All you need to know about Looking for a job

Open iT General Tests

in ?

Get the most updated information about:

Open iT English Language and Reading Comprehension Test
Open iT Data Analysis and Problem Solving Test
About :
Founded in 1999, with offices in the Americas, Europe and Asia, Open iT, Inc. creates software
for IT resource monitoring, reporting and optimization.

Business Idea
Our software and strategic consulting enables customers to gain control over their IT resource
use, cut costs and waste, and improve the reliability and performance of their IT assets.

Mission
Our mission is to help companies around the globe reduce the cost and complexity of managing
corporate IT assets.

What are Open iT General Tests?

Open iT General Tests include:
1. Open iT English Language and Reading Comprehension Test
2. Open iT Data Analysis and Problem Solving test.

Why do we use Open iT General Tests?

We believe that our employees are the best assets of our organization, and that its success is
directly proportional to the hard work every employee puts in.
We want to get the best people out there! Most of our positions require a good command of
the English language. Therefore we use our Open iT English Language and Reading
Comprehension Test when hiring new employees. Furthermore, it is beneficial for most of our
employees to have “basic number sense”, be able to understand charts/diagrams and reason
logically. These are what may be summed up as good quantitative reasoning skills, and will be
addressed by our Open iT Data Analysis and Problem Solving Test.
Additionally, some of our employees need more specialized skills, such as programming skills.
These are not tested in our General Tests, but will be evaluated by other special tests and/or in
the interview process.
Of course there are many important qualifications that cannot be tested, such as honesty, work
ethics, stamina, and many more. Therefore our tests are just a little part of the hiring process.
Others include interviews, references, and of course education and experience.

Introduction to OSAT P a g e 1 | 14
 English Language and Reading Comprehension Test

This test contains 22 problems and should be completed within 40 minutes.

All the problems are given in a “multiple choice format” where only one of four (A, B, C, and D)
answer choices is correct. Points are NOT deducted for wrong answers.
The questions can be divided into three groups:

1. Reading Comprehension
These questions seek to measure your ability to read carefully, understand, and draw
reasonable inferences from the material in the passage. You will read a fairly short
paragraph and then get a question followed by four answer choices. Question types
include:
- What is the main point in the above paragraph?
- What strengthens the argument in the above paragraph?
- What weakens the conclusion given in the above paragraph?
- The advice in the above paragraph rests upon which assumption?

2. Vocabulary
To understand some of the texts you will need a solid English vocabulary. Some
questions also ask specifically for the meaning of a given word. Vocabulary that is
commonly encountered within software business, is emphasized.

A question type that may test both reading comprehension and vocabulary may be:
- Which of the following best fills in the blank in the above paragraph?
Each answer choice for this question may be a word or a (part of a) sentence.

3. Spelling/Grammar
These questions measure your command of the English language and of the conventions
of standard written English. In most of these questions part of a sentence is underlined,
and your task is to determine which is correct – the original sentence or one of the given
alternatives.

Introduction to OSAT P a g e 2 | 14
Examples of questions similar to those in the Open iT English Language
and Reading Comprehension Test

Reading Comprehension Example

According to a recent study, advertisements in financial journals often contain misleading information
about the usefulness of new computer software. The study concludes that the advertisements could
result in computer engineers giving inappropriate advice about new computer software to their
employers and/or customers.

Which of the following, if true, most strengthens the conclusion of this study?

A. Advertisements for new computer software are an important source of revenue for financial
journals.
B. Editors of financial journals are often unable to evaluate the claims made in advertisements for
computer software.
C. Computer engineers rely on advertisements as a source of information about new software.
D. Advertisements about new computer software are typically less accurate than articles about the
same new software

Correct answer choice is C.

Explanation:

First: Make sure to answer the question! We often see that test takers choose an answer choice that
they agree with or that seems to be true. Notice that you are not asked to determine the likelihood of
the answer choices! You are asked to assume that they are true, and then find the one that strengthens
the conclusion in the paragraph.

