Practise the EPSO AD5 test format as well as the questions

If your invitation arrived on 19 October, you sit AD5 Part 1 between 9 and 13 November 2026, and you may already have EPSO’s instructions for online testing open. They describe a screen most candidates have never worked on. The questions decide your score, and the format decides how much of your time goes on them: every second spent finding a tool or undoing a habit comes out of the clock. This guide sets out what the format changes, how to check that your practice matches it, and how to use the next three weeks.

Why the format costs marks when it is new

Part 1 is 40 questions on three clocks: 20 verbal questions in 35 minutes, 10 numerical in 20 and 10 abstract in 10. That is 1 minute 45 seconds per verbal question, 2 minutes per numerical question and 1 minute per abstract question. The clock keeps running while you look for the scratchpad, retype a number the calculator would not take, or wonder whether an answer was saved. In the abstract test, half a minute lost to the screen is half a question.

Habits cost marks too. Many candidates prepare on paper, with a phone calculator, or with practice tools that show the right answer after each question. By November those habits feel natural, and EPSO’s screen breaks every one of them. The platform’s rules, and what ends a session, are in our TAO platform guide. This guide is about the format itself.

The traps on EPSO’s screen

Each of these is small. Met for the first time on the day, each one costs time.

• The calculator takes a dot. The on-screen calculator uses a dot as the decimal separator in every language version, and a comma is not accepted. Most of Europe writes 2,5: on the day you type 2.5. Make the dot a reflex before November.
• There is no paper. Pens and paper are banned, so every sum, note and sketch goes on the on-screen scratchpad. Working with a mouse and keyboard is slower than with a pen until you have done it a few times.
• An answer counts only once you move off the question. While you are still on it, the question bar shows it as not yet answered. That is normal: it changes when you move on.
• Clicking your chosen answer again clears it. A second click to make sure removes the very answer you meant to give. Click once, then move on.
• A submitted test is closed. Within a test you can move between questions and change answers. Once you submit it, there is no way back in. The platform asks you to confirm and tells you how many questions are unanswered: read that message before you click.
• The clock is small and gives no warning. It sits at the top of the screen and does not change colour or flash as time runs out.
• Each test has its own clock and its own start. Before each test an instruction page counts down, and when it reaches zero the test starts by itself, whether or not you have finished reading.
• Nothing tells you whether you are right. There is no tick, no colour and no score while you work. EPSO sends results later.
• The buttons may be in English. On EPSO’s platform the buttons and labels start in English whatever the language of your questions, and you can switch them in your account settings before the session. Ours start in your question language, with English one switch away in the settings, so you can practise with the one you will use on the day.

How to check any practice tool against the format

Before you give three weeks to any practice test, ours included, open it and go through this list. Every line is something EPSO’s screen has.

• Three separate clocks: 35 minutes for verbal, 20 for numerical and 10 for abstract.
• An instruction page before each test, with a countdown that starts the test.
• A question bar showing which questions are answered, which are unanswered and which one you are on.
• Bookmarks, and an overview of the whole test.
• A warning before you submit a test, and no way back into it afterwards.
• No sign of right or wrong until the end.
• An on-screen calculator that takes a dot as the decimal separator.
• A highlighter, a line reader and a scratchpad.
• Answer elimination, to cross options out, and answer masking, to hide them.
• The instructions, available during the test.

A tool that lacks some of these can still teach you the question types. To practise the format, use one that has them.

A practice routine for the next three weeks

1. This week, sit one full Part 1 on the clocks. All three tests in a row, before you start drilling. It shows where the format slows you down as well as which questions do. Our three-week plan builds the rest of your preparation around it.
2. Then practise the tools on purpose. Sit one mock using only the on-screen calculator and scratchpad, with no paper on the desk and no phone in reach. In another, highlight the key words in every verbal passage, cross out the options you have ruled out, bookmark the questions you skip and open the overview before you submit.
3. Check the clock at fixed points. A simple rule: half the questions done at half the time. In verbal that means question 10 done with about 17 minutes left; in numerical, question 5 with 10 minutes left; in abstract, question 5 with 5 minutes left. The clock shows the time left, so learn the numbers in that form.
4. See EPSO’s own screen once. EPSO’s free sample runs on the same platform. Take it, then read how EPSO’s sample differs from Part 1: it has one clock where Part 1 has three.
5. In the last week, sit a final full mock at the time of day of your slot, in the room and on the computer you will use. Then go through the test day checklist.

Where our test screen fits

Our test screen is built to behave like EPSO’s public sample on the same platform, with the real Part 1 clocks of 35, 20 and 10 minutes and an instruction page before each test. It has the calculator, the scratchpad, the highlighter, the line reader, answer elimination, answer masking, bookmarks, the overview and the instructions during the test, so the format holds no surprises on the day. Our free test is a full Part 1 on that screen.