SHL Test Retake Policy: Can You Retake an SHL Test?

By default, SHL does not allow retakes — your first sitting is your result, and that is the score the employer sees. SHL's TalentCentral platform records your completion status the moment you submit your answers. Once a test is marked as completed, the system does not present it to you again under the same employer invitation.

This policy exists for two reasons. First, it ensures fairness: every candidate is assessed under the same conditions without practice attempts skewing results. Second, it protects the integrity of the norm group — if candidates could retake freely, scores would inflate and lose their predictive value for employers.

Understanding what the SHL test actually measures helps explain why one sitting is considered sufficient. The tests assess stable cognitive abilities — numerical, verbal, and inductive reasoning — that do not change significantly between sittings, at least not without genuine long-term practice. A second attempt under normal conditions would typically produce a very similar score.

What "no retakes" means in practice

• One invitation, one attempt: Each employer invitation generates a unique test link tied to your email address. Once the test window closes or you complete the test, the link expires and cannot be reused.
• Completion recorded immediately: TalentCentral marks your test as complete as soon as you submit. There is no grace period or review window after submission.
• Score forwarded automatically: Your results are forwarded to the employer's recruitment system without any candidate-side ability to withhold or suppress them.
• The cooling-off period begins: From the date of your test, the employer's cooling-off policy starts running — typically 6–12 months before you can reapply to the same employer.

There are genuine circumstances under which a retake may be granted, but the key point is this: you cannot request a retake directly from SHL. All retake decisions are made by the employer's recruitment team — SHL provides the platform, but the employer controls the process.

Scenario 1 — Technical failure

If your test was interrupted by a power cut, browser crash, internet outage, or platform error mid-session, you have a legitimate basis to request a retake. Contact the employer's recruitment team as soon as possible — ideally within 24 hours — and explain what happened. Most employers will grant a fresh test link for genuine technical issues, as it is in their interest to assess candidates properly.

When making this request: be specific about the issue (time of failure, what screen you were on, error messages if any), provide evidence if available (screenshots, ISP logs), and be polite and professional. Recruitment teams handle these requests regularly and appreciate candidates who report problems promptly rather than waiting until after the deadline.

Scenario 2 — Same employer, different role

If you have already sat an SHL test for one role at an employer and want to apply for a different role at the same company, you will typically be subject to the employer's cooling-off period — usually 6–12 months. You will not be able to retake before that window expires. Some employers may use your previous score for a new application within the validity period rather than inviting you to test again.

Scenario 3 — Different employer

If you are applying to a completely different employer, you will take a fresh SHL test — even if you have sat SHL tests many times before with other companies. Scores are employer-specific and are not shared or transferred between organisations. This is one of the most important facts about SHL score portability: your Goldman Sachs result has no bearing on your Deloitte application. See Section 4 on score portability for full details.

Cooling-off periods are set individually by each employer and are not determined by SHL. The table below covers major graduate employers based on publicly available recruitment policies and candidate-reported experiences. Always verify the current policy on the employer's own careers page, as these can change cycle to cycle.

SHL keeps test results on file for 12 months as a standard validity window, though some employers extend this to 24 months. The practical consequence is that if you reapply to the same employer within that window, your old score may be used rather than a fresh test being administered. Your score does not reset on its own — the employer's recruitment system has a record of your previous result.

How TalentCentral stores results

SHL's TalentCentral is not a universal candidate profile. There is no "SHL account" that follows you around between employers. Instead, each employer operates their own separate TalentCentral instance. When an employer invites you to test, they generate a unique link through their instance. Your results are stored within that employer's TalentCentral environment — not in a shared database accessible to other companies.

This is fundamentally different from how many candidates imagine the system works. Your score for Goldman Sachs is not visible to Deloitte, KPMG, or any other employer. When a new employer invites you to test, you are starting entirely fresh, regardless of how many SHL tests you have sat elsewhere and regardless of whether you passed or failed those tests.

Within the same employer — the 12-month window

Within a single employer's recruitment system, your previous score may persist for up to 12–24 months. This means:

• Same employer, new application, within validity window: The employer may use your existing score rather than re-testing you. Whether they do depends on their internal policy — some will re-invite you to test, others will apply your previous score automatically.
• Same employer, after validity window expires: You will typically be required to complete the tests again as a fresh candidate. Your historical score from the previous cycle is unlikely to be applied.
• Score improvement: If your old score was close to the cut-off, there is limited value in hoping it has expired — focus instead on whether the cooling-off period has ended and then prepare thoroughly for a fresh sitting.

For more context on how SHL scores are interpreted and what counts as a competitive result, see our guide to what is a good SHL score.

Many major employers — including Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan, and Deloitte — require candidates to complete a shorter version of the aptitude tests in person at the assessment centre. This is called a verification re-sit, and its sole purpose is to confirm that your online score was genuine.

Why employers use verification re-sits

Online unsupervised testing creates an obvious integrity concern: there is no way to confirm the person sitting the test is the applicant, or that no assistance was used. Employers address this by administering a supervised in-person version of the same test type — if your in-person score closely matches your online score, your original result is verified. If there is a large discrepancy, the employer has grounds to investigate or withdraw your candidacy.

What the re-sit looks like

The verification re-sit is typically shorter than the original test — often 10–15 questions rather than a full 20–30 question battery. It uses the same question format (numerical reasoning, verbal reasoning, or inductive reasoning) and is administered under supervised, timed conditions, usually on paper or on a secure computer at the assessment centre.

