You applied for the graduate scheme, your CV made it through, and then a mail lands in your inbox: report to a testing portal on Saturday, you have 60 minutes, bring nothing. For most Nigerian graduate roles in 2026, that test — not the CV, not the cover letter — is the real gate. Thousands of applicants get filtered down to a shortlist of dozens in a single sitting, and the difference between the people who advance and the people who do not is rarely intelligence. It is preparation.
This guide breaks down the aptitude test the way you should actually approach it: which provider is likely testing you, what the sections look like, how much time you get, what a realistic pass mark is, and a section-by-section plan you can start this week. We will use the dragnet aptitude test as the anchor, because it is the one you are statistically most likely to sit, but the same muscles carry over to every other format.
Why the aptitude test is the real gatekeeper
Nigerian employers receive volumes of applications that no human team can read line by line. A single bank or telco graduate cycle can attract tens of thousands of candidates for a few hundred slots. The aptitude test exists to do the brutal early cut cheaply and defensibly — everyone sits the same questions under the same clock, and the software ranks them. If your CV work is already sorted (and if it is not, fix that first with our guide on how to write a CV that beats the ATS in Nigeria), the test is the next wall between you and an interview.
The uncomfortable truth is that the test rewards familiarity as much as ability. The person who has seen fifty data-interpretation tables before answers the fifty-first faster and calmer than the person seeing it for the first time. That is the entire game, and it is winnable.
Who tests you: the providers behind the invite
You are almost never tested by the employer directly. Nigerian companies outsource assessment to a handful of specialist firms, and knowing which one is coming shapes how you prepare.
Dragnet Solutions (now HCP)
Dragnet is the name you are most likely to meet. According to Jarushub's roundup of Nigerian aptitude test formats, you are more likely to come across an invite for a test organised by Dragnet than any other recruitment firm (Jarushub, accessed July 2026), with clients including MTN Nigeria, EY, Olam, the Nigerian Exchange and Dufil Prima Foods. Dragnet has rebranded as HCP, and administers tests for major graduate schemes; candidates who wrote Dragnet tests for NLNG, NNPC, Shell or Chevron will find the style familiar (TestStreams, 2026). Dragnet also runs MTN's graduate scheme assessment through its Project Pathfinder portal.
Workforce Group
Workforce Group handles a large slice of the banking sector. Its ability test typically runs about 50 minutes and combines roughly 20 numerical questions, 20 verbal questions, 10 diagrammatic questions and a critical-reasoning element, with no calculator permitted (Jarushub, accessed July 2026). If you are chasing a bank or an FMCG like Nigeria Breweries, expect a Workforce-style paper.
SHL, TalentQ, Kenexa and the Big Four
Multinationals and consulting firms lean on international psychometric brands. Jarushub maps SHL to firms such as Accenture and PwC; TalentQ's adaptive tests to Citibank and Standard Chartered; Kenexa (IBM) to Unilever; and GMAT-style critical reasoning to KPMG and Deloitte (Jarushub, accessed July 2026). The banks and telcos you are targeting overlap heavily with the graduate trainee programmes running in Nigeria in 2026, so line up your prep against the specific employers on your list.
What the test actually looks like
Across nearly every provider, three sections do the heavy lifting, sometimes joined by a personality questionnaire.
Verbal reasoning. You read a passage and decide whether a statement is True, False or Cannot Say based only on the text — not your outside knowledge. Some banks widen this into comprehension, grammar and vocabulary.
Numerical reasoning. Percentages, ratios, fractions, profit and loss, and above all data interpretation from tables, graphs and pie charts. This is where most candidates lose time.
Abstract / logical reasoning. Shapes, symbols and sequences where you spot the pattern or the odd one out. No maths, no English — pure pattern recognition.
Personality / behavioural. Increasingly bundled in by Kenexa, TalentQ and Saville. There are no wrong answers, but there is a consistent one.
On timing and pass marks, be realistic. GTBank's computer-based assessment gives roughly 60 minutes for about 80 questions — budget around 45 seconds per item. Providers rarely publish official cut-offs, but because the test is used to rank and shortlist rather than simply pass or fail, aiming for a comfortable 60–70% and clearing every section is a far safer target than scraping a bare 50%. Speed with accuracy, not one or the other, is what gets you through.
A section-by-section prep plan
Do not "study" in a vague way. Train each section deliberately with a timer. Here is how, with sample-style questions written for this article — never copy a real provider's proprietary items into your practice.
Numerical: master data interpretation first
The biggest wins are in reading tables fast and doing percentage change in your head. Drill "what is X% of Y", "increase from A to B as a percentage", and ratio splits until they are reflexes.
