The Talented Candidate 2023

ROUND 1: CV & APTITUDE TEST

Aptitude Test 1

A. Overall Instruction

The test is comprised of 23 questions, divided into 3 sections:

● Verbal Reasoning
● Quantitative Reasoning
● Abstract Reasoning

The amount of time for this test is 25 minutes, with NO BREAKS between
sections.

Each question will have some possible answer options, and only ONE correct
answer.

B. Aptitude Test

Note: Answers are bolded

I. Verbal Reasoning

Question 1, 2:

There are exactly three films, namely Hustle, Grinch, and Tinker Bell, shown
during a film club’s festival held on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. Each film is
shown at least once during the festival but never more than once on a given day.
On each day at least one film is shown. Films are shown one at a time. The
following conditions apply:

● On Thursday Grinch is shown, and no film is shown after it on that day.

● On Friday either Hustle or Tinker Bell, but not both, is shown, and no film
is shown after it on that day.
● On Saturday either Hustle or Grinch, but not both, is shown, and no film is
shown after it on that day

1. Which one of the following could be a complete and accurate description of

the order in which the films are shown at the festival?

A. Thursday: Tinker Bell, then Grinch; Friday: Tinker Bell; Saturday: Grinch
B. Thursday: Grinch; Friday: Hustle, then Tinker Bell; Saturday: Tinker Bell,
then Hustle

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 C. Thursday: Grinch; Friday: Tinker Bell; Saturday: Tinker Bell, then
Hustle
D. Thursday: Hustle, then Grinch, then Tinker Bell; Friday: Tinker Bell;
Saturday: Hustle
E. Thursday: Hustle, then Grinch; Friday: Tinker Bell, then Grinch; Saturday:
Grinch

2. If Tinker Bell is shown exactly three times, Grinch is shown exactly twice, and
Hustle is shown exactly once, then which one of the following is a complete and
accurate list of the films that could be the first film shown on Thursday?

A. Grinch
B. Tinker Bell
C. Hustle, Grinch
D. Hustle, Tinker Bell
E. Hustle, Grinch, Tinker Bell

Question 3, 4:

In 1920s New York, the Harlem Renaissance, an explosion of artistic talent that
showered northern Manhattan with its own literary scene, was in full swing. And
Zora Neale Hurston, novelist, essayist and folklorist, was right there in the
middle of it. Her 1928 essay, "How it feels to be colored me", was not just a
personal manifesto, the philosophical road map of a writer whose best work was
still to come, but an eloquently expressed statement of confidence, rooted in
place and time, race and politics, of which she was herself a flamboyant
expression. But the world was not yet ready for a black, working-class woman
who drove through the American South collecting folk tales in a Chevrolet coupé
she called "Sassy Susie". She died in 1960, out of print and out of work, in a
welfare home in Florida. Today, however, all the books she published are back in
print in several languages. Her name adorns awards and prizes across the USA.
The fact that Hurston narrowly escaped literary extinction means the only thing
we know for sure about her is her work and that she existed. Beyond that, what
sustained, motivated, obstructed and marginalized her, who she loved and
loathed, where she lived, not to mention precisely where and when she was
born, have been inferred through painstaking scholarship inspired by guesswork.
Hurston is to blame for much of this confusion. Her skills as a narrator were so
formidable that she made up the story of her own life as she went along,
changing those parts that did not suit at any particular time. She lied about her
age, sometimes out of necessity (so she could enroll in school in Baltimore), at
others out of vanity. Her 'autobiography', Dust Tracks on the Road, is, it is fair to
say, a work of fiction.

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3. According to the writer of the passage, which of the following can most
confidently be confirmed?

A. who Hurston's best friends were

B. where Hurston was born
C. what Hurston liked to eat
D. what Hurston wrote

4. According to the passage, the lack of detailed information about Hurston's life
can mainly be attributed to:

A. her desire for privacy.

B. her talent for storytelling.
C. her unusual circumstances.
D. her ignorance of literary conventions.

Question 5:

Microfiber synthetics have been taking the place of natural fibers in an

ever-increasing number of clothes because they provide the same durability and
deplete fewer natural resources. A shirt made of microfiber synthetics is,
however, three times as expensive to produce as a natural-fiber shirt. It follows
that the substitution of microfiber synthetic clothes for natural-fiber clothes is, at
this time, not recommended from a financial standpoint.