According to answer choice C computer engineers take advertisements seriously. You may of course
disagree with this (and you may be right), but if true, this strengthens the given conclusion. Therefore
answer choice C is correct.

Answer choice A may certainly be true, but is not concerned with whether computer engineers would
trust the information in advertisements. Answer choice B and D strengthen the claim that
advertisements are unpredictable. This is already stated in the paragraph, so none of these answer
choices add anything new to strengthen the conclusion that computer engineers give inappropriate
advice about new computer software to their employers and/or customers.

Introduction to OSAT P a g e 3 | 14
Reading Comprehension and Vocabulary Example
According to Torkel Nøkland, responsible for upstream software at Statoil, he was approached by users
who complained about their ability to do their jobs due to denials of software licenses. Therefore he felt
obligated to order more software licenses for their main geological software. A few years later he
learned, after the company purchased Open iT Software, that the he probably could have saved the
money for his last purchase, since the reports revealed that _______________________________ they
were not much used at all.

A. even though the last 10 licenses purchased occasionally were needed,

B. because the last 10 licenses purchased occasionally were needed,
C. because of high demand on the last 10 licenses purchased
D. even though the need for the last 10 licenses purchased was hypothetical,

Correct answer choice is A.

(To do well on these kinds of problems, you need to understand the vocabulary used in, as well as the
author’s intended meaning with, the given text. In this example the vocabulary is fairly easy, so reading
comprehension is probably more important than vocabulary. However, in other similar problems,
vocabulary may be more important.)

Vocabulary Example
If you __________ on something, you provide complexity and richness of detail.

A. elaborate
B. substantiate
C. deviate
D. aberrate

Correct answer choice is A.

Another Vocabulary Example

The meaning of the word revenue is:

A. coordination compound
B. hoarded wealth
C. the amount of money paid out per unit time
D. money earned by a business, or income received by the government from taxes

Correct answer choice is D.

Introduction to OSAT P a g e 4 | 14
Spelling/Grammar Example
All modern computer languages derive from a more basic “assembly” language that originated many
decades ago.

Which of the following should replace the underlined portion of the above paragraph? (Note that
answer choice A implies no changes.)

A. All modern computer languages derive from

B. All modern computer languages resulting from
C. All modern computer languages, which resulted from
D. All modern computer languages are derived from

Answer choice D is correct.

Explanation:

The original version improperly uses derive from instead of the proper idiom are derived from. Answer
choice D corrects this. Answer choices B and C do not result in a meaningful sentence.

Another Spelling/Grammar Example

He always used to have pink headphones. So we could hardly believe that the color of his new
headphones were silver rather then pink.

Which of the following should replace the underlined portion of the above paragraph? (Note that
answer choice A implies no changes.)

A. could hardly believe that the color of his new headphones were silver rather then pink.
B. could hardly believe that the color of his new headphones were silver rather than pink.
C. could hardly believe that the color of his new headphones was silver rather than pink.
D. could hardly believe that the color of his new headphones was silver rather then pink.

Answer choice C is correct.

Explanation:

Using then instead of than in this sentence, does not make sense, so that eliminates answer choices A
and D. The subject that the verb needs to agree with, is color (not headphones), and since color is
singular the correct form of the verb is was.

Introduction to OSAT P a g e 5 | 14
 Data Analysis and Problem Solving Test

This test seeks to evaluate your quantitative reasoning skills. More specifically, you need to be able to
understand a chart, reason logically, and have basic “number sense”. All math concepts needed to solve
the problems should be well known from high school (or before) and include: percent, rates, ratios,
average (arithmetic mean), median, and some basic probability. We will give some examples below.

