Assessment centre exercise

Master the Written Exercise at Assessment Centres and Superdays

The written exercise is often considered the most heavily weighted component of a final-round evaluation. Whether you are drafting a recommendation memo at a UK corporate assessment centre or tackling a written case during a US superday, this task simulates the core day-to-day reality of a junior professional: parsing information rapidly and producing flawless, well-structured business prose under a strict clock.

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In short

The assessment centre written exercise is a timed simulation where you receive a candidate brief - ranging from multi-page financial data packets to an adversarial client email - and must draft a polished professional document, such as a strategy memo, legal advice letter, or executive summary. To pass, you must immediately state your bottom-line recommendation, maintain structural clarity using explicit headings, ensure absolute numerical and factual accuracy, tailor the tone to your specific audience, and completely proofread your text before the clock runs out.

The logistics

When it happens and how it runs

Timing. It typically sits in the middle or late morning of the assessment centre or superday schedule, often following an analytical case study preparation window or preceding a partner-led case interview.

Window. You will receive a single, continuous block of time, usually lasting between 30 and 60 minutes. There are no breaks within the session.

Retakes. This is strictly a one-shot exercise within the application cycle. A failing grade on the written document generally eliminates a candidate from the process, regardless of interview performance.

Volume. Reviewing graduate forum data and recruitment transparency profiles indicates that the raw volume of provided reading material can vary from a single, dense 2-page contract clause up to a complex 15-page dossier containing financial tables, news clippings, and internal emails.

Recent changes. While handwritten submissions were historically common, contemporary digital assessment environments mean that roughly 90% of contemporary corporate assessments require typed submissions. Remote delivery through specialized applicant portals or locked browsers has become standard, limiting formatting tools to basic text styling without automatic spell-check.

The basics

What it is

The written exercise tests your capability to process raw, sometimes conflicting, information and distill it into an actionable business asset. Candidates are dropped into a simulated scenario where they assume the role of a first-year associate, graduate trainee, or analyst. You are provided with a "candidate brief" or "information pack" consisting of multiple documents, data points, or message threads. Your objective is to formulate an unambiguous solution and draft the required asset within a tight time constraint.

The task takes several distinct forms depending on the target sector. The recommendation memo is a document addressed to a senior partner, managing director, or investment committee recommending whether to proceed with an acquisition, launch a product, or invest in a specific vendor. The long report summary is an executive summary that synthesizes a massive data dump, such as a 15-page market entry study or compliance audit, down to a single page for a busy executive. The client or stakeholder response is a highly sensitive email or letter drafted to an unhappy client who is threatening to cancel their contract or sue the firm due to a service failure. Legal or policy drafting, common in law firms and public sector assessments, requires analyzing a specific contract clause or regulatory update and applying it to a client's factual problem.

It is critical to distinguish this task from its assessment cousins. This is not an "in-tray exercise" where you are given a pile of 20 unrelated documents to categorize, rank, and prioritize. Nor is it an "e-tray exercise", which is an interactive, digital inbox where you click multiple-choice responses to continuous incoming emails. The written exercise is an absolute production task: you must generate completely original, high-quality prose from scratch.

While the core evaluation metrics are identical globally, regional formats differ subtly. At a UK assessment centre, the written exercise is frequently a standalone, heavily weighted block designed to test formal English corporate communication. At a US superday, a standalone written essay is less common; instead, writing is typically delivered as a "written case study" where you are given 40 to 50 minutes to analyze an investment or consulting scenario and write a structured business memo, which then serves as the exact foundation for your subsequent face-to-face partner interviews.

The format

What you will actually face

The shape of the exercise on the day: how it is run, how long you get, and what you have to produce.

Delivery

Primarily digital via an on-screen text editor during virtual assessment centres, or on a provided laptop at an in-person superday. Occasionally, physical information booklets and paper are used.

Total time

Typically ranges between 30 and 60 minutes, with 40 to 45 minutes being the absolute mode for professional services.

Deliverable

A structured one-page recommendation memo, a formal response to an aggrieved client or internal stakeholder, an executive summary of a strategic dilemma, or a brief legal advice document.

Tech setup

If completed remotely, candidates must use a stable internet connection, a desktop browser with webcam tracking enabled, and a plain-text or rich-text editor embedded into the testing software that lacks advanced grammar aids.

The marking

What assessors mark

Every exercise maps back to a fixed competency matrix. These are the behaviours this one is built to surface.