Which of the following statements, if true, most seriously weakens the

argument?

A. A microfiber synthetic shirt costs one-half the price of a

natural-fiber shirt to maintain.
B. The production of microfiber synthetic clothes necessitates garment
factories to renovate obsolete machinery and to hire extra workers to
operate the new machines.
C. The upkeep of natural-fiber shirts is far less expensive than the upkeep of
any other naturalfiber garment in current production.
D. While producers anticipate that the cost of microfiber synthetics will
remain stable, they recognize that the advent of recycling programs for
natural fibers should bring down the costs of natural fibers.
E. The cost of providing stain guards for microfiber synthetic shirts would
probably be greater than what garment producers now spend on stain
guards for natural-fiber shirts.

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Question 6:

Percentage of Available Eggs Eaten by Cane Toad Tadpoles

Amphibian species Percentage of Native to Produces

(common name) eggs eaten Australia bufadienolide

Little red tree frog 1% yes no

Cane toad 90% no yes

Short-footed frog 7% yes no

Striped burrowing frog 10% yes no

Dainty green tree frog 1% yes no

Native to Malaysia, the cane toad was introduced to Asia in the 1930s. In the
1980s, tadpoles in the Asian population have been shown to consume eggs of
their own species. A 2022 study showed that when presented with cane toad
eggs as well as eggs of native Asian amphibians, cane toad tadpoles
disproportionately consumed eggs of their own species. This behavior results
from their attraction to bufadienolide, a chemical produced by the eggs of cane
toads but not by the eggs of native amphibians. However, using data from this
study, a student wishes to argue that the presence of bufadienolide doesn’t
entirely explain the cane toad tadpoles’ preference for certain eggs over others.

Which choice best describes data from the table that supports the student’s
argument?
A. The tadpoles consumed a higher percentage of the striped
burrowing frog eggs than they did of the eggs of the dainty green
tree frog.
B. The tadpoles left a certain percentage of the eggs of each of the five
species unharmed, thus ultimately allowing them to hatch.
C. The tadpoles consumed a lower percentage of the short-footed frog eggs
than they did of the eggs of their own species.
D. The tadpoles consumed the same percentage of the dainty green tree frog
eggs as they did of the little red tree frog eggs.

Question 7:

After a recent and remarket boom in the wind energy sector, Company Y, a
major manufacturer of wind-powered generators, witnessed a period of slow

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growth. This company attributed its success during the boom to the sale of
excess inventory it had discovered in one of its Warehouses.
Which of the following tests would most help to evaluate the company’s
hypothesis as to the cause of its success?
A. Comparing the length of the low-growth period to the length of the
preceding boom
B. Comparing the boom experienced by Company Y to those
experienced by similarly sized manufacturers of wind-powered
generators that did not have inventory on hand
C. Calculating average sales increases within the individual divisions of
Company Y
D. Comparing the total number of generators sold by Company Y during the
boom to the total number sold by Company Y during the period of low
growth
E. Using economic theory to predict the next economic boom for Company Y

Question 8:
Singer: People who listen to music consistently become able to emphatically feel
the beat of the world moving around them. They begin to take pleasure in the
cosmic pendulum that swings them back and forth through the progression of
their days. They learn to appreciate the beginnings and the endings of their
spirituality and see where it interfaces with their existence in mortal life. By
interpreting and enjoying the movement of songs, a whole new mode of
existence is opened up to them.

Pragmatist: The people of whom you speak do tend to be more emphatic and
emotional than other people, but the abstract and diverse nature of the effects
that you claim are simply impossible to tie to any one cause.

