An E-tray exercise is a computer based simulation of an email in box that lasts for, and must be completed within, a fixed amount of time. During the exercise emails will arrive into your in box e-tray and you will be required to:
- Make basic calculations;
- Extract information from data provided;
- Make judgement calls on how to deal with demanding managers/unhappy clients etc.
The E-tray exercise is the electronic equivalent of the In-tray exercise.
Normally the answers to this exercise are multiple choice. Be careful with calculation questions. Typically, the wrong answers listed will be common errors for that problem and can be misleading. You do not always necessarily need all the information provided, and sometimes more information than is necessary will be provided, to distract you.
Emails in an e-tray exercise will often arrive slowly at first and then get faster as time progresses. It is important that you do not begin to select random answers at the end as they will be testing to see how you perform under pressure.
E-tray Written Exercise
[Edit]Some E-tray exercises will have a written part as well, where you will be required to respond to an email. Typically, no spell-checker is provided, so you must be certain to use words that you can spell confidently. Make sure you respond in a style appropriate to the email you have been sent, and ensure that it has a clear, logical structure.
Keep watch over time, and make sure you proof read what you have written before the time is up.
Who Uses E-Tray?
[Edit] Recruiters well known to use E-tray exercises include:- Deloitte
- KPMG
- E&Y
- The Civil Service fast stream scheme
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Practice E-tray Exercise[Edit]The Civil Service provides an e-tray exercise that you can try on-line. It is exactly the same format used at KPMG, Deloitte and most other firms, so makes excellent practice - click here. For further practice real life training and practice In-tray and e-tray tests are available here |
27 October 2011 - 5:11pm
Inceptum
Has anyone actually done the E-Tray assessment for any firm? For example, has anyone done this assessment for Deloitte?
Thanks
20 December 2011 - 1:12pm
iambenshort
The link for the civil service example e-tray exercise has moved, and is now located here: http://faststream.hmg.gov.uk/How-do-I-apply/Example-e-Tray-Excercise/
8 January 2012 - 6:09pm
RachelB
I've just completed the civil service one, it's fine the only thing is it doesn't provide you with feedback! Am i missing something here?!
10 January 2012 - 10:56am
iambenshort
Hi RachelB, unfortunately you're not missing anything - the civil service practice test doesn't give you any feedback on how you did. It does however give you a good idea of the time limitations and the kind of scenarios and questions you'll have to answer in an E-Tray exercise. I can now say from experience that the Deloitte E-Tray is slightly easier, as you only have to chose one out of three possible solutions, and the time is just slightly less limited.
10 January 2012 - 11:49pm
hpeters123
Hi iambenshort, i was just reading the comments and realised that you have taken a deloitte e-tray test. I hope it went well. I was just wondering whether you could give me some advice on completing my one? Like could you tell me in detail such as what sor of company you were working for and what sort of information you had to look for and roughly how much time you had on each part/section? I would really appreciate this as I have my one this friday. Thank you
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