Graduate assessments changed faster in 2025–26 than in the previous decade — mostly because candidates started using AI, and employers started designing against it. This page is a dated, sourced log of what actually changed, and what each change means for how you prepare. Forum advice that predates an entry below is probably wrong.
The Arctic Shores game-based "Career Unlocked" assessment is gone. PwC's 2025–26 process runs on SHL cognitive tests — numerical, verbal and inductive reasoning — plus a behavioural SJT and video interview.
Built explicitly because candidates were pasting the Casey chatbot case into ChatGPT: 80 questions in 30 minutes (~22 seconds each), live camera proctoring over Zoom, pen and paper only. Debuted in Germany, now running in Austria, Switzerland, the Nordics and parts of APAC and Eastern Europe — with some offices running both Casey and the Cognitive Test.
After the FRC flagged the integrity risk of fully-online graduate recruitment, Deloitte UK reinstated in-person interviews at the final stage. The online stages (Cappfinity immersive assessment + job simulation) remain.
Candidates sit the Watson Glaser at home to progress — then sit it again in controlled conditions at the assessment centre. A material gap between the two scores speaks for itself.
Clifford Chance states AI use is not permitted on its Watson Glaser. KPMG requires a signed declaration that assessments were completed without AI — and warns that cheating can be reported to professional bodies. The Pupillage Gateway excludes AI-written applications from shortlisting via a sole-creation declaration.
The famous reef-building Ecosystem game disappeared from many candidates' versions of Solve during 2025. The current core is the Redrock study (investigation → analysis → report, plus follow-up cases) and the Sea Wolf/Ocean Cleanup optimisation game, with a telemetry "process score" recording every click. An 85-minute variant adds a Sustainable Futures module.
The ~75-question Sova assessment (numerical, logical, personality) is dropping its verbal section for 2025–26. The test presents as untimed, but per-question response times are recorded and feed the score; some offices use TestGorilla instead.
HireVue acquired Pymetrics in 2022 — the 12 behavioural mini-games in JPMorgan's pipeline are now HireVue's game library. Separately, HireVue retired facial-expression analysis in 2021: current video-interview scoring is based on the language content of your transcribed answers.
The 2024–25 cycle drew a record 72,691 applications for roughly 1,000 places. The current process: two untimed online tests (video/written work-based scenarios + a case study) inside a 7-day window, then a half-day virtual assessment centre — with feedback to every candidate at every stage.
The ISE's 2025 student recruitment survey: employers frequently encountering cheating doubled year-on-year to 15%; undisclosed AI use in interviews is the most-reported misconduct (61%); 79% are redesigning recruitment because of AI. Applications now average 140 per vacancy. One in ten students admits using AI in tests or interviews.
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