send out the incorrect marks and allocations then follow with an email saying you will get medical schools to check all the papers and have another go at it.


C. As above but attempt to shift some of the blame onto one of the candidates by implying that their smudgy pencil confused the marking machine so really it's all their fault.


D. Admit that things may not have been perfect but undertake to try to do better in future.


E. Apologise profusely.

Answer: ABCDE

Rationale: (A,B) They're only medical students. They're going into medicine so they're going to have to put up with years of this sort of thing. At least it's not as bad as MTAS, so what are they whingeing about? The correct answers were anyway chosen at random so it hardly matters if the marks weren't assigned correctly. (C) In situations such as this, it often helps to blame the victim. (D) It is never wise to admit to anything one doesn't actually have to. If you wait it out some new bigger scandal will emerge and this one will be forgotten. Remember the English GCSEs? (E) Never, ever apologise. What were you thinking? And, after all, they're only medical students.

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