The General Aptitude Test Battery (GATB) Study Guide
CONTENTS: About this Guide | About the GATB | GATB Numerical Aptitude | GATB Verbal Aptitude | GATB Spatial Aptitude | GATB Form Perception | GATB Clerical Perception | Writing Process Test (GATB / ATS) | GATB Study Guide Conclusion | GATB Answers to Practice Questions |
About this Guide
TEST PREP HACKER’s free study guides were designed and developed to help you get the best mark on your recruitment or entrance exam, and thereby help you get into the school or land the career of your dreams. This General Aptitude Test Battery (GATB) study guide contains all the information you need to help you do well on this test, from question breakdowns to practice questions.
GATB Practice Tests
One of the best ways to prepare for tests like the General Aptitude Test Battery (GATB) is to take practice tests. There are practice questions throughout this guide. For the best prep possible, check out our GATB practice test packages for thousands of additional practice questions. Remember, practice makes perfect!
About the GATB
The General Aptitude Test Battery (GATB) is an aptitude test often used as part of recruitment processes to help assess the general aptitude of applicants. The GATB measures candidates’ abilities in a number of areas. Potential employers can use this information to help make hiring decisions.
The GATB is used by a number of police forces, transit commissions and other agencies in Ontario to assess entry-level candidates, to ensure that they meet basic core competencies required to succeeded in the chosen positions.
The following agencies and organizations in Ontario use the GATB as part of their recruitment processes:
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Toronto Transit Commission Transit Enforcement Special Constable
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GO Transit Transit Safety Officer
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YRT/VIVA Special Constable
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Toronto Parking Enforcement
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AECL Nuclear Security
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Ontario Provincial Police Special Constable / Security Officer
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Ontario Provincial Police Offender Transport Officer
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London Police Service Court Prisoner Security Officer
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Barrie Police Special Constable
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York Regional Police Court Security Officer
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Halton Regional Police Service
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Toronto Special Constable for Traffic Control
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Belleville Police Service Special Constable
The GATB is administered and scored by Applicant Testing Services on behalf of various agencies in Ontario. The GATB is a paper and pencil test which candidates have 45 minutes to complete.
The version of the GATB administered in Ontario by Applicant Testing Services includes the following sections:
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General Learning Ability - assesses the candidate’s ability to reason, make sound judgments, and understand instruction. This section includes questions on numerical, verbal and spatial aptitude;
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Form Perception - assesses the candidate’s ability to make visual comparisons between sets of objects and shapes;
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Clerical Perception - assesses the candidate’s ability to make comparisons in written information including copy, and proofreading words and numbers.
The passing or accepted score for the GATB is not made public, and candidates should not assume that a basic passing mark is sufficient to move forward in the recruitment process or to get hired. Scores on similar recruitment aptitude tests are used to rank candidates, and that is most likely the case with the GATB as well. Results of the GATB are valid for three years, and there is a minimum waiting period before candidates can retake the test.
Take a look at the official GATB description from Applicant Testing Services.
Take a look at the official GATB practice questions published by Applicant Testing Services.
GATB Numerical Aptitude
This question type on the GATB covers basic math. Candidates should be comfortable with topics such as addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, decimals, fractions, percentages, averages, ratios and solving simple word problems.
While this level of math should not be very hard for people who have graduated from high school, keep in mind that these tests have time limits, so not only must you be comfortable performing math, you have to be able to do so quickly. The more time the math section eats up, the less time available for the rest of the test.
If you have been out of high school for a few years, or it has been a while since you have done math without a calculator, it is very important that you take the time to review all the basic concepts in math, and how to do them by hand. That should be followed by as much practice as possible. The more comfortable you are with math, the better you will do on the GATB.
We say this a lot at TEST PREP HACKER. You must study hard and practice a lot if you want to get a great mark on this test. Nowhere is this more important than with basic computations. The questions themselves may not be overly difficult, but all computations must be done by hand. Things like long division by hand can bog people down and eat up a lot of time. Don’t let this happen to you. Practice math. A lot.
GATB Numerical Aptitude Practice Questions
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1. What is the sum of the following numbers: 54, 23, 16, 90? |
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a) 138 b) 183 c) 192 d) 129 |
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2. What is the average of the following numbers: 54, 23, 16, 90? |
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3. What is 58 multiplied by 16? |
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a) 420 b) 74 c) 928 d) 982 |
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4. What is 693 divided by 7? Perform your calculation using long division. |
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a) 99 b) 91 c) 0.99 d) 75 |
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5. Round the following to the nearest whole number: |
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34.56 |
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6. Express the following fraction as a decimal: |
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6/10 |
GATB Verbal Aptitude
Verbal aptitude questions on the GATB seek to assess your verbal skills through vocabulary-related questions. Typical vocabulary questions provide a set of words, and your job is to choose the word that has a different meaning, and hence does not belong, to the given set of words. Another variation on this type of question includes determining the opposite or synonym of a given word from a set of words.
Studying for this section can be hard. It is a measure of your overall vocabulary developed over the course of your primary and secondary education. That said, as with all sections of the GATB, practice will help.
