Checked 14 October 2026. Feedback wording is from the Civil Service Careers online-tests page and the Fast Stream Assessment Centre guide for 2027 entry, read on 14 October 2026. Behaviour definitions and examples are from Success Profiles: Civil Service behaviours on GOV.UK (last updated 29 January 2025). The link between the test and named behaviours is our reading, not an official statement.
The Fast Stream feedback report is two different documents, and most confusion about it comes from mixing them up. One is the feedback every candidate receives after the two online tests, Work-based scenarios and the Case Study assessment. The other is the performance report every candidate receives after the assessment centre. This guide prints what Civil Service Careers says about each for 2027 entry, says plainly what is not published (including whether you see a score), explains how to read and use the feedback when it arrives, and ends with a shorter section of tips for the Work-based scenarios test. For the format of both online tests, see our Fast Stream online tests guide.
A note from us
Applying to the Fast Stream is a big step, and there is a lot to take in. We have tried to set out what is published as plainly as we can. Take it one section at a time, and come back whenever it helps.
Civil Service Careers, online-tests page and Fast Stream Assessment Centre guide for 2027 entry (read 14 October 2026).
What the official pages say about feedback, stage by stage
| Stage | Feedback | Official wording |
|---|---|---|
| Online tests | Yes, for every candidate | “You will receive feedback, regardless of whether you are successful.” It will reflect your individual performance, highlight your strengths and provide tips to help you develop your performance in the future. |
| Additional information (some schemes) | No | “We cannot provide individual feedback at this stage because all information is anonymised before it is reviewed.” |
| Assessment centre (FSAC) | Yes, a performance report, for every candidate | “You will receive a performance report, whether you are successful or not.” It gives feedback on your scores on each exercise, with a description of what a high-performing response looks like, alongside some general development tips. |
| Final Selection Board | Not stated on the Fast Stream pages | The complaints page says Profession Final Selection Boards are the responsibility of others, not of Civil Service Fast Stream. |
So there are two different documents that candidates call “the feedback report”. One follows the online tests. The other follows the assessment centre, and of the pages we read, the assessment-centre guide is the only one that uses the words “feedback report”. The rest of this guide keeps them apart.
The online-test feedback: what is and is not published
| Question | Published? | What the page says (2027 entry) |
|---|---|---|
| Who gets it? | Yes | Everyone, regardless of whether you are successful. |
| What is it about? | Yes | Your individual performance, your strengths, and tips to help you develop your performance in the future. |
| Does good feedback mean I passed? | Yes | No. “Your feedback focuses on your performance and potential. It does not indicate whether you will progress to the next stage, as the process is highly competitive.” |
| Does it show a score, a percentile or a pass mark? | No | Nothing. The page does not use the word score for the online tests. |
| Is it broken down by test, or by behaviour? | No | Nothing. |
| When does it arrive? | In part | Results should be available in December 2026, by email. The page does not say whether feedback arrives with the result. |
| How long can I see it? | No | Nothing for the online tests. (The assessment-centre report is removed at the end of May 2027.) |
The page for the last campaign, as we saved it on 28 September 2026, put the warning more bluntly: it said that even candidates who receive very positive feedback may not progress to the next stage. The 2027 wording is shorter and says the same thing. The practical meaning is that the feedback describes how you answered, while the decision depends on how everyone else answered too. For the 2026 intake, GOV.UK recruitment data records 69,046 first-preference applications and 703 people recommended for appointment.
We hold no official description of the layout of the online-test feedback, and we have not seen an official sample. Descriptions on forums and coaching sites of bands, charts or percentile scores are not confirmed by any page we read, so we do not repeat them here.
Practise the online tests: 12 scenarios in the real format
Original scenarios written to the published four-point scale. Rate each action, then see the reason behind every rating. Start with the free one below.
Stage 1 for all of them: the online tests. 2026 intake, GOV.UK recruitment data.
£31,554 starting salary · earning potential of £45,000 to £55,000 after the scheme (Civil Service Careers).
