Laureo

How our questions are made

You are preparing for an exam that decides a real job, that pays real money. You deserve to know where the questions come from, how they are built and how the system ensures quality.

Abstract reasoning

An abstract question starts as a rule, not as a picture. A rule can make only these moves:

  • Turn by a fixed step

  • Next shape in a cycle

  • One size up or down

  • One shade lighter or darker

  • One more or one fewer

  • One place around a ring

A question uses one, two or three of these moves at the same time. The moves can act on a single shape, or on a group of parts: cells on a grid, rings inside each other, or several shapes that each change on their own. We apply them five times to draw the figures you see, and once more to make the answer.

One rule, applied six times. You are shown the first five, and the sixth is the answer.

Numerical reasoning

A numerical question gives you a table or a chart, and asks you to do one calculation with it.

The calculation is always one of these:

  • Percentage change
  • Share of a total
  • Row or column total
  • Ratio of two cells
  • Rate applied to a figure

A computer works out the answer from the numbers in the table. Nobody types it in, so it cannot be wrong because someone made a mistake with the sum.

The answer is worked out from the numbers. Each wrong option is a mistake we built on purpose.

Verbal reasoning

We write each verbal text by hand, one at a time. The correct answer must follow from one sentence in that text. We save that sentence with the question and check it word for word against the text you read.

Each wrong option is a common mistake, not filler:

  • Hedge quietly dropped
  • Claim reversed
  • Condition read backwards
  • Correlation made a cause
  • Necessary read as sufficient
  • Beyond the passage

The correct answer comes from one sentence of the text, checked word for word.

  • If a question needs a sum on numbers from the text, we save the working and run it again. Every number must appear in the text, and the conclusion must still hold. If the sum is wrong, we publish nothing from that batch.
  • Nobody chooses where the correct answer sits in the list. We shuffle the options when the question is added, so there is no pattern to spot.

EU knowledge

We write each EU knowledge question by hand from an official source: the Treaties, EUR-Lex, or a publication in EPSO’s guidance collection. Every question stores the source it was checked against.

The questions cover the same areas as the test:

  • History and treaties
  • Institutions
  • Bodies and agencies
  • Law and decision-making
  • Budget and the euro
  • Policies
  • Citizenship and rights

Every answer is checked against a named official source.

  • Facts that change, such as who holds an office, carry the date we last checked them. We check them again when EPSO publishes its list of sources.
  • Each translation must use the official EU name for every institution and procedure, from our glossary in all 6 languages. A translation that drops one is flagged before it is published.
  • Nobody chooses where the correct answer sits. Every 4 questions use A, B, C and D once each, in a random order.

Digital skills

We write each digital skills question by hand and map it to one of the 21 competences in DigComp, the EU framework the test is based on. Every question stores the source it was checked against.

The questions cover the 5 DigComp areas:

  • Information and data
  • Communication and collaboration
  • Content creation
  • Safety
  • Problem solving

Every answer maps to a DigComp competence and a named source.

  • Most questions are about everyday tasks and work in any software. Only a small share use the name of a specific product, as EPSO’s own sample questions do.
  • Facts that change, such as the latest AI rules, carry the date we last checked them.

How each question's quality is checked

These checks run over every batch, and a question that fails one is thrown away rather than patched. Far more questions are generated than are ever kept.

Most generated questions never reach practice. One that fails a check is discarded, not patched.

  • The answer is derived from the same rule or calculation that produced the question, never asserted next to it.
  • Every wrong option is a named, plausible mistake rather than filler.
  • Translations are compared against the English original: same figures, same number of options, quotes still verbatim. One drifted word can change which answer is correct.
  • Verbal questions are read by a person before approval. Generated numerical and abstract questions are approved by the checks themselves, then spot-read by hand.

What we do not claim

  • Every question is built to match the format and the reasoning of the real EPSO tests as closely as we can, using the sample tests EPSO publishes as our reference. What we never do is copy: nothing here is taken from a real test or written down from memory, and we have no affiliation with EPSO or the EU institutions.
  • Difficulty labels are estimated from a question’s structure, not from how many people got it wrong. Real answers will correct them.
  • A good score here is evidence that you are prepared, not a prediction of your result.

Sources

The format we match comes from EPSO’s own published material. These are the sources we work from, and you can open every one of them. Between them they hold every abstract question EPSO has ever published, along with the verbal and numerical samples.

Try it before you trust it

Unlimited practice on the reasoning tests, EU knowledge and digital skills, free, and a full mock exam scored against both gates.

Start practising free