This test has 20 problems, should be done without a calculator, and completed within 70 minutes. The
format is “multiple choice” with 5 answer choices (A, B, C, D, E). Only one answer choice is correct.
Points are not deducted for wrong answers. The problems are from the following groups:

 Data Analysis
The problem usually contains a chart/diagram that you will use to answer one or more
questions. Often the figure contains Open iT data. This may be real data, or it may just be made
up for the purpose of the test. Pre-knowledge of Open iT is NOT needed. The Data Analysis
problems can be divided into two groups:
1. Understanding/calculations
How well do you understand the information in a table or figure?
You may also be asked to do simple calculations (such as finding a certain percentage).
See example 1 below.
2. Data Sufficiency
Do you have enough information to solve a given task?
See example 2 below.

 Problem Solving
This is not supposed to be a math test. Only high school math – and usually not even that – is
needed to solve the problems. There are four groups to this part of the test:
1. Statistics
These problems require good understanding of concepts such as average (arithmetic mean),
median, and some basic probability and/or counting.
See example 3 (average and median) and 4 (Basic Probability) below.
2. Rates, ratios, and percent
See example 5 (ratios) and 6 (rates). For a problem involving percent see example 1.
3. Number sense
These problems will require understanding of exponents, divisibility, and relationships
between numbers. See example 7 (divisibility), 8a, 8b (exponents) and 9 (relationships)
4. Logic
These are text or figure problems where you need to recognize patterns.
See example 10 (Logic, figure) and 11 (Logic, text).

Introduction to OSAT P a g e 6 | 14
Example 1 Percentage Increase

Linda is considering buying a dress and shoes for prom. She is shocked to find out that the price of a
dress she has considered buying has increased from $200 to $300, while the price of some shoes she has
been looking at, has increased from $50 to $100.

Which of the following is correct?

A. The percentage increase is greater for the dress than the shoes
B. The percentage increase is greater for the shoes than the dress
C. The percentage increase is the same for the dress as for the shoes
D. The percentage increase in the total price for the dress and the shoes combined, is greater than
the percentage increase in the price of the shoes
E. There is not enough information to determine whether the percentage increase is greater for
the dress or for the shoes.

Solution:

For this kind of question test takers often consider the price increase (in USD) instead of percentage
increase. Don’t fall into this trap! In this example the price increase for the dress is $100, and that is a
50% increase, while the price increase for the shoes is $50, and that is a 100% increase. (The percentage
increase in the total price for the dress and the shoes combined is 75%)

Answer choice B is correct.

Introduction to OSAT P a g e 7 | 14
Example 2 Data Sufficiency
Chart 1 Chart 2

Assume that Best Deal Cars is a car dealership with two locations – Location A and Location B.

Your task is to determine whether you have enough information to answer the following question:

What was the average number of cars sold per salesperson at Best Deal Cars in June 2015?

A. Chart 1 alone has sufficient information to answer this question, but Chart 2 alone does not.
B. Chart 2 alone has sufficient information to answer this question, but Chart 1 alone does not.
C. Either Chart 1 alone or Chart 2 alone can answer this question.
D. We need both Chart 1 and Chart 2 to answer this question.
E. There is not enough information to answer this question

Solution:

Use Chart 1: 11 cars per salesperson were sold at a location containing ¾ of the salespeople, while 16
cars per salesperson were sold at the other location, containing ¼ of the salespeople. Therefore the
average number of cars sold per salesperson at Best Deal Cars (in June 2015) was 11 3/ 4 16 1/ 4
(which is 12.25, though we don’t have to calculate that). Don’t be confused by the fact that Chart 1 does
not tell us the number of total cars sold, (and it does not tell us the number of salespeople). Chart 1 is
sufficient to answer the question.

Use Chart 2: Since the number of cars sold per salesperson in June 2015 at Location A was 11, while the
total number of cars sold at this location were 132, we know that the number of salespeople at Location
A was 132/11 = 12. Similarly, the number of salespeople at Location B was 64/16 = 4. But then we know
that the number of salespeople at Best Deal Cars was 16, while the total number of cars sold in June
2015 was 132 + 64 = 196. So the average number of cars sold per salesperson was 196/16 (which will be
12.25 cars per salesperson, though we don’t have to do this calculation). Chart 2 is sufficient to answer
the question.

