The Aon (cut-e) Scales Numerical Test: Why It's Nothing Like SHL

Candidates who have prepared thoroughly for SHL-style numerical tests often walk into the Aon numerical reasoning test — still widely known by its original name, cut-e — and get caught completely off guard. Not because the maths is harder. Because almost every habit that serves you well on a conventional numerical test works against you on this one.

Cut-e was a German assessment company acquired by Aon, and its "scales" test family is used by a number of major employers, particularly in finance — Deutsche Bank is among the firms reported to use Aon assessments for graduate and early-careers screening, though providers can vary by role and region, so always confirm from your own invitation email. If that email mentions Aon, cut-e or "scales", this is the test family you are dealing with, and it deserves preparation on its own terms.

How long is the Aon scales numerical test, and how many questions?

Confirmed Aon publishes the length of this test on its own candidate page: the scales numerical test is 37 tasks in 12 minutes, and the instruction is “finish as many as you can”. Reported There is no standard “short form”. Some employers licence an abbreviated custom build, and candidate walkthroughs on JobTestPrep and AssessmentPass report 18 tasks in 6 minutes at Morgan Stanley and Nomura — a prep-site figure, not an Aon one. Either way, that is roughly 20 seconds per question — compare that with SHL's Verify Interactive at nearly two minutes per question, and you begin to see why preparation for one transfers so poorly to the other.

Each task is a statement about a set of company data, and you must mark it True, False or Cannot Say. The data is not presented as a single neat chart. It is spread across multiple tabs — different tables, charts and documents for different aspects of a fictional business — and each statement tells you which area to look in. Part of the task is navigating to the right tab quickly and reading only what you need. Candidates report that clicking through tabs under a 12-minute clock is a skill in itself, and it is one that generic numerical practice never builds.

The test also comes in different industry variants — commonly described as consumer, finance and industrial versions — with data themed to the sector you are applying to. The underlying skills are the same, but the finance version's data (portfolios, balances, rates) rewards familiarity with financial tables.

How to read this table. Confirmed means the test publisher or the employer states it. Reported means preparation providers and current candidate reports agree, but the publisher does not say. Not published means nobody publishes it — we have not filled the gap with an estimate. The confirmed rows come from Aon’s own candidate page, Prepare for your Online Assessment.

For this provider set against the other three, row by row, see the provider comparison table.

Does the Aon (cut-e) test have negative marking?

Confirmed Here is the single most important thing to know, and the reason standard test advice backfires. Aon publishes it on its own candidate page: on its performance tests, “points are usually added for each correct answer and deducted for every incorrect answer”. Not published Aon states no penalty for a question you leave blank, and preparation providers consistently report that blanks are not penalised — but Aon does not publish the deduction weight, or confirm the treatment of blanks in so many words.

On most numerical tests, the standard advice is sound: never leave a blank, because a guess has positive expected value. On a test with penalty scoring, that logic inverts. A blind guess on a three-option question is more likely to hurt you than help you. The better strategy, widely echoed by candidates and preparation providers alike, is to answer only when you are confident, skip cleanly when you are not, and never burn 90 seconds wrestling one stubborn question — at 20 seconds per question, one stubborn item costs you four or five answerable ones.

For how the Aon format sits against the other three providers UK employers use, see the complete guide to UK graduate aptitude tests.

Nobody completes all 37 questions comfortably. The test is engineered so that almost everyone runs out of time, which means your result is determined by the trade-off you strike between speed and accuracy. Candidates who don't know about the penalty scoring strike that trade-off wrongly — they rush, guess, and quietly bleed points.

What is the Aon scales verbal test?

If your invitation includes verbal reasoning, expect the same design philosophy. Aon publishes this one too: the scales verbal test is 49 tasks in 12 minutes — around 15 seconds each — again answered True, False or Cannot Say against information spread across tabs. As with the numerical test, you are not expected to finish; you are expected to be accurate at pace. And as with any True/False/Cannot Say format, the discipline is strict textualism: a statement is only True if the relevant tab fully supports it, only False if the tab at least partly contradicts it, and Cannot Say when the information simply is not there — regardless of what you happen to know about the real world.

How should you prepare for the Aon scales numerical test?

Recalibrate your expectations first. If your practice standard comes from SHL-style tests, your internal clock is set to the wrong speed. Sit at least one full timed run of a scales-format practice test purely to feel the pace. Most candidates describe the first attempt as a shock; that shock is much cheaper in practice than in the real thing.

Train the navigation, not just the maths. The arithmetic itself — reading values, comparing figures, checking simple calculations — is not advanced. What needs training is the loop: read statement, identify the right tab, find the figure, decide, move on. That loop only gets faster through repetition on the actual format.

Practise skipping. This sounds trivial and is not. Under time pressure, walking away from a half-solved question feels like losing. On a penalty-scored test, it is often the correct play. Practising the discipline of a clean skip — no lingering, no guessing — is genuinely one of the highest-value things you can rehearse.

Know your baseline before you drill. The scales format punishes two different weaknesses — slow data location and shaky rapid arithmetic — and they need different work. A timed diagnostic taken before you start preparing tells you which one is actually costing you marks, rather than leaving you to guess.

The honest summary

The Aon (cut-e) scales numerical test is short, dense, penalty-scored and deliberately unfinishable — the near-opposite of the long-form, generously-timed numerical tests most candidates practise on. Treat it as its own discipline. Confirm the exact test family from your invitation, practise the real format under the real clock, and be strict about answering only what you can answer confidently.

Before you start preparing, find out where you actually stand. The Acumen Logic Benchmark is a free, one-shot diagnostic — 20 questions under real timed conditions, taken once, like the real thing. It shows you your estimated percentile and exactly where your speed–accuracy trade-off sits before you commit hours to practice.

Common questions

Does the Aon (cut-e) test have negative marking? +

Yes, and Aon publishes it. Aon states that on its performance tests, points are usually added for each correct answer and deducted for every incorrect answer. It states no penalty for a question left blank. That reverses the usual test advice: a blind guess on a three-option question is more likely to hurt you than help you, while a clean skip costs you nothing beyond the mark you did not win. Aon does not publish the size of the deduction.

How long is the Aon scales numerical test? +

Aon publishes the figure: 37 tasks in 12 minutes, which is roughly 20 seconds per task. There is no standard short form. Some employers licence an abbreviated build, and preparation providers report 18 tasks in 6 minutes at Morgan Stanley and Nomura, though Aon does not publish those variants. Either way the test is designed so that almost nobody completes it.

Should you guess on the Aon scales numerical test? +

No. With deductions for wrong answers and no penalty for blanks, the better strategy is to answer only when you are confident and to skip cleanly when you are not. At roughly 20 seconds a task, one stubborn question costs you four or five answerable ones.