How EPSO scores its tests: what ranks you in 2026

Every EPSO test does one of two jobs. Some rank you: your score decides your place and whether you make the reserve list. Others only filter: you need the pass mark, and a point more earns you nothing.

Most candidates prepare as if every test ranked, and spread their time evenly. The notices say otherwise, in a table most people skip: Table 6, "How will the test scores be used?". Knowing which tests rank you tells you where your hours are worth the most.

From the 2026 notice for AD5 administrators (EPSO/AD/427/26), with 1,490 places:

The tests are marked in order: reasoning, then EU knowledge, then digital skills, and each one only for those who passed the one before. Those who clear every pass mark get a preliminary score: 0.40 × verbal/20 + 0.30 × EU knowledge/30 + 0.30 × digital skills/40. That ranking decides who has their essay marked and their eligibility checked; the essay then adds its 15% to give the final score and the reserve list.

The counterintuitive part: numerical and abstract reasoning are 20 of the 110 questions and 30 of the 135 minutes, and the only thing they can do is knock you out.

In the specialist competitions for AD7 (EPSO/AD/429/26), AST3 (EPSO/AST/157/25) and AD8 in AI and cybersecurity (EPSO/AD/430/26), the notices give no percentages. They say what each test is for:

So in a specialist competition not even verbal reasoning counts for the ranking. To move on you need at least 15/30 in the field test "and be amongst the candidates who score the highest": the field test decides, on its own. For AD8, see the guides to artificial intelligence and cybersecurity.

CAST Permanent, the open call for contract staff in function groups I to IV, only has the reasoning tests: verbal (10/20) and numerical plus abstract (10/20 between the two).

It is pass or fail. There is no combined score, no ranking and no ordered reserve list. If you pass, you go into a database, your result is valid for ten years, and it is the recruiting services who shortlist candidates from there. A higher score does not put you ahead of anyone.

They follow a different logic. The first test, the G+, is a gate: you need the 60th percentile of a reference group and its score does not carry over. The EU knowledge test (15/30) then decides who has their written test marked, only the best 2.5 times the number of places, and the written test (30/50) who goes on to the eligibility check and the oral (25/50). See the guide to the internal competitions.

No. The pages with minimum scores per profile belong to competitions from 2010 to 2015. Today EPSO publishes reserve lists with names, and each candidate sees their own scores in their EPSO account.

And a raw cut-off would not tell you much anyway: in AD5 the ranking uses a weighted score, not the number of correct answers.

For a sense of scale, the European Court of Auditors reported in 2020, under the previous model, that EPSO recruited about 1,000 people a year from more than 50,000 applicants, and that on average 2% of those who sat the first test ended up on a reserve list (Special Report 23/2020). That figure covers the whole competition, not just the tests.

• AD5: make sure of 10/20 between numerical and abstract, then put your time into verbal reasoning, EU knowledge and digital skills, which are the whole preliminary score. Verbal alone weighs 40% of it.
• Specialists: pass the reasoning tests with a margin, then put most of your hours into the field test. It is the only score that ranks you.
• CAST: aim to pass every test comfortably. Beyond the pass marks, nothing changes.
• Internal competitions: get through the G+, then treat the EU knowledge test as the real selection.