A four-week Cognitive Test practice routine

Four weeks is enough to move 10–15 percentage points of accuracy on the Cognitive Test if you practise deliberately. Less than four weeks works if you're already strong on numerical; more rarely adds value.

Week 1 — Baseline and diagnosis

• Day 1: Take a full 30-minute timed mock. Record accuracy by section.
• Days 2–6: 20 minutes per day. Focus on the weakest section from Day 1. Drill 20 questions, untimed, then 10 questions timed.
• Day 7: Light review of the week. No new drilling.

Week 2 — Pattern recognition

• Days 8–13: Move from untimed to timed in all sections. 30 questions per day, mixed sections, with a strict per-question time limit. Tag each wrong answer by error type (arithmetic, misread, wrong shape identified).
• Day 14: Second full mock. Compare accuracy to Day 1.

Week 3 — Speed under pressure

• Days 15–20: Drill the weakest shape, not the weakest section. By now you should know whether percentage-of-percentage or weighted averages is your bottleneck.
• Add a fatigue drill once: 60 questions in one sitting, mixed sections. The Cognitive Test is exhausting and few candidates practise the endurance.
• Day 21: Third full mock. Track section pacing.

Week 4 — Polish and taper

• Days 22–26: Light drilling, 15 minutes per day. Focus on confidence and pacing, not new content.
• Day 27: Final mock at the time of day you'll take the real test.
• Day 28: Rest. Light review only.

Metrics that matter

• Accuracy per section — the obvious one.
• Per-question time — improvements here drive end-of-test accuracy.
• Skip discipline — how often you stayed on a question you should have skipped.
• Fatigue dropoff — accuracy in the last third vs the first third.

If all four metrics improve, you'll see the score move. If only accuracy improves but pacing doesn't, you'll still run out of time on test day.

What to skip

• Massed drilling of one section for hours.
• New content in week 4.
• Practising at a different time of day from the real test.