Oriel Test Day: What Actually Happens

Knowing the shape of the day removes a surprising amount of exam-morning anxiety. Here is what the session actually looks like, and the two details that most often cost marks.

The order

Numeracy comes first. Ten questions, twenty minutes. Then the SJT: fifty-two scenarios, one hundred and four minutes. Both in the same test-centre session — around 124 minutes of testing in total.

Most candidates assume the SJT leads, because it is the part that determines your rank. It does not. You will do your calculations while you are freshest, and then sit the longer, more cognitively draining paper afterwards.

Plan your practice to match. If every mock you have sat put the SJT first, you have never rehearsed the actual fatigue curve.

The units trap

In the numeracy test you enter numerical answers only. Adding units will render your answer incorrect.

This is worth saying plainly because it is such a cheap way to lose a mark you have already earned. You do the calculation correctly, you type 5 mg, and it is wrong. Practise entering bare numbers until it is automatic.

Where you sit it

At a Pearson Professional Assessments test centre. If you have read older guidance calling it Pearson VUE, that was the name through 2024 — a lot of revision content has not caught up.

As of the 2026 cycle, remote online testing is possible in exceptional circumstances. It is an exception, not an option you select, so plan for a test centre unless you have been told otherwise.

The glossary

A glossary of asterisked terms is available throughout the test. It exists so unfamiliar terminology does not turn a judgement test into a comprehension test.

Use it if you need it — but treat needing it often as a signal. Every lookup costs time you do not have much of, particularly in the SJT, where you have exactly two minutes a scenario.

Your calculator

Bring an approved model. There are seven on the permitted list, two of which are discontinued but still allowed if you already own one. Buy one now and practise on it — an unfamiliar calculator under time pressure is an avoidable error.

What actually determines the outcome

Worth keeping in proportion on the day: your SJT score alone determines your rank. The numeracy paper is reported separately and used only to break ties — and it sits last in that sequence, after five SJT-derived measures.

So if numeracy goes badly, it is genuinely recoverable. Do not carry twenty minutes of frustration into a hundred and four minutes that matter considerably more.

A short checklist

Approved calculator, already familiar
Numerical answers only, no units
Numeracy first, twenty minutes, ten questions
SJT second, two minutes a scenario, do not linger on the ambiguous middle
Glossary available if you need it

Timings and format from the current NRS applicant handbook. Dose Up's Oriel mocks run at exam length and pacing — try the free Oriel quiz.