- 12scenarios
- 48actions to rate
- 24case-study situations
- 72answers explained
Every rating comes with its reason, written against the published four-point scale and the Civil Service Code.
FreeTests: Working Together
The figure in the minister's box
Read the situation, then rate each of the 4 actions from Counterproductive to Effective. You then see the right rating and the reason for each. About 3 minutes · free · no sign-in.
You are a policy officer working on a joint briefing with a partner team. At noon, Grace, who leads the partner team, sent the finished briefing to the minister's private office. It goes into the minister's box at 5pm, ready for a radio interview tomorrow morning. At 1pm you notice that the paragraph on rural households, which you wrote, still says 120,000 households. Your team corrected that figure to 80,000 last week, and the version Grace sent was taken before the correction. Grace starts two weeks' leave at 2pm today. Her deputy, James, is in the office all afternoon and can send material to private office. Only that one paragraph is affected.
Opens when you unlock all
- An error in your figures · Managing a Quality Service
- A colleague falling behind · Developing Self and Others
- Legal advice missing overnight · Making Effective Decisions
- A spreadsheet for the train · Managing a Quality Service
- An angry trade association · Communicating and Influencing
- A quiet voice in meetings · Working Together
- A vague request in passing · Communicating and Influencing
- Leaving a post on Friday · Managing a Quality Service
- Testing dropped to hit launch · Making Effective Decisions
- Data promised by another department · Working Together
- Spending the underspend · Managing a Quality Service
- Case study: Open Door Hubs: a practice Case Study · 7 background documents, 24 situations
- 11 more work-based scenarios with 44 actions to rate on the four-point scale
- A full case study: 7 background documents and 24 situations, in order
- The reason behind every rating, so you learn the scale and not the answers
- Your rating pattern: whether you mark too generously or too harshly, and what to fix
- Same length as the real tests: 12 scenarios and 24 situations
Independent practice material. Not written or endorsed by the Civil Service; the real tests use video and no answer key is published beyond the one worked example. For 2027 entry the real Case Study mixes two answer types; this set practises both: four-point ratings in the scenarios, most and least effective in the case study.
How to read the Work-based scenarios and Case Study feedback
The online-tests page has one “Test feedback” section for both tests together. It does not describe separate feedback for the Work-based scenarios and for the Case Study, so we do not either. What it does give is three things the feedback will do and one warning. The left column below is the official wording; the right column is our reading of it.
| Official wording (2027 entry) | How to read it (our reading) |
|---|---|
| reflect your individual performance | It is about how you answered. The page does not say it compares you with other candidates. |
| highlight your strengths | Note which kind of situation each strength refers to. A strength is something to keep doing at the assessment centre or in a later application. |
| provide tips to help you develop your performance in the future | The tips are written as development advice. They are the part worth saving, whatever the result. |
| Your feedback focuses on your performance and potential. | It is not the decision. Read it separately from the result email. |
| It does not indicate whether you will progress to the next stage, as the process is highly competitive. | Good feedback and an unsuccessful result can arrive together, and the page tells you so in advance. |
To place a comment, it helps to know what each test is officially said to measure. The feedback itself is not described test by test, so the last column is ours.
| Online test | What the page says it measures | A comment about it is likely to concern (our reading) |
|---|---|---|
| Work-based scenarios | “This test measures interpersonal skills.” | How you rated actions that involve other people: colleagues, managers, other teams. |
| Case Study assessment | “This test assesses your decision-making and your ability to adapt to changing circumstances.” | The quality of your choices in the imaginary role, and whether they kept up as the scenario changed. |
The last campaign’s page, in our copy saved on 28 September 2026, used one more word: it said all candidates would receive “detailed feedback” following the online tests. The page for 2027 entry does not use the word detailed, and neither page says how long the feedback is.
For comparison only: the standard Civil Service tests used for ordinary job adverts are described more fully on GOV.UK. There, your score is compared with a peer group to give a percentile, the Judgement Test comes with a feedback report that offers general suggestions on how to improve, and answers to specific questions are not given, to protect the security of the test. Those statements are about the Civil Service Jobs tests. The Fast Stream pages say none of this about the Fast Stream online tests, so do not assume a percentile will appear in yours.
