Let’s talk about the conclusion first: SIG Online Assessment is not about test types, but about "thinking stability." We have many students who have gone through SIG OA with us in the past two years, and the feedback is highly consistent: the questions are not biased, not weird, and not out of line, but it is quite easy to mess up the rhythm starting from questions 2 to 3. There is only one reason: you are "calculating", but SIG is looking at what you "think".
Real SIG OA structure (don’t be fooled by the old version again)
What is running now is Mercer Mettl Platform, not the 20 Minutes of Hell version from before.
- 9 questions
- Scheduling system, data flow, scalability, trade-off
- Multiple choice + fill in the blanks (non-integer = simplest fraction)
- Allow calculator
But pay attention to a very cruel sentence:
I gave you the calculator because calculation is not a screening point at all.
Who is the SIG really screening for?
We have summed it up internally:
SIG is not afraid that you will calculate slowly, but that you will calculate in the wrong direction at the beginning.
So you'll see them test these categories over and over again:
- Expected value (E(X))
- Independent event probability
- Combination + logical path
- Very little calculus (and not very deep)
Analysis of real question style (combined with 3 SIG typical questions)
Question Type 1: Binomial Distribution + Expected Value (SIG’s favorite)
Typical Question:
A deck consists of 18 cards numbered from 1 to 18.
Six cards are drawn With replacement.
Let XXX be the number of prime numbers drawn.
What is the expected value of XXX?
ProgramHelp dismantling perspective
This kind of questions,What SIG wants is not the answer, but what you were thinking first..
The three most common error paths during our review are:
- Start listing all possible ways to draw
- Want to calculate the probability distribution and then find the expectation
- Some people have even begun to wonder whether there is any correlation between prime numbers.
But in this question, SIG actually only checks two things:
Did you realize immediately: this is a repeated, independent experiment?
Will you directly use the expected linear formula?
As long as you realize:
- Each card draw is independent of each other
- "Drawing prime numbers" is a Bernoulli trial
From the SIG perspective, this question is over.
E(X) = n × p
If you write more than three lines in this question,
In the SIG's view, your "quantitative intuition" is weak.
This is why SIG loves to use this type of questions,
It can quickly screen out people who "can only do calculations but don't understand models".
Question Type 2: Independent Events + Combinatorial Probability
Typical Question:
Three printers operate independently.
Printer A jams with probability 0.25,
Printer B jams with probability 0.20,
Printer C jams with probability 0.15.What is the probability that exactly two printers jam on a given day?
ProgramHelp dismantling perspective
This question is SIG OA has a very high rollover rate.
Because it seems very "basic", but it can easily expose thinking problems.
What is the SIG really looking at?
It’s not whether you can count
It’s not whether you remember the formula
Instead:
Do you have a stable framework for “enumerating without repeating or omitting”?
The correct order of thinking must be:
- Identify key words:Exactly two
- Realize: This is not a formula question, but a situation enumeration question
- Proactively list all possible combinations (AB, AC, BC)
- Each scenario is clear:
- Which occur
- What doesn't happen
We have seen many people overturn because the reason is not miscalculation, but:
- Forgot a certain combination
- Or write the probability conditions of "occurrence" and "non-occurrence" in reverse
From the SIG perspective, this mistake is quite fatal.
Because it shows that you can easily miss states in complex systems.
Question type three: Logic + Path Counting (most like SIG)
Typical Question:
A robot moves from point A to point B without exceeding it.
The robot can only move up or right,
And alternates step sizes between 2 units and 3 units.How many distinct paths allow the robot to reach point B exactly?
ProgramHelp dismantling perspective
This question is quite SIG and the one that is most likely to drag people to death.
When many people see "path counting", they subconsciously think:
- Start drawing
- Start counting paths
- Then it disappeared in 10 minutes.
But the SIG wants you to do the exact opposite.
The correct order must be:
Step 1: First determine “whether it is feasible”
- Can you start with the 3-unit step?
- Will it inevitably overshoot in the middle?
If you get the first step wrong, all the rest will be in vain.
Step 2: Once confirmed that it is feasible, abstract the pattern immediately
- Not "step by step"
- Instead:Fixed step sequence (2,3,2,3…)
Step 3: The last step is the combination count
- Which steps are up
- Which steps are to the right?
- How many types of placement are there?
The SIG particularly likes this type of question because it clearly distinguishes between:
- Logic driven thinking
- Violent enumeration thinking
If you draw the path as soon as you come up,
In the SIG scoring system, you have basically lost half of this question.
Why do many people chooseIncognito online OA assistance
To be honest, at least half of the students who failed in the SIG Online Assessment did not know how to do the questions.
The real question is:
- Once the direction goes wrong, no one will remind you
- Each question card lasts 12-15 minutes, and the rhythm is broken.
- It's obviously the expected value, but the result is treated as a hard calculation of complex probability.
- If you make a wrong judgment in the first step of a logic question, all subsequent efforts will be ineffective.
The biggest cruelty of SIG OA is:
It doesn't tell you "you've got it wrong."
This is why more and more students choose ProgramHelp’s invisible online OA auxiliary service in quantitative OA such as SIG / Optiver / Citadel.