Which of the following is the point at issue between the singer and the
pragmatist?
A. the breadth of the effects that listening to music holds for its
listeners
B. the specific musical genre responsible for the effects that the singer claims
C. whether listening to music creates any positive effects
D. whether anything that is abstract can be tied to a cause that is wholly
concrete
E. the merits of advising people who are not music listeners to listen to
music

Question 9:
The cost of operating many small college administrative offices is significantly
reduced when the college replaces its heavily compensated administrative
assistants with part-time work-study students whose earnings are partially

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subsidized by the government. Therefore, large universities should follow suit, as
they will see greater financial benefits than do small colleges.
In the above argument, it is assumed that :
A. replacing administrative assistants with workstudy students is more
cost-effective for small colleges than for large universities
B. large universities usually depend upon small colleges for development of
money-saving strategies
C. the financial gains realized by large universities would not be as great
were they to use non-work-study students in place of the administrative
assistants
D. work-study students at large universities could feasibly fulfill a
similar or greater proportion of administrative assistant jobs than
what they could at small colleges
E. the smaller the college or university, the easier it is for that college or
university to control costs

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II. Quantitative reasoning

Question 10:
All students in a class must take both a written test and a speaking test. If 70
percent of the students passed the written test, and 80 percent of the students
passed the speaking test, what percent of the students passed both tests?
1. 10 percent of the students did not pass either test.
2. 20 percent of the students passed only the speaking test.
A. Statement (1) ALONE is sufficient, but statement (2) alone is not
sufficient.
B. Statement (2) ALONE is sufficient, but statement (1) alone is not
sufficient.
C. BOTH statements TOGETHER are sufficient, but NEITHER statement
ALONE is sufficient.
D. EACH statement ALONE is sufficient.
E. Statements (1) and (2) TOGETHER are NOT sufficient.

Question 11:

How many employees in P Co read neither the Report Journal nor the Data
Journal?
1. Of the 500 people in P Co, 200 read no journals.
2. Of the people in P Co, 150 read the Data Journal only and 200 read the
Report Journal only.
A. Statement (1) ALONE is sufficient, but statement (2) alone is not
sufficient.
B. Statement (2) ALONE is sufficient, but statement (1) alone is not
sufficient.
C. BOTH statements TOGETHER are sufficient, but NEITHER statement
ALONE is sufficient.
D. EACH statement ALONE is sufficient.
E. Statements (1) and (2) TOGETHER are NOT sufficient.

Question 12:

At the end of company HC’s fiscal year, the financial report shows that profits
increased 10 percent over the previous year. However, profits as a percent of
sales were down 10 percent during the same time. Total sales for that year were
approximately what percent of sales for the previous year?
A. 78%
B. 90%
C. 110%
D. 122%
E. 190%

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Question 13:

Month Change in revenue from previous month

July +10%

August -15%

September +20%

October -10%

November +5%

The annual stakeholders’ report shows that there was a fluctuation in

Corporation S’s revenue in year X1. The table above depicts the change in
percent of Corporation S’s revenue from July to November in year X1. A positive
percent indicates that Corporation S's revenue for that month increased from the
revenue for the previous month, and a negative percent indicates that
Corporation S's revenue for that month decreased from the revenue for the
previous month. For which month was the revenue closest to the revenue in
June?
A. July
B. August
C. September
D. October
E. November

Question 14, 15, 16, 17, 18:

Saint John's Hospital is a pediatric hospital dedicated to patients under 18 years

old and based in Manchester, United Kingdom. It is a government-funded
institution located in the western part of the city, where a lot of young parents
have established themselves to start families over the past few years. Parents in
the area are typically young professionals with a university education and
comfortable financial means. Saint John's estimates that it is serving about
300,000 households with children in the local community.
The hospital runs three pediatric services:
● Emergency services. Emergency services are open 24 hours a day, every
day of the year. Children with acute conditions that require urgent
treatment from doctors can attend this service without an appointment.
Most patients go to emergency services by themselves but some of them
are referred to this service by their family doctor.