The employer does not require you to exactly replicate your online score — cognitive performance naturally varies by 5–10 percentile points day to day. What they are checking for is gross inconsistency: for example, a candidate who scored at the 90th percentile online but cannot correctly answer basic numerical questions in person.

What happens if your scores differ significantly

A large discrepancy between your online and in-person scores is a serious red flag. Depending on the employer, this may result in:

• Immediate disqualification: The most common outcome at major investment banks and the Civil Service.
• Formal investigation: You may be asked to explain the discrepancy. This is unlikely to result in reinstatement if the gap is large.
• Permanent ban: Some employers maintain a blacklist of candidates flagged for assessment irregularities. This may affect applications to that employer indefinitely.

Whether you can see your own SHL score depends entirely on the employer's transparency policy — not on SHL itself. SHL's TalentCentral platform gives employers the choice of whether to share score reports with candidates. Most employers choose not to share raw scores.

What most candidates receive

The majority of employers send only a pass/fail notification after the aptitude test stage. You will typically receive an email from the employer's recruitment team (not from SHL directly) stating either that you have progressed to the next stage or that your application has not been taken forward at this time. No percentile score, no raw score, and no individual test breakdown is provided in most cases.

Employers that do share scores

A small number of employers — particularly in the public sector and some professional services firms — do share score reports with candidates as part of their transparency and candidate experience commitments. The Civil Service, for example, provides feedback on test performance as part of its Fast Stream process. If you sit an SHL test and want to know your score, the only way to find out is to check whether the employer offers a feedback or score report — and if so, request it explicitly.

SHL's own candidate portal

SHL does not maintain a public-facing candidate portal where you can log in and review your scores across all employers. Your test history is employer-specific, as described in Section 4. SHL may provide a candidate-facing result if your employer has enabled this feature, but this is far from universal. For a deeper look at how results are communicated, see our guide to SHL test results explained.

Failing an SHL test is not the end of your application cycle — it is the start of your next preparation phase. Here is a practical action plan for the period immediately after an unsuccessful SHL result.

Step 1 — Understand what happened

If you received only a pass/fail notification, you may not know whether you narrowly missed the cut or scored significantly below it. Reflect honestly on how the test felt: Did you run out of time? Were the numerical calculations difficult? Did you find verbal reasoning questions ambiguous? Your self-assessment informs what to prioritise in your next preparation phase.

Step 2 — Note the cooling-off date

Record the exact date of your test and identify the employer's cooling-off period (see the table in Section 3). Add a calendar reminder for when you become eligible to reapply. Do not reapply early — applications submitted during the cooling-off window are typically rejected automatically, which does not reset the clock.

Step 3 — Apply to similar employers in the meantime

Because SHL scores are not shared between employers, a failed test at one company has zero impact on other applications. Use the cooling-off window to apply to comparable firms. If you are targeting Goldman Sachs, you can simultaneously apply to J.P. Morgan, Barclays, and other banks without any crossover in assessment records. Each application is treated independently.

Step 4 — Prepare properly before reapplying

The cooling-off window is typically 6–12 months — a meaningful amount of time for structured preparation. A candidate who completes 40–60 hours of deliberate practice across numerical reasoning, verbal reasoning, and inductive reasoning will score materially better than they did in their first sitting. The test format and question logic are learnable.

Step 5 — Return with a stronger profile

When you reapply after the cooling-off period, treat it as a fresh application. Update your CV, re-research the employer, and ensure your motivation and fit answers are as strong as possible. A candidate who scores above the cut-off on the second attempt progresses through the process on identical footing to any first-attempt applicant — there is no lasting disadvantage from a previous failed application, provided you are within the fresh-application window.

The most effective retake policy is never needing one. Structured preparation before your first sitting significantly increases the probability of clearing the cut-off — and removes the anxiety, time cost, and cooling-off delay that come with a failed attempt.

Build the core skills first

SHL tests measure three cognitive abilities: numerical reasoning (interpreting data tables, charts, and performing percentage / ratio calculations under time pressure), verbal reasoning (evaluating statements as True, False, or Cannot Say based on a passage), and inductive reasoning (identifying abstract patterns in sequences of shapes). Each requires a distinct preparation approach.

• Numerical reasoning: Practise timed data interpretation. Focus on percentages, percentage change, ratios, and proportion — these account for the majority of questions. Learn to estimate first and calculate second. Work through at least 150–200 practice questions before your test.
• Verbal reasoning: Practise the True / False / Cannot Say discipline strictly. The most common error is selecting True when the correct answer is Cannot Say — because the statement seems plausible but is not directly supported by the text. Practise extracting explicit evidence only.
• Inductive reasoning: Learn to scan for number, size, colour, rotation, and position changes (the NSCRP framework) systematically. Work through abstract sequences until the pattern-recognition process becomes automatic. Use elimination — cross out impossible answer options first.

Use timed practice under realistic conditions

Practising untimed is less valuable than practising under the same time pressure as the real test. SHL tests are time-pressured by design — the ability to work quickly and accurately under pressure is part of what is being measured. Run your practice sessions with a timer, in a quiet room, without distractions, to simulate real test conditions. Our free timed practice tests replicate the SHL format exactly.

Track your percentile across practice sessions

Raw score improvements matter less than percentile improvements. You are being ranked against other candidates, not measured against a fixed absolute standard. Track your percentile across multiple practice sessions and aim to be consistently above the 70th percentile — higher (80th+) if you are targeting highly selective employers like Goldman Sachs. Review every incorrect answer to understand the reasoning, not just the answer. See the full SHL preparation guide for a structured week-by-week approach.