Answer choice C is correct.

Introduction to OSAT P a g e 8 | 14
Example 3 Average (arithmetic mean) and Median
Don writes a list of five numbers, listing them in order from the smallest to the greatest. The average of
the numbers is 8; the median is 10. Angelo takes Don’s list of numbers and adds 1 to the first number, 2
to the second, 3 to the third, 4 to the fourth, and (to make it a little bit more exciting ) 10 to the fifth
number. What is the difference between the median and the average in the new list of five numbers
that Angelo makes?

A. 0 B. 1 C. 2 D. 3 E. 4

Solution:

We have a sequence of five numbers (listed smallest to greatest), so the median is the third number in
the list. The new median is 3 more than the old, so the new median must be 10 + 3 = 13.

The average of the five numbers in Don’s (old) list is 8, so the sum of these five numbers must be
5  8  40 . Since Angelo adds 1  2  3  4  10  20 to the list, the sum of the five numbers in the new
60
list must be 40  20  60 , and therefore the new average is  12 . So the difference between the
5
new median and the new average is 1.

Answer choice B is correct.

The average (arithmetic mean) of n numbers is the

sum of the numbers divided by n.

Example: The average of 5, 8, 12, and 15 is

5  8  12  15 40
  10
4 4
The median of n numbers is the “number in the
middle” when the numbers are sequenced from the
smallest to the greatest.

n 1
If n is odd, the median is number in the list.
2
Example: The median of the five numbers 5, 3, 1, 7,
and 9 is 5, (the third number in the list 1, 3, 5, 7, 9)

If n is even, the median is the average of “the two

numbers in the middle”

Introduction to OSAT P a g e 9 | 14
Example 4 Basic Probability
According to the weather forecast there is a 50% chance of rain on Saturday and a 50% chance of rain
on Sunday. What is the probability that there will be rain this weekend?

A. 25% B. 50% C. 75% D. 80% E. 100%

Solution:

Hopefully everyone “feels” that a probability of 100% in this example does not make sense, (if the
probability for rain is 50% on Saturday and 50% on Sunday, we can’t possibly be certain of rain!).

As the illustration shows, we have four different “weather possibilities” for the weekend, all of them
equally likely, so the probability for rain this weekend is 75%.

To calculate it (instead of drawing it), note that the probability of rain on Saturday AND rain on Sunday is
0.5  0.5  0.25 . Similarly, the probability of rain on Saturday and “not rain” on Sunday is
0.5  0.5  0.25 , and finally the probability of “not rain” on Saturday and rain on Sunday is
0.5  0.5  0.25 . Add up these three different ways of getting rain in the weekend to get 75%
probability of rain.

OR be smart enough to calculate the probability of “not rain” on Saturday AND “not rain” on Sunday:
0.5  0.5  0.25 . If the probability of “not rain” during the weekend is 25%, then the probability of rain
must be 75%

Answer choice C is correct.

Introduction to OSAT P a g e 10 | 14
Example 5 Ratios
The ratio of cats to dogs at a shelter is 2:3.

If there are 12 dogs at the shelter, how many cats are there?

A. 4 B. 6 C. 8 D. 10 E. 15

Solution:

Notice that we must multiply 3 with 4 to get 12.

Multiplying 2 with 4 gives 8.

Thus 2:3 is equivalent to 8:12

Answer choice C is correct.

Example 6 Rates
If John can mow ¾ of his lawn in 1 hour, how many minutes does it take him to mow his entire lawn?

A. 45 B. 75 C. 80 D. 90 E. 100

Solution:

Obviously the answer must be more than 60, so answer choice A can be disregarded right away.

John’s speed when moving is ¾ lawn/hour, or equivalently 3 lawns in 4 hours. If he needs 4 hours to
mow 3 lawns, he would need one third of that, i.e. 4/3 hour to mow one lawn. 4/3 hour is

60 + 20 = 80 minutes

Answer choice C is correct.