The assessment-centre feedback report
| Point | What the FSAC guide says |
|---|---|
| Who gets it | Every candidate, successful or not. |
| What it contains | Feedback on your scores on each exercise, a description of what a high-performing response looks like, and some general development tips. |
| Where you see it | From the Fast Stream homepage, as soon as it becomes available. |
| How long it is kept | It is removed at the end of May 2027, and you cannot request it after that date. |
| What the guide tells you to do | Save or screenshot the report for your personal records. |
That deadline is the one firm date attached to any Fast Stream feedback. If you reach the assessment centre and intend to apply again, or to use the report for other applications, save it when it arrives. Our suggestion is to do the same with the online-test feedback, since the page does not say how long that stays available.
To read the scores, recall how the day is built. The guide says the assessment centre includes 3 exercises, the Written Exercise, the Oral Briefing Exercise and the Personal Development Conversation, that the exercises are independent of each other, and that each is marked by a different assessor. So a low score on one exercise is one assessor’s view of one task, not a verdict on the whole day. The guide also says potential is assessed across four dimensions: Think, Relate, Adapt and Strive. It does not say whether the report is laid out by exercise only or by dimension as well.
How to use a feedback report when it arrives
Our advice
- Save it the day it arrives. The assessment-centre report is removed at the end of May 2027 and cannot be requested afterwards. No retention period is published for the online-test feedback.
- Read it as a description, not a verdict. The official page says the feedback does not indicate whether you will progress.
- Turn each development tip into one behaviour. Match the tip to the nearest GOV.UK definition in the table below, then read the examples for that behaviour.
- Compare it with your own lean. If your practice ratings ran generous and the feedback points the same way, that is the boundary to work on.
- Keep it for next year. A “Developing self and others” example on GOV.UK is to “reflect on your own work, continuously seek and act on feedback”. A saved report is the evidence for that.
These are suggestions. The Fast Stream pages give no instructions on using the online-test feedback.
Work-based scenarios tips, in brief
The second part of this guide is about the test itself: what the Work-based scenarios test measures, seven tips tied to published behaviour descriptors, the one official example to rate, and the boundaries between neighbouring ratings. If your feedback pointed at the scenarios, start here. Worked answers to further scenarios are in our online tests guide.
What the test measures, officially
The online-tests page gives one sentence: “This test measures interpersonal skills.” You watch short videos of work situations and rate how effective different actions would be. The page does not name any Civil Service behaviour for either online test. The assessment centre, by contrast, is assessed on a named framework of four dimensions (Think, Relate, Adapt and Strive), and the guide describes Relate as your interpersonal skills and emotional intelligence. That framework is stated for the assessment centre, not for the online tests.
What GOV.UK does say, in Success Profiles: Civil Service behaviours, is that behaviours can be assessed by asking “how you would behave in a given situation”, for example by using Situational Judgement Tests. The Work-based scenarios test is a test of that kind. So we use the published behaviour descriptors as the best official description of what good conduct at work looks like in the Civil Service. That link is our reading. It is not a statement that the test is scored against them.
| Behaviour | GOV.UK definition (exact) |
|---|---|
| Working together | Form effective partnerships and relationships with people both internally and externally, from a range of diverse backgrounds, sharing information, resources and support. |
| Communicating and influencing | Communicate purpose and direction with clarity, integrity and enthusiasm. Respect the needs, responses and opinions of others. |
| Making effective decisions | Use evidence and knowledge to support accurate, expert decisions and advice. Carefully consider alternative options, implications and risks of decisions. |
| Leadership | Show pride and passion for public service. Create and engage others in delivering a shared vision. Value difference, diversity and inclusion, ensuring fairness and opportunity for all. |
| Developing self and others | Focus on continuous learning and development for self, others and the organisation as a whole. |
| Managing a quality service | Deliver service objectives with professional excellence, expertise and efficiency, taking account of diverse customer needs. |
| Delivering at pace | Take responsibility for delivering timely and quality results with focus and drive. |
GOV.UK defines nine behaviours; the other two are Seeing the big picture and Changing and improving. The seven above are the ones that most plainly involve other people or a piece of work in progress, which is what a work scenario shows. The choice of seven is ours.