Structure and signposting

Your document must be immediately scannable. Assessors look for a clear hierarchy, including an introductory summary statement, explicit bold headings, and organized bullet points. If an assessor has to read a paragraph twice to find your core point, you lose marks.

Clarity and concision

Junior professionals waste senior time by using overly verbose language. You are marked on your ability to convey dense concepts in short, sharp sentences. Writing 300 highly precise words is infinitely better than submitting 800 words of generic corporate jargon.

Accuracy (facts and numbers)

If the info pack states that project costs are £450,000 (or $600,000) and you write £45,000 (or $60,000), your analytical credibility drops to zero. Every metric, financial figure, client name, and date must be precisely copied and accurately context-mapped.

Tone and audience-awareness

The register of your writing must change based on the recipient. An internal memo to a peer can be direct; a memo to an investment committee must be objective and data-driven; a letter to an angry client must be empathetic, highly formal, reassuring, and solution-oriented without prematurely admitting liability.

Handling the hidden tension

Every good brief contains a built-in trap or structural tension. For instance, a vendor might have excellent financial returns but a catastrophic environmental track record, or two data sheets might present conflicting revenue projections. Senior assessors look for whether you spot these inconsistencies, explicitly call them out, and suggest a logical path forward.

The scoring

How the exercise becomes a decision

Every exercise maps back to a competency matrix. Here is how the marks are made and what happens to them.

Method. The score splits into two equally weighted halves. Content and Analysis (50% of the total) is evaluated against a strict competency rubric focusing on logic, data synthesis, and judgment. Written Quality (the other 50%) is evaluated on structure, spelling, syntax, tone, and formatting layout.

  • Written communication: demonstrates professional vocabulary, concise sentence construction, zero grammar or spelling flaws, and proper formatting.
  • Analysis and synthesis: extracts the highly material data points from a chaotic info pack while ignoring irrelevant background filler.
  • Commercial judgment: displays a realistic understanding of business priorities, such as risk mitigation, cost-benefit trade-offs, and client retention.
  • Accuracy and detail: perfectly transcribes metrics, references specific contract clauses correctly, and avoids numerical errors.
  • Client and stakeholder awareness: tailors the language style to protect the firm's reputation and match the recipient's perspective.

Pass rates. Exact pass rates for the written exercise are rarely published by corporate graduate recruitment teams. However, historical internal data and recruiter insights indicate it acts as a primary negative filter: approximately 40% to 50% of candidates fail to meet the baseline benchmark for written communication and time management during this specific stage.

Feedback. Feedback reports regularly highlight that the majority of rejected applicants fail due to structural disorganization and an inability to deliver a clear conclusion under time constraints.

Worked example

A worked walkthrough

How a strong candidate spends the clock, minute by minute, on a typical version of this exercise.

  1. 01

    Minute 0 to 5: read the brief and isolate the parameters

    The task: draft a one-page recommendation memo to a senior stakeholder on whether to renew a contract with an outsourced IT supplier, working from an info pack of internal emails, a cost breakdown sheet, and a performance report. Do not write a single word of the draft yet. Read the introductory page to establish your role, the identity of the recipient, the precise deliverable requested, and any explicit constraints (for example, a maximum word limit of 500 words). Scan the information pack to see what data you have: an email complaining about server downtime, a pricing matrix, and a competitor's quote.

  2. 02

    Minute 5 to 12: analyze the data and spot the tension

    Read through the documents with a focus on numbers and constraints. Note down the hard facts: the current vendor costs £200,000 ($260,000) per year but caused 4 hours of critical system downtime last month, costing the firm an estimated £50,000 ($65,000) in lost productivity. The competitor quotes £220,000 ($285,000) but guarantees a 99.9% uptime SLA. The core tension is a higher baseline cost versus the risk of operational disruption. Formulate your final decision immediately: recommend switching to the competitor because the total cost of ownership of the current vendor is actually higher when accounting for downtime losses.

  3. 03

    Minute 12 to 15: sketch the structural skeleton

    Create your outline directly in the text editor to ensure perfect layout organization. Drop in standard corporate memo headings: To (the senior stakeholder), From (your role or candidate number), Date, and a Subject line such as "Recommendation regarding IT Infrastructure Contract Renewal", followed by sections for the Executive Summary, Current Vendor Performance and Financial Implications, Alternative Options and Strategic Benefits, and Final Recommendation and Next Steps.

