What is a Word Association reasoning test?

The Word Association Reasoning test is one of the nine tests available in the FinxS Reasoning Assessment Suite and highly predictive of an applicant's ability to percieve relationships between different sets of information.

Word Association tests correspond with a candidate's current ability to generate creative and useful ideas and connect relevant concepts and create parallel links between them. Word Association typically correlates with jobs and skills such as journalism, marketing planning, politics, negotiating, brainstorming, resolving differences, paraphrasing, influencing buy-in and empathising.

We've been supporting New Zealand businesses for over 21 years to enhance their recruitment processes. Use our advanced aptitude testing platform, FinxS to make more reliable hiring decisions, predict the performance and working style of candidates, and decrease employee turnover.

Organisations with successful hiring processes place emphasis on recruiting employees with the right ability and behavioural traits for a role. These organisations understand that robust psychometric tests help select top talent, increase employee retention and avoid high turnover.

When administered correctly, reasoning tests can significantly boost the probability of selecting the right candidate for a job.

Common uses of word association test

Recruiters commonly use the Word Association test during the pre-employment process to predict the job performance of applicants and quickly narrow down the talent pool. The test typically correlates with job performance in professions such as journalism, marketing, politics and sales.

Benefits of word association reasoning test

Predict job performance with word association reasoning test

Are you looking to hire a candidate with exceptional creative problem-solving skills who is comfortable with written information? General cognitive ability is one of the most powerful predictors of job performance with a 0.51 correlation to success in the position. Assess your top performers and quantify their attributes to create a benchmark for future candidates to confidently make hiring decisions.

Create a benchmark to add a valuable comparison tool when hiring. Select from several different comparison groups to give you a clearer picture of how each candidate compares to others. Compare results at an organisational, country, and global level to provide additional meaning to the results.

What does a word association test measure?

The Word Association test measures an individual's ability to make parallel links between concepts and correlates with creative problem solving. Candidates with a strong word association have an excellent understanding of word meanings and how different words relate to each other.

Someone who demonstrates a comprehensive understanding of word associations might ask questions such as "If this is how these concepts relate to each other, what other concepts share the similar association?" or "How can I apply the learned association here, even though they are two different fields?"

A candidate who scores highly has the ability to:

• Identify relationships between information received
• Understand links between different concepts
• Draw logical conclusions

These abilities are critical to performance in Journalism, Accounting and Politics. 

What to expect during a word association reasoning test?

The Word Association section of the reasoning test consists of 16 questions. A word pair appears on screen with four other word pairs below it. Candidates need to select one of the four, word couples that have a similar relationship to the one in question.

Each test begins with a practice question so candidate's are familiar with the test format and understand what to expect. Candidates that spend too long on a particular question or rush through all the questions may receive a lower score. We strongly recommend candidates take the time to double-check their answers, especially on the more complicated word pair associations.

How to prepare for a word association reasoning test?

Word associations are required by people who need to find vibrant and compelling ways of expressing an opinion or solution, such as a marketing specialist or journalist. Candidate's who are not confident in their word association skills, can prepare by learning synonyms of words, taking practise tests and identifying relationships between different concepts. Remember, tests are designed so that only a few people can complete them within the time frame. Working quickly, but without sacrificing accuracy is essential to obtain a high score.

Next steps 

Word Association reasoning tests are a precise and reliable way to assess the aptitude and predict the performance of job applicants. 

Interviews, resumes and reference checks are often ineffective predictors of job performance as recruiters judge candidates based on subjective, rather than job-related, competencies and skills. Reasoning tests help hiring managers to draw more objective conclusions about an applicants working style. A cognitive ability test will tell you whether a candidate will take their time to ensure accuracy or will work quickly to complete tasks under time pressure. 

When the results are used in a robust recruitment process, reasoning tests will ensure you hire the right candidate for the role.

Discover our Range of Reasoning Assessments