BARB Test case studies

The British Army Recruit Battery - BARB for short - is the computer-based cognitive aptitude assessment used in British Army recruitment. It is a general reasoning test, not a knowledge test. Nothing in it asks you to name a weapon system, recite a rank structure or explain doctrine; instead it samples the mental work that underpins everything else, such as handling verbal information, working confidently with numbers, spotting patterns and relationships, and solving unfamiliar problems accurately while the clock runs. It is aimed at people applying to join, and because the score describes general ability rather than a syllabus, it is used to understand what a candidate is likely to cope with in training and which roles are a sensible fit rather than to award a simple pass or fail. The BARB Test case studies are 5 cases and about 2,093 words.