  4. 04

    Minute 15 to 30: draft the prose cleanly

    Write your content directly into the skeleton. Start the Executive Summary with the final answer: "This memo recommends transitioning our IT infrastructure contract from Vendor A to Vendor B upon expiration on October 31." Use the subsequent sections to justify this choice using the exact metrics from the text. Use short sentences. Use bullet points to list the specific failures of the current supplier to ensure the paragraph is easy to read.

  5. 05

    Minute 30 to 35: perform numerical calculations and check constraints

    Verify that your math is accurate. Write out the comparison clearly: "While Vendor B presents a £20,000 ($25,000) higher annual baseline fee, Vendor A's historical downtime rate projects to an annualized operational loss of £150,000 ($195,000), making Vendor B the financially optimal choice." Check that you have explicitly addressed every single question posed in the initial brief.

  6. 06

    Minute 35 to 40: ruthless proofreading and formatting polish

    Read through the entire document strictly to catch typos, punctuation errors, and awkward phrasing. Because digital testing environments often turn off spell-check, you must manually read word-by-word. Ensure your tone remains objective. Verify that the layout looks clean, balanced, and ready for senior review. Save and submit your response.

Rehearse the format

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How not to fail

Mistakes that sink candidates

Specific failure modes assessors screen out. None of them need talent to avoid, only awareness.

  • Burying the recommendation

    Many candidates write their document like a mystery novel, revealing their final conclusion only in the final sentence. Busy corporate executives read the first paragraph and stop if the answer is missing. State your recommendation immediately in the executive summary.

  • Running out of time to proofread

    Leaving an incomplete sentence or a glaring typo at the end of your document tells the assessor that your time management failed. It is far better to write a shorter, fully completed, and polished document than a long one that cuts off mid-thought.

  • Ignoring the target reader

    Writing a raw technical data dump to an external client, or writing a highly informal, emotional message to an internal managing director, shows a lack of professional maturity. Align your tone directly with your reader's expectations.

  • Factual and numerical slip-ups

    Miscopying financial metrics or changing a client's company name creates an immediate negative impression. In professional services, small details carry massive legal and financial liabilities; assessors treat typos as a lack of fundamental diligence.

  • Waffling over structural organization

    Submitting three long, dense paragraphs of text without headings or bullet points makes the document unreadable. It forces the marker to hunt through text to find where you evaluated the data.

  • Overlooking an explicit constraint

    If the candidate brief explicitly commands you to "keep the document under 500 words" or "address three specific risks", and you write 700 words or only cover two risks, you lose easy marks. Assessors test your capacity to follow explicit client instructions.

From past candidates

How recent candidates approached it

Anonymised accounts of how real candidates handled this exercise: the prep, the experience, and the outcome.

Pass - UK Training Contract (Corporate/M&A)

Prep. Practiced summarizing long commercial news articles into 300-word briefs under a 30-minute timer. Created a fixed layout framework in advance.

Experience. I was given a 45-minute task to review an information pack regarding a client's contractual dispute with a tech supplier. The document bundle was roughly 10 pages long. I spent the first 10 minutes strictly reading and mapping the core legal and commercial arguments. The prompt asked me to reply to a partner memo detailing our options. I started with a clear executive summary, used bold subheadings for each option, and included a 'Commercial Considerations' section where I pointed out that suing the supplier would damage our client's market reputation. I finished writing at minute 38, leaving exactly 7 minutes to proofread. I caught two typos in my calculations.

Outcome. Successful. The recruiter feedback explicitly praised my structural scannability and commercial perspective.

Miss - US Investment Banking (M&A Group)

Prep. Focused extensively on live verbal case interviews and financial modeling, assuming the written case component would be simple if my math was right.

Experience. During the superday, we were hit with a sudden 40-minute written case task. We had to analyze a 5-page data pack on a target acquisition and write a recommendation memo to the investment committee. I got bogged down trying to calculate every single financial ratio from the appendices. I spent 25 minutes on calculations alone. When I started writing, I panicked due to the clock. I wrote a massive wall of text without any headings or bullet points just to get my thoughts down. The countdown timer hit zero while I was in the middle of writing my final conclusion paragraph.

Outcome. Unsuccessful. The feedback noted that while my math analysis was highly accurate, the document itself was incomplete, poorly structured, and would be unusable for an investment committee.

