How your verbal test score is interpreted

The way in which the verbal reasoning test score is interpreted is similar to that of other aptitude tests (numerical and abstract) .  There is no 'passing' score for the verbal reasoning test, as your score is compared to a benchmark that includes scores of others at an organisational level and in an occupation similar to the one you are applying for. For example, if you apply for a role in commerce and are given a verbal reasoning test to complete, your raw score (or the number of correct responses) is then compared with a large number of scores of people who either work in commerce roles or applied for similar roles. This enables employers to learn how good your verbal reasoning skills are in comparison to those of others in the area you applied for. 

Your result is calculated relative to that of other people in similar roles. This means that even if you correctly answered most of the questions in the test, your result may still be lower than the average in the area you are applying for. How is this possible? Let’s look at the following example: you correctly answered 26 of 30 questions given in the verbal test. You interpret this to be a ‘good result’. However, other people in similar roles to that you applied for have also very strong verbal reasoning skills and on average answer correctly 27 of 30 questions. This means that your ‘good result’ is actually a ‘bad result’ because it’s lower than the average result of people who work in a similar role to that you applied for.