Bloomberg Aptitude Test: 20 Important Facts you need to Know

The Bloomberg Aptitude Test (BAT) has been taken by more than 270,000 undergraduates worldwide. The test is used to assess the sharpness of their minds to work in financial services.

The number of people taking the Bloomberg Aptitude Test keeps increasing since 2010 with over 100,000 completing the test in 2014.

Those who complete the Bloomberg Aptitude Test get better chances of being hired. Students are listed on the Bloomberg Institute Talent Search database after they have completed the test.

The Bloomberg Institute Talent Search is open to employers with access to the Bloomberg Professional service (Bloomberg Terminal) that opens to more than 325,000 leading business and financial executives worldwide.

The Bloomberg Aptitude Test database enables potential employers to search candidates from almost 3,500 universities through a range of filters such as degree type, graduation type, and area of residence.

20 Important Facts about Bloomberg Aptitude Test you need to Know

Here are important facts and tips about the Bloomberg Aptitude Test that you need to know to excel in it:

1. What is Bloomberg Aptitude Test?

Bloomberg Institute is the owner, publisher, and developer of the Bloomberg Aptitude Test.

The Bloomberg Aptitude Test is designed and used by employers to assess job applicants for roles in the business world.

Candidates’ ability to think critically on financial topics is also evaluated by the Bloomberg Aptitude Test.

The results of this test are used to assess the level of readiness of these applicants for a career in business-related fields.

About 58 countries of the world have their Bloomberg Aptitude Test offered on university campuses and spread out toward global employers.

2. The Transformation of the Bloomberg Aptitude Test

Bloomberg Aptitude Test was first launched as the Bloomberg Assessment Test, and in 2013 it was transformed into The Bloomberg Aptitude Test.

The transformation occurred to reflect the ability of the test to assess inborn financial potential and career skills rather than technical knowledge.

Presently, the Bloomberg Aptitude Test has been changed to a paid service known as Bloomberg Market Concepts (BMC).

3. What is the format of the Bloomberg Aptitude Test?

Each section of the Bloomberg Aptitude Test contains 30 available seats.

There are 100 multiple-choice questions on 8 themes, such as Math Skills, Economics, Analytical Reasoning, News Analysis, Investment Banking, Financial Statements Analysis, Chart and Graph Analysis, and Global Markets.

The Bloomberg Aptitude Test is an innovative assessment directed towards education and employability, and an opportunity to measure your aptitude for a job in finance.

By sharing your profiles on the ‘Bloomberg Talent Search’, you can benefit from an association of twenty thousand employers.

Over 140,000 people take the Bloomberg Aptitude Test globally, and more than 2,000 campuses participate.

4. How does the Bloomberg Aptitude Test work?

The Bloomberg Institute teamed up with 100 entry-level recruiters and 40 finance professors worldwide to form the Bloomberg Aptitude Test (BAT).

They also developed the questions, and finance was leveraged too from Bloomberg Charts and Graphs, as well as Bloomberg News to make sure accurate content is used.

Applicants can decide to have their anonymous profile included in the Talent Search database after they have taken the Bloomberg Aptitude Test.

Recruiters make use of this database regularly to link candidates to internship and full-time roles.

The recruiter makes the candidate’s information unknown until they decide to accept a connection.

5. The Bloomberg Aptitude Test scoring format

In 2010, the Bloomberg Aptitude Test was first established as a three-hour-long exam. The assessment maintained the same scoring format but was reduced to a two-hour-long, 100 multiple-choice question test, focused on analytical reasoning rather than terminology.

The present test is scored from a range of 200 to 800 points. Scoring of the Bloomberg Aptitude Test is also done by percentile ranking, comparing test takers worldwide for the test.

All Bloomberg Aptitude Test scores are incorporated into the Bloomberg Terminal.

6. What are the eight sections of the Bloomberg Aptitude Test?

The Bloomberg Aptitude Test presently contains eight sections, including:

i. News Analysis – 12 questions
ii. Economics – 12 questions
iii. Math Skills – 14 questions
iv. Analytical Reasoning – 12 questions
v. Financial Statements Analysis – 12 questions
vi. Investment Banking – 12 questions
vii. Global Markets – 14 questions
viii. Chart and Graph Analysis – 12 questions.

7. Campus proctoring of the Bloomberg Ambassador program

The Bloomberg Ambassador program offers the BAT on university campuses, and recruits student ambassadors from their university as the delegates responsible for proctoring and holding test sessions.

The Bloomberg office locations also have available sessions. You can take all sessions at no charge for the first time.

8. Bloomberg Aptitude Test e-proctoring

The Bloomberg Aptitude Test is provided as e-proctoring, in which someone is allowed to take the exam in a webcam environment.