GATB Verbal Aptitude Practice Questions
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Choose the word most different in meaning from the other words in the following lists: |
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1. a) happy b) joyful c) morose d) content 2. a) scared b) frightened c) petrified d) sullen 3. a) hot b) boiling c) heated d) humid
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GATB Spatial Aptitude
Spatial Aptitude questions on the GATB assess your ability to understand, manipulate, and form objects in two dimensional (2D) and three dimensional (3D) space. A typical spatial aptitude question will present an object laid out in 2D space as a template, and the candidate must figure out what kind of 3D object it would become when folded and formed. In other words, candidates must mentally build or create a 3D object from the 2D blueprint provided.
Let’s look at an example. Here is a object laid out as a 2D template. Your task is to determine what this object would look like when folded into 3D, and select that object from several different answers.
This is a 2D blueprint of a standard cube. The four squares around the central square, labeled squares 1, 2, 3 and 4, can be folded up along the dotted lines to form the sides of the cube. The final square (square 5) can be folded on top of the cube like a lid.
If presented with the following possible answers, you would select C as the correct answer.
GATB Form Perception
Form perception questions on the GATB assess your ability to make visual comparisons between sets of objects and shapes. Typical questions will present two charts of objects and shapes. Each chart has the same objects and shapes, but they have been mixed up into different order. Some shapes may also be rotated or flipped into different positions. Your task is to match the shapes in one chart with the same shape in the other chart.
These questions are pretty straightforward. Let’s take a look at an example. Match the shapes in the left box with the same shapes in the right box.
Form Perception Example
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A-6: triangle A matches with triangle 6.
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B-3: the rectangle with the notched corner B matches with rectangle 3 (which has been flipped on its horizontal axis).
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C-2: square C matches with square 2.
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D-1: pentagon D matches with pentagon 1.
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E-4: arrow E matches with arrow 4.
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F-5: half circle F matches with half circle 5 (which has been flipped on its horizontal axis).
Again, if these questions seems easy, it is because they are. That said, practice always helps. The GATB is a timed test, and practice will help you complete this section as fast and as accurately as possible, leaving more time for more difficult sections such as numerical and verbal aptitude.
GATB Clerical Perception
Clerical perception questions on the GATB assess your ability to make comparisons between written information. This information can be either words or numbers. Typical questions will place two names or two numbers next to each other, and candidates must determine if the two names or numbers are identical or not.
Clerical Perception Practice Questions
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Identify which pairs are the same (S) or different (D): |
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1. Johnny R. MacPherson ……… Johnny R. MacPherson 2. Sally E. Jamieson ……… Sally F. Jameson 3. 125467900A ……… 12546900A |
Writing Process Test (GATB / ATS)
Unfortunately, there is not a lot of information available out there on the Writing Process Test (WPT), the other test that is often administered alongside the GATB by Applicant Testing Services. It is a 25 minute test in which candidates write a short written composition on a given topic.
Applicant Testing Services provides the following brief description of the WPT on its website: “The WPT is designed to directly measure the quality of a written composition based on a standard topic. A level of writing competency is expected when writing reports, briefs, notebooks etc.”
The WPT is designed to assess candidates’ overall English language composition and comprehension skills through grammar, spelling, punctuation, sentence structure, syntax and word choice.
This section is a measure of written communication skills developed throughout your education. One of the best ways to prepare is to read, read, and then read some more. Read in areas outside of your normal comfort zone. Another great prep strategy is to go over lists of commonly misspelled words, as well as grammar and spelling rules. After that, the best thing you can do is practice. Practice by choosing simple everyday topics, and writing brief paragraphs explaining that topic.
GATB Study Guide Conclusion
The TEST PREP HACKER method for doing well on all recruitment and entrance exams, like the GATB, is to take practice tests.
The most current research into test preparation concludes that the most effective way to get ready for the big test, regardless of the subject, is to take practice tests. Tests that are similar in format to the actual test, and tests that contain similar questions on the same subjects.
That’s why TEST PREP HACKER has developed thousands of practice questions and similar practice tests. To help you get the most of your test prep, and to help you use the most current insights into to test prep to get the best mark you can, and ultimately get into the school or career of your choice.
When it comes to getting ready for the GATB, preparation is key. The better your score, the better your chances of moving through the following stages of the hiring process. Practice is key. Our practice test packages provide thousands of practice questions, along with full practice tests, for the GATB. One last note. Don’t stop here. If you are determined to get hired, pursue all prep and study resources you can find. Good luck!
GATB Answers to Practice Questions
Numerical Aptitude
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1. 183 |
2. 45.75 |
3. 70% |
4. 928 |
5. $4 |
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6. 99 |
7. 35 |
8. 0.6 |
9. $7.57 |
Verbal Aptitude
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1. morose |
2. sullen |
3. humid |
Clerical Perception
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Same
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Different
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Different
License, Attribution and Disclaimer
This study guide is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) license. This study guide makes use of other resources made available through similar Creative Commons licenses.
This study guide is available free of charge. It makes no guarantees or promises of high marks. The materials and images contained in this guide are from open sources made available under various Creative Commons licenses, or are made available without license or attribution requirements, or developed by TEST PREP HACKER. All recruitment and selection tests such as the GATB are the property of the the organizations that developed and administer them. Any resemblance of the practice questions in this guide to actual recruitment and selection test questions is purely coincidental. This guide does not contain any such actual questions, but rather questions of similar types and formats covering the subject areas tested during these tests.