NAB graduate assessment - numerical reasoning section caught me completely off guard
Just finished a NAB graduate assessment as part of my application process and the numerical reasoning section was significantly harder than the free practice materials suggested. I've always been decent at math but interpreting financial data under time pressure is a genuinely different skill. I probably got through about 60% of the questions before time ran out.
I prepped for about 3 weeks using online practice tests, roughly 1.5 hours a day. Verbal reasoning felt manageable - I finished that section with 5 minutes to spare. Abstract reasoning was somewhere in between. Numerical reasoning though - I had to guess on the last 4 questions because I ran out of time completely.
The whole assessment took about 2.5 hours including the personality and situational judgment sections at the end. By the time I hit the SJT I was genuinely fatigued and not sure how well I performed on it. The scenarios were banking and customer service situations, which is pretty much what you'd expect for a bank application.
Three weeks of prep was probably not enough. If I had to do it again I'd focus almost entirely on timed numerical practice from week 1 rather than just drilling for accuracy.
I went through the NAB grad program application about 2 years ago. The numerical section is hard by design - they use it to filter. I finished maybe 70% of it and still moved to the interview stage, so don't panic if you didn't complete it.
Five weeks of prep would have been smarter than three. I spent my first week on accuracy drills and wasted it - timed practice from day one is the only thing that builds the speed you actually need.
The SJT is probably being used to assess cultural fit as much as competency. Answer based on what a customer-focused, risk-aware banker would do rather than what feels personally natural to you.
NAB's numerical section uses multi-table data sets that require you to cross-reference two or three figures before calculating anything. Practice specifically with that format - single table questions won't prepare you for what they actually test.
I was in the same boat a few months back, studying around a full-time job and it's genuinely tough to carve out time. What ended up working for me was doing 20-30 minutes on my lunch break every day instead of trying to do big sessions on weekends that I'd constantly reschedule. The financial data stuff clicked a lot faster once I stopped trying to understand every number and started just practicing how to find the right number quickly under time pressure.
Honestly the free practice tests aren't representative at all, so don't beat yourself up. The real thing has way more context in each question and you've got less time than you think. If you can find any timed practice sets with actual tables and graphs, even from other graduate assessment providers, that transfer really well. Just drilling speed and getting comfortable skimming data was what made the biggest difference for me.