Bank teller test practice

What the real test usually looks like

There is no single bank teller test. Each bank or credit union chooses its own assessment, often from a test vendor, so the length, the sections and the question types vary. Your invitation is the best guide to yours. Five public vendor descriptions show the range:

• SHL's Teller 7.0. SHL's fact sheet lists it as an entry level test that takes about 35 minutes on average, with up to 251 questions (74 items on average) in simulation and multiple choice formats, in one sitting. Its components include Handling Money, described as quickly identifying and summing the value of various denominations of US bills and coins; Teller Sales and Service, which measures customer service while seeking sales opportunities; and scales on achievement, responsibility and service professionalism (SHL Teller 7.0).
• SHL's Basic Bank Teller Skills. Aimed at early-career tellers with less than two years of experience, it covers money recognition, customer privacy, basic math and communication (SHL).
• eSkill's Money Handling (US). 40 questions on counting coins and bills, collecting cash and making change, reconciling and balancing a cash drawer, handling common errors, and recognizing parts of coins, bills and checks (eSkill).
• HR Avatar's Bank Teller test. About 52 minutes, covering analytical thinking and attention to detail, multitasking, counting cash, recognizing counterfeit money, personality traits such as integrity and a customer service mindset, and an animated work simulation (HR Avatar).
• Criteria. Criteria says banks and credit unions screening tellers usually rely on two tests: a basic skills test of math, verbal ability and attention to detail, and a personality test (Criteria).

Content areas commonly reported across these tests:

• Cash handling and math: counting mixed bills and coins, making change, totaling deposits and balancing a drawer.
• Attention to detail: comparing slips, names, account numbers and amounts against a record.
• Customer service: scenes at the window or on the phone, with a choice of responses.
• Sometimes personality questions, simulations or counterfeit recognition.

What our mocks cover. Each full mock has 40 questions in 35 minutes in three sections: cash handling and math (16), attention to detail (12) and customer service judgement (12, as scenarios). You can go back to earlier questions, and there is no calculator. Our mocks leave out personality questionnaires, animated teller simulations and spotting counterfeit money or checks from images. If your test includes those, read your invitation and the vendor's own guidance for them.

SHL, eSkill, HR Avatar and Criteria are trademarks of their owners. Intellect Council is not affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by any test vendor or bank.

Question types with worked examples

One worked example for each kind of question, with the trap most people fall into.

1. Counting mixed cash. You have two $50 bills, five $20 bills, three $5 bills, two quarters and three nickels. Count big to small: $100 + $100 + $15 = $215, then $0.50 + $0.15 = $0.65, so $215.65. Trap: counting coins first and losing track of the bills. Work from the largest denomination down, and count each pile twice.

2. Making change by counting up. A $3.80 charge paid with a $10 bill. Count up: two dimes to $4.00, a $1 bill to $5.00, a $5 bill to $10.00. Change is $6.20. Trap: subtracting in your head and dropping a digit. Counting up checks itself as you go.

3. Balancing a drawer. Start $800.00, cash in $1,210.40, cash out $955.15. Expected: $800.00 + $1,210.40 - $955.15 = $1,055.25. If you count $1,064.25, the drawer is over by $9.00. Trap: treating over as good news. Over and short both mean something went wrong, and a difference that divides evenly by 9 often means two digits were swapped.

4. Checking a slip. The record says "Account 61204-58", the slip says "Account 61240-58". Method: compare in small groups, left to right: 612 and 612, 04 and 40. Trap: glancing at the whole number. The first and last digits match, so a quick look passes it.

5. A customer service scenario. A customer asks you to cash a check for a friend who is waiting in the car. The most effective response is to explain politely that the person named on the check needs to come in, with identification, so you can follow the bank's rules. Trap: choosing the most accommodating answer. Teller scenarios usually reward responses that are kind and helpful while keeping privacy, security and policy first.

How to prepare

1. Read your invitation first. Find out which vendor's test you will take, how long it is and whether it includes simulations or personality questions. Formats vary too much to assume.
2. Practice mental math without a calculator. Adding amounts with cents, subtracting for change and working out a drawer balance come up again and again. Do a few by hand each day.
3. Know US bills and coins on sight. Practice quick counts of mixed piles: a quarter, a dime, a nickel and a penny should each be instant.
4. Count change by counting up. Start from the amount due and count up to what the customer gave you. It is faster and catches mistakes.
5. Compare in small groups. For account numbers, names and amounts, check two or three characters at a time, and check the decimal point every time.
6. Answer scenarios as a calm professional. Protect the customer's privacy, follow security and policy, and send decisions you cannot make to a supervisor. Offer products only when they fit what the customer said, and never push.
7. Practice at the real pace. If your test is about 35 minutes, as SHL lists for Teller 7.0 (SHL Teller 7.0), take full timed mocks so the pace feels normal on the day.

How scoring usually works

Scoring depends on the bank and the vendor. There is no national scale and no universal pass mark. Banks set their own standards and rarely publish them. Vendors describe what their tests report in general terms:

• Criteria says its basic skills test includes a suggested minimum score for tellers, and its personality test a job fit benchmark for tellers (Criteria). The page does not give those figures, and each employer decides how to use them.
• SHL's Teller 7.0 reports on separate components, such as handling money and teller sales and service, so an employer can see strengths in each area (SHL Teller 7.0).

Accuracy matters most in cash handling. In a teller job a small error leaves a drawer out of balance, so careful, correct answers count for more than finishing fast.

Our practice score is the number of our own questions you answered correctly, with a breakdown by section: cash handling and math, attention to detail and customer service judgement. It is a practice score: it is not a score on any vendor's test and does not predict whether you will pass.

Common bank teller test mistakes

• Forgetting cash back. On a deposit with cash back, the net deposit is the total minus the cash returned.
• Mixing up over and short. If you count more than expected, the drawer is over; less, and it is short. Work out the expected amount first.
• Losing the cents. Add cents and dollars separately, then combine, and carry when the cents pass 100.
• Reading a number at a glance. Swapped digits in the middle of an account number or amount are easy to miss.
• Choosing the most agreeable answer. In scenarios, helping a customer never means sharing private information or skipping a policy.
• Pushing products. An answer that pressures a customer is rarely the best choice. A short, relevant offer after the task is done fits better.

Who takes a bank teller test

• Bank and credit union tellers, full time and part time, often as the first step after applying.
• Cash office and cashier roles outside banking, which use similar money handling tests. If speed on the number pad matters in your role too, try our 10-key test.