Practice plan

A week-by-week run-up

How to rehearse the format ahead of time so nothing on the day is happening for the first time.

  1. Phase 1: Foundations and speed reading (1-2 weeks out)

    Training your mind to read, filter, and structure dense information quickly.

    • Open a detailed financial news piece or a corporate research report. Set a timer for 7 minutes to read it completely and extract the core conflict and key metrics.
    • Practice drafting standard corporate memo headings and executive summaries until the format becomes automatic muscle memory.
    • Study professional business writing styles, focusing on transitioning from long passive sentences to active, direct prose.
  2. Phase 2: Constrained drafting and time management (1 week out)

    Executing complete end-to-end simulated exercises under an exact clock.

    • Simulate a 40-minute task: take an unfamiliar business topic case sheet, spend 10 minutes planning, 25 minutes writing, and 5 minutes editing.
    • Enforce a strict word ceiling of 400 to 500 words to train yourself to cut out unnecessary filler and corporate jargon.
    • Practice writing responses to angry client scenarios, focusing on maintaining a calm, objective, and constructive professional tone.
  3. Phase 3: Final optimization and polish (final days)

    Refining your manual proofreading skills and practicing without text editors that have autocorrect tools.

    • Write your practice drafts in a basic, plain text editor (like Notepad) with all spell-check and grammar-check functions completely turned off.
    • Develop a personal five-minute proofreading checklist focusing on your common personal mistakes (for example, checking number transcriptions, font consistency, and sentence lengths).
    • Utilize specialized assessment simulation platforms like Intervyo to test your communication skills under authentic, timed simulation pressures.

Practice prompts

A bank of sample briefs

Rehearse against prompts in the shape of the real thing before the day.

  • Corporate Banking: recommend whether the bank should approve a £5,000,000 ($6.5 million) loan extension to a retail client facing temporary supply chain disruptions, based on an internal risk portfolio pack.

  • Strategy Consulting: summarize a dense 12-page market intelligence report regarding autonomous drone delivery adoption for a busy consumer goods director.

    Stresses data synthesis.

  • Commercial Law: draft a formal response letter to a long-term corporate client who is threatening to terminate their legal retainer due to a missed filing deadline by an associate.

    Stresses tone and reputation management.

  • Big 4 Advisory: write an internal recommendation memo evaluating whether a public sector client should modernize their legacy ERP software system or transition entirely to a cloud-native SaaS model.

  • Public Sector / Civil Service: draft a policy brief for a senior government official outlining the economic pros and cons of two conflicting local infrastructure investment proposals.

  • Corporate Compliance: write an urgent internal memo addressing a potential data compliance breach identified in a regional office, detailing the required immediate steps to limit risk.

  • Asset Management: review a brief performance history of two clean-energy funds and draft an investment rationale memo recommending one fund for an institutional client's portfolio.

  • Technology / Product: draft a product strategy memo recommending whether to launch a feature extension immediately with known minor bugs or delay the release by three months for refinement.

  • Commercial Law: review a specific draft non-compete clause alongside an employee's new job offer letter, and draft a short risk advisory note to the firm's partner.

    Stresses precision and detail.

  • Operations / Supply Chain: write a recommendation memo choosing between a low-cost overseas supplier with high shipping volatility and a higher-cost domestic supplier with guaranteed delivery timelines.

Where you will meet it

Firms that run a written exercise

Law firms, the Big 4, banking and consulting all fold a written exercise into the assessment centre or superday to verify core communication skills before making final offers. Each links to a full firm guide: the process, the questions they ask, and how to prepare.

Goldman SachsPack readyJ.P. MorganPack readyMorgan StanleyPack readyCitiPack readyBank of AmericaPack readyBarclaysPack readyDeutsche BankPack readyUBSPack readyHSBCPack readyMcKinsey & CompanyPack readyBoston Consulting GroupPack readyBain & CompanyPack ready

Firms marked Pack ready have a full Intervyo prep Pack: firm-specific HireVue practice, psychometric tests, live AI mock interviews, CV review and process intelligence.

See every firm guide

Frequently asked questions

The exercise typically lasts between 30 and 60 minutes, with 40 minutes being the most common length. The timing parameters are absolute. If you are using a digital assessment platform, the system will automatically lock your screen and submit your text the exact second the countdown clock hits zero. There is no grace period for finishing a sentence.

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