A ratio gives a relative comparison A rate is a ratio that relates two

between two quantities. It doesn’t
tell you anything about the total
amount of quantities.
For example if a class has 10 girls and
15 boys, the ratio of girls to boys is
10:15. We can simplify this to 2:3.
different quantities that are
measured in different units.
Examples include speed (for example
measured in miles per hour) or cost
(say in dollars per item) or work (say
in pay per job, or maybe time per job)

Introduction to OSAT P a g e 11 | 14
Example 7 (Number sense; divisibility)
What is the greatest integer that will always evenly divide the sum of three consecutive even integers?

A. 2 B. 3 C. 4 D. 6 E.12

Solution:

Try out some examples of three consecutive even numbers:

0+2+4=6 2 + 4 + 6 = 12 4 + 6 + 8 = 18 6 + 8 + 10 = 24

From the examples it seems like 6 is a safe guess (none of the other alternatives would be correct).

Answer choice D is correct.

For those that want to prove that the sum of thee even consecutive integers is divisible by 6, notice that
this sum can be written as

2n   2n  2   2n  4

for any integer n. But

2n   2n  2   2n  4  6n  6  6(n  1)

which is clearly divisible by 6 for all n.

Notice that checking out some examples is enough to do the problem. You are not required to find a
proof.

Example 8a (Number sense; exponents)

27 2
Express as a power of 3.
33 Some exponent rules:

a n  a  a  ...  a
3 3 6 8 9 n times
A. 3 B. 3 C. 3 D. 3 E. 3
a a  a m n
m n

Solution:
a 
m n
 a mn
a0  1
27 2  3 
3 2
36 1
3
 3  3  36  33  39 an  n
3 3 3 a

Answer choice E is correct.

Introduction to OSAT P a g e 12 | 14
Example 8b (Number sense; exponents)

Given that 12  22  32  42  52  62  72  140 ,

what is 22  42  62  82  102  122  142 ?

A. 280 B. 420 C. 560 D. 700 E. 840

Solution:

22  42  62  82  102  122  142

  2 1   2  2    2  3   2  4    2  5    2  6    2  7 
2 2 2 2 2 2 2

 4 12  4  22  4  32  4  42  4  52  4  62  4  7 2
 4  12  22  32  42  52  62  7 2   4 140  560

Answer choice C is correct.

Example 9 (Number sense; relationships between numbers)

If a  b  c , then all of the following could be true, EXCEPT:

A. b + c < a B. 2a > b + c C. 2c > a + b D. ab > bc E. a + b > 2b + c

Solution:

We are looking for the one statement of the alternatives above that can NEVER be true.

Is b + c < a possible? Sure; just choose a big enough. For example a = 10, b = 2, c = 1

Is 2a > b + c possible? Sure; just chose a big enough. For example a = 10, b = 2, c = 1

Is 2c > a + b possible? No way. c is smaller than both a and b so c + c can NEVER be greater than a + b

We have our answer, but just checking:

Is ab > bc possible? Sure. Just choose positive numbers, and this will always be true.

Is a + b > 2b + c possible? Sure; just choose a big enough. For example a = 10, b = 2, c = 1

Answer choice C is correct.

Introduction to OSAT P a g e 13 | 14
Example 10 (Logic, figure)

Which of the figures below logically follows in the sequence above?

Solution:

Look for patterns and/or symmetries. In this example, be especially aware of rotations.

Answer choice E is correct.

Example 11 (Logic, text)

Given the premises

I All X are Y
II All X are Z

which of the following is a valid conclusion?

A. All Y are X
B. All Z are X
C. All Y are Z
D. If something is not Z , it is not X
E. If something is not X , it is not Y

Solution:

Answer choice D is correct

(To see this clearly, read, for example, “squares” instead of X , “rhombuses” instead of Y , and
“rectangles” instead of Z .)

Introduction to OSAT P a g e 14 | 14