Comparing the attributes of the Applied Assessments

This article will help you, the rest of the hiring team, and candidates to set the right expectations when asking the assessments, scoring them and sharing feedback.

Attribute	Multiple-choice questions	Sift questions	Structured Interview questions
Overview	These questions help assess candidates' relevant domain of knowledge or situational judgement. They're a good way to minimise the burden on your team for an initial round of assessment if you experience very high candidate volumes or require specific skills in order to proceed with an application.	These questions are used to test practical skills that candidates need for the job and are the most predictive form of assessment. They also help candidates understand what is required for the role. Candidates give 250-word written answers, mainly to day-to-day challenges they'd face on the job, and your review team rate them based on criteria you set ahead of time.	Structured interviews allow you to further evaluate candidates' strengths and weaknesses. By asking all candidates the same questions, in the same order, and having the team rate each individually without discussing, they can also be far more predictive and fairer than traditional unstructured interviews.  Your interview team rate them based on criteria you set ahead of time.
Do I need to tag questions with skills?	Yes, adding skills will help you to get far greater insight from the process and help with data reporting. Skills allow you to: visualise where candidates' relative strengths and weaknesses are; identify if the question is useful for the skills that you are looking for; re-identify the question in your question library; and,  provide the best candidate experience when you send them feedback.
What are some of the behavioural principles that underlie their design and scoring?	Anonymisation Automated scoring	These principles are:  Anonymisation Chunking Randomisation Crowdsourcing	These principles are: Structured questions Rules for scoring Independent scores by skill area Crowdsourcing
Are candidates timed?	Yes, you can pre-set the total number of minutes that candidates can spend answering these questions - which continues even if the candidate closes the tab. The test will automatically score their answers and will lock once the timer is up.	No, the restriction here is the number of words. Candidates can read the questions and submit the answers anytime before the role close date.	Yes, but the timer is more for your planning purposes. You can add an approximate duration for each interview round. But you can continue with the interview if you spend more time than what you expected.
What's the nature of the answer?	Candidates select one of a set of answers that you have pre-defined. You can have as many possible answers as you wish, but only one can be correct.	Candidates can submit up to 250 words in their written response - which could contain some limited formatting (for example, dashes or lists). This balances substance with brevity.	It's usually verbal, visual or behavioural. The interview panel can record notes for each question/answer so they can later discuss their scores.
How are the answers scored?	Correct answers score 1 point. Wrong answers score 0. And there can only be one correct answer per question.  Total scores are automatically calculated by the platform and will be updated in real-time for admin users.	The hiring team provides reviewing criteria to help the review team score each answer objectively, on a 5-point scale. How you write your criteria is up to you, but it typically indicates what a 5-star answer looks like, what a 3-star answer looks like and what a 1-star answer looks like.	The hiring team provides scoring criteria to help the interview team score each answer objectively, on a 5-point scale.  How you write your criteria is up to you, but it typically indicates what a 5-star answer looks like, what a 3-star answer looks like and what a 1-star answer looks like.
Can I divide questions into sections or rounds?	No, all questions are asked to candidates in one go. These are provided to candidates at the point of application, but they can choose when (before the deadline) they want to do the test.	No, all questions are asked to candidates in one go. These are provided to candidates at the point of application, but they can choose when (before the deadline) they want to write up and submit their answers.	Yes, you can conduct any number of interview rounds.
When can candidates see and answer questions? (You can also learn more about the Applied way of doing an application)	As soon as they go to their application form they'll see a 'Tasks' section where the test will appear.  Candidates are given some basic instructions and cannot submit their application if the timer doesn't start and if they don't try to answer these questions.	As soon as they go to their application form they'll see a 'Tasks' section where these questions will appear. Candidates cannot submit their application if they don't answer these questions.	Candidates cannot see questions in advance unless you want to share them via email.
How is feedback on candidate performance shared?	In their feedback link (when you choose to send it).  Candidates can only see the total score of the test and the radar graph that indicates how well they performed on each skill (compared to the average and to the top performer for that skill). They cannot see scores for individual questions so you can use them in multiple job application processes.	In their feedback link (when you choose to send it). Candidates can see a radar graph that indicates how well they performed on each skill (compared to the average and to the top performer for that skill). They also see how well they performed on each question (low to high), but cannot see the individual scores given by reviewers or the names of reviewers. They also aren't given the review guide, to ensure you can use it again in the future.	In their feedback link (when you choose to send it). Candidates can see a radar graph that indicates how well they performed on each skill assessed during the interview (compared to the average and to the top performer for that skill). They cannot see individual scores unless you explicitly use Applied's compile feedback option and let them know individual scores. By using the compile feedback option you can also add qualitative feedback if you'd like.