The group task is normally one of the areas that students are the most apprehensive about when going into assessment centres. However, they can be a great chance to show who you are and why you would be a great fit for the team that will eventually be working alongside you.

If you are attending a virtual mock assessment centre, you will normally be split off into automatic breakout rooms from the original meeting room, where you will have 1-3 assessors join you and 2-7 other prospective placement students.

If you are attending a mock assessment centre in person, you will likely be taken to a part of the room as a group, or potentially into a separate room to complete the task.

The three types of Group Task

The first point to understand is that there are three different types of group task that you may encounter at a placement assessment centre. You may not know which you will be doing until you are given the brief on the day - so prepare for each!

Case study exercises

As a group you will be assigned a brief for a most often, business related, case study and given details on how you should work together to come to a solution or answer to the situation at hand. The level of detail of the brief varies from centre to centre, sometimes you are provided with in depth information on which side you will represent and what viewpoint you should hold but in other cases you will be left to your own devices as a group.

For these types of group tasks, it is key to have at least a foundational level of knowledge about the industry that the company you are applying for operates in.

This will grant you a headstart over other candidates (if they are ill prepared) and will allow you to be more confident with your suggestions.

Leadership exercise

This is potentially the least common type of placement assessment centre, as it is reserved for companies who are particularly interested in students possessing outstanding leadership qualities. A quality that while important, is generally much more sought after for graduate positions, as opposed to undergraduate roles. Nonetheless, leadership can form an important part of any role and it is worth preparing for no matter the job description at hand.

For these types of group task, you will likely be asked to take turns and roleplay leadership scenarios. This will feature the delegation of tasks and assignment of roles for your fellow applicants. It is important hear to show that you can lead a group while carefully managing the members in a diplomatic manner.

Discussion exercise

This is by far the most common instance of placement assessment centre group task. Infact, out of the 10 assessment centres I attended, 9 of them were discussion exercises and the other was a Case Study based exercise.

If you are going to focus your preparation on any of the three types, I would strongly recommend you look at the Discussion exercise. Fortunately, it is the easiest to practice!

During a discussion exercise, the group will be given a brief, task or topic to discuss under timed conditions. In my experience, these are quite often rather trivial topics, so that the assessors do not rule out any candidates based on prior knowledge alone.

For example, many of my assessment centres chose to use scenarios such as the following:

Your plane has crashed in the Amazon rainforest. As a group, you are the only survivors. You have collected the following list of items from the wreckage of the crash and must work together to survive. As a team, you have the capacity to take 6 of the 20 items with you. You must discuss which you should take and why?

At which point, the assessors would show the 20 items on screen and initiate the discussion.

There won't really be any right or wrong answers and infact, the survival experts of the group often come across as overbearing. So don't worry about prior knowledge here.

While prior knowledge is welcome, the key is to engage the group and contribute to a constructive discussion that takes into account different perspectives and approaches towards 'survival', more on this later.

[Virtual] Upon being moved into breakout rooms

At the very beginning of the group exercise, it is likely you will be split into random breakout rooms where you will find find you have a certain period of time as a group in the call before the session begins. There are two scenarios here.

Scenario 1: Assessor/s not yet present

This may only be 20-30 seconds, and I am not sure whether it is an intentional technique for further assessment but it is a great opportunity to get the conversation started.

Unless you have been objectively instructed otherwise, it is much better to start the conversation and start to get to know the group while you wait. This will show great interpersonal skills and is likely to increase the assessors viewpoint of the group. Regardless, you are going to be working together for the next 15-60 minutes, so you may as well get comfortable!

Do keep an eye out for when the assessor joins the call, as this may be your queue to quickly wrap up your conversation and greet them, rather than continue your off-topic conversations with the other participants.

Scenario 2: Assessor/s present

If the assessor is present, they may lead the discussion from the offset. In which case, listen intently with your camera on and try to give off a warm vibe.

However, if the assessor does appear to be present, but they are not yet speaking, go ahead and introduce yourself to those that you’ll be completing the task with and ask others how they are. This pause may be intentional on the behalf of the assessor or they may simply be preparing their materials/have a slight delay in connecting fully to the call.

Giving out the task

The assessor/s will likely display the task that you as a group are expected to complete either on the screen or via a hard copy handout.

They may do this before giving information on the amount of time that is expected to complete the task, or they may simply provide you with the activity and set you on your way.

There can be very clear, complete guidance, or none at all. It is important that you are prepared for both scenarios.

Some assessors will allocate time to read the task for you, others won’t.

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