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 ● Inpatients' services. Patients who have attended emergency services and
have been diagnosed with a condition that requires advanced medical
procedures (e.g. an operation) or prolonged monitoring are admitted to
the pediatric ward, where they are allocated a room with a bed and
become inpatients.
● Outpatients' services. Children with conditions that do not require urgent
treatment but demand specialist advice or monitoring are referred to the
hospital's outpatient services by their family doctor. Outpatients typically
go to the hospital only for their appointment and then return home.
The hospital does not charge families for its services. Instead, it keeps a detailed
log of all the interactions it has with patients, such as the number of emergency
attendances and outpatient appointments as well as the number of inpatients'
procedures it performed during the year. This log is submitted to a government
body called the National Health Service (NHS) that audits it and pays Saint
John's for the services it provided to the local community. These funds are then
used by Saint John's to cover their costs.
The hospital has been awarded an excellence certificate by the NHS in 2011. The
award of this certificate is based on two main sets of criteria:
● Patients' safety. This is measured by the average time patients have to
wait to see a doctor in emergency services, the quality of the medical
procedures in place at the institution and other metrics.
● Financial efficiency. This is measured by traditional financial metrics
including fixed costs, variable costs, total costs per patient, etc.
The management informs you that a number of senior pediatric doctors have
retired in July 2013. The CEO of the hospital tells you that he thinks this might
have decreased the quality of care offered, but the head doctor disagrees
because younger doctors are better trained. Moreover, there were a few
instances where families were disappointed by the care provided to their children
and decided to publicize the issue in local newspapers. This directly affected
Saint John's reputation and had a negative impact on its finances, as some
families then decided to avoid it.

14. Which of the following statements is the most accurate regarding the
hospital's efforts to conserve its excellence certificate?

A. If the hospital improves its patient safety metrics, its excellence certificate
will be maintained
B. If the hospital improves its financial efficiency metrics, its excellence
certificate will be maintained
C. If the hospital does not improve its patient safety metrics, its
excellence certificate will not be maintained
D. If the hospital does not improve its financial efficiency metrics, its
excellence certificate will not be maintained

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15. Which of the following statements, if true, would BEST help determine
whether patient safety has significantly decreased at Saint John's Hospital since
July 2013?
A. There has been a decrease in the number of patients going to SaintJohn's
since July 2013
B. There has been an increase in the number of patients going to rival
hospitals since July 2013
C. Patient satisfaction has decreased by 30% since July 2013
D. The ratio of pediatricians to patients for a typical week has
decreased by 20% since July 2013

16. Saint John's Hospital is a pediatric hospital dedicated to patients under 18

years old and based in Manchester, United Kingdom.
Exhibit 1 shows the results of a survey carried out in October 2013.

Which of the following statements can be concluded from the data in Exhibit 1?
A. 25.0% of children visiting the hospital have a viral infection
B. 7.0% of children visiting the hospital are diagnosed with a respiratory
condition
C. 10.0% of children visiting emergency services then go to inpatient
services
D. 9.0% of children visiting the hospital are diagnosed with
tonsillitis, a burn or a bone fracture

17. How many respondents to the survey visited the hospital because they had a
viral infection?
A. Less than 2,250
B. Less than 1,125

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 C. At least 2,250
D. At least 1,125

18. Saint John’s Hospital developed a website for patients to book appointments
online. The table below shows some analytical data on the website last year.

Visit (thousands) Unique visitors Page views (thousands) Conversion rate (%)

34.6 7,385 67 37

In which:
● Visits: total number of visits to the website
● Unique Visitors: number of unduplicated visitors (counted only once) to
the website
● Page views: total number of pages viewed. Repeated views of a single
page are counted.
● Conversion rate (%): the percentage of visitors (duplicated visitors are
counted) who pay via Paypal to buy something on the website.

The ratio of new visits to returning visits is 1:5. Of the number of new visits, 2/3
are people who never come back to the website. How many times on average
does a unique returning visitor come back to the website after the first visit?
(Note that a number of visitors visited the website the first time before May and
came back in May, their visits in May are all counted as returning visits).
A. 8.7
B. 9.2
C. 8
D. 8.4
E. 7.5

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III. Abstract reasoning

Question 19:

To which of the following does the test shape below belong?

A. Set A
B. Set B
C. Neither

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Question 20:

To which of the following does the test shape below belong?

A. Set A
B. Set B
C. Neither

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Question 21:

What comes next in the sequence?

A. A
B. B
C. C
D. D
E. E

Question 22:

Which figure completes the statement?

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 A. A
B. B
C. C
D. D

Question 23:

Which is the odd one out?

A. A
B. B
C. C
D. D
E. E

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