9. The Bloomberg Aptitude Test complete beginner’s guide

The financial industry has developed tremendously in the previous years, and there has been an increasing demand for financial professionals in a specialized area of finance.

This has also become a difficult task for employers to assess candidates for their skills and knowledge on a goal-setting standard.

Bloomberg Institute introduced the Bloomberg Aptitude Test in 2010 as a way to help students and experts evaluate their suitability for a career in finance.

The Bloomberg Aptitude Test has made a great deal of credibility within the few years of its existence and has become quite trendy among students looking to measure their abilities for a finance career.

An increasing number of employers believe that the Bloomberg Aptitude Test is also a means to evaluate the suitability of an individual for a particular area of finance.

10. What is the fee for the Bloomberg Aptitude Test?

You can sit for the Bloomberg Aptitude Test free of charge for the first time. But to retake the test, you will be required to pay a sum of $50 charge.

The test can only be taken once a month and anybody can take it regardless of whether it’s from a financial or non-financial academic background.

11. What are the benefits of taking the Bloomberg Aptitude Test?

One of the advantages of taking the Bloomberg Aptitude Test is assessing numerous candidates selecting the best one out of the rest.

Another benefit is that people from non-financial backgrounds who don’t feel confident enough to take the test, know how to start working on necessary skills, or might not find finance an interesting career path can take the Bloomberg Aptitude Test and answer the questions by themselves.

In addition to assessing their skills and abilities in specific areas of finance, these students might be presented with some attractive opportunities by potential employers.

With the Bloomberg Aptitude Test, these students might be found good matches for specific finance roles, which might not have been possible the other way.

The Bloomberg Aptitude Test top scorers might be invited to the Bloomberg Summer Intern Challenge that presents international panels and interesting networking opportunities for participants.

12. Bloomberg careers

Bloomberg has lots of career fields including finance, data analysis, media, software engineering, business, and more.

With the help of the Bloomberg Aptitude Test, almost 19,000 people in 176 locations around the world are employed to work on 21st-century products and solutions.

13. Bloomberg application process

The Bloomberg application process includes:

• Online application
• Interview
• Assessment day.

14. Are Bloomberg Tests psychometric?

The Bloomberg recruitment process makes use of no psychometric tests and the process differs significantly from role to role.

Furthermore, only a few roles utilize the Bloomberg assessment center as part of their selection process.

15. Bloomberg interviews

Bloomberg interviews are the essential components of the Application Process and typically vary considerably based on the graduate role you are applying for.

16. Bloomberg telephone interview

Bloomberg telephone interviews can be intimidating, especially when the confidence to speak with an unfamiliar person on the phone isn’t possessed.

It becomes even scarier to engage in a telephone conversation with someone from the Bloomberg team.

Therefore, it’s vital to become aware of how to sneak your way through the test and out of the nervous situation.

17. Bloomberg online video interview

You will be invited for an online video interview if everything went well and the talent acquisition team at Bloomberg reviewing your online application form is satisfied with your application result.

18. Bloomberg face to face interview

This type of interview combines technical and standard behavioral forms and may offer candidates the opportunity to take up to three interviews.

The role of your interest and the skills you have outlined in your application form will be matched by knowledge questions.

19. What is Bloomberg Essentials Online Training (BESS)?

With BESS, you can quickly learn the key Bloomberg professional service functionality.

The BESS training makes use of the Help Pages to keep the experience of learning flowing so as to identify information on the Terminal.

You must complete both the Core Program and the Market Sector Program in order to master the basics of navigating Bloomberg and finding data and analytics.

The programs are classified into research, exam, and acknowledgment.

If you achieve a score of 75% correct or higher, you can retake each exam once, after which certificates of acknowledgment are only provided for Market Sector Exams.

20. What is the difference between BESS and BMC?

BESS is a general tool for clients to acquire a better understanding of how to navigate the Bloomberg Professional Service, while BMC educates students’ cross-asset nature of the financial markets and combines 70 of the most used utilities by financial investors.

Bloomberg Aptitude Test Practice Questions and Answers

Here are sample Bloomberg Aptitude Test questions (with answers) that you can study and get acquainted with for your upcoming test. These include:

Question 1

Economics

Question 2

Financial Statements Analysis

Question 3

Corporate Valuation

Question 4

Investment Banking

Question 5

Financial Markets

Question 6

Investment Management

Question 7

Math Skills

Question 8

Analytical Reasoning

Conclusion

The Bloomberg Aptitude Test measures students’ knowledge in a number of specific areas of finance.

The BAT is used to evaluate the ability of a person to apply theoretical knowledge to real-life scenarios.

The assessment helps employers to hire individuals with the right skill set and problem-solving abilities.

Bloomberg has provided a series of sample questions on their website that you can use during your preparation. The real test comprises 100 multiple-choice questions that are two hours long.