Seven tips, each tied to a published descriptor
GOV.UK prints examples of each behaviour at several grade levels. We quote the examples for “HEO and SEO grades or equivalent”, because the Civil Service Careers grades page lists graduate fast stream programmes as an entry route at Higher Executive Officer. The Fast Stream pages do not say which level, if any, the online tests are pitched at, so the choice of level is ours as well.
| Behaviour | GOV.UK example at HEO and SEO (exact) | What it means when you rate an action (our reading) |
|---|---|---|
| Working together | collaborate with these to share information, resources and support | Rate up actions that solve the problem with the other party. In the official example the Effective action shares a contact with spare equipment; the explanation for a weaker one is that it “does not look for a collaborative solution”. |
| Communicating and influencing | communicate in a straightforward, honest and engaging manner - choosing appropriate styles to maximise understanding and impact | Rate up speaking to the person concerned yourself. In the official example, asking colleagues to deliver your message “places the burden on your colleagues rather than solving the issue”. |
| Making effective decisions | analyse and use a range of relevant, credible information from internal and external sources to support decisions | Use what the scenario tells you. Kamala mentions underused equipment elsewhere, and only the Effective action uses it. |
| Leadership | effectively manage conflict, misconduct and non-inclusive behaviour, raising with senior managers where appropriate | An action that starts a conflict is the worst kind. The one Counterproductive action in the official example “creates conflict rather than resolving the resource issue”. |
| Developing self and others | take time to coach, mentor and develop other colleagues to support succession planning | When a colleague is struggling, an action that helps them improve usually sits above one that does the work for them or reports them at once. |
| Managing a quality service | identify risks and resolve issues efficiently | Owning and fixing an error early sits above hiding it, and above waiting to be asked. |
| Delivering at pace | act promptly to reassess workloads and priorities when there are conflicting demands to maintain performance | With two deadlines, an action that re-plans openly sits above one that quietly lets one slip. |
The first four rows are supported by the official worked example. The last three have no official item behind them, so they rest on the descriptors alone. Treat all seven as questions to ask of an action, not as rules that produce a rating.
The official example, to rate before you read further
This is the one Work-based scenarios item with published answers. Rate the four actions, then compare. If you have already done it on our online tests guide, do it again here and watch which way your misses go.
| Action | Official correct rating |
|---|---|
| A. Contact the other department’s manager and request that they find alternative IT equipment | Ineffective |
| B. Speak with the other manager about your concerns and share a contact who has similar equipment that is underused | Effective |
| C. Ask your colleagues to tell the other manager that your project takes priority | Ineffective |
| D. Ask your colleagues to book as much time as possible with the equipment | Counterproductive |
Our doubts are traitors,
And make us lose the good we oft might win
By fearing to attempt.
Which way do you lean? The boundaries between neighbouring ratings
Most wrong ratings are one step from the key, on one side. Some candidates are generous and call Ineffective actions Partially effective; others are harsh and call Ineffective actions Counterproductive. Knowing your lean is more useful than a count of right answers, because it tells you which boundary to study. The definitions in the table are official; the test questions are ours.
| Boundary | The official words that separate them | Ask of the action (our wording) |
|---|---|---|
| Counterproductive or Ineffective | “would make the problem worse” against “would not help” | After this action, is anyone worse off than before, or is a relationship damaged? |
| Ineffective or Partially effective | “a poor action” against “a useful action that would be of some help” | Does it move the actual problem forward at all, or only look busy? |
| Partially effective or Effective | “of some help” against “would help resolve the situation” | If this were the only thing done, would the situation be on its way to being resolved? |
The official example has no Partially effective action, so it cannot show you the upper boundary. That is the main limit of practising on one item, and the reason a larger set of rated actions is worth having.
Our 12 practice scenarios, by behaviour
Each scenario in the ProSyllabus practice set is tagged with one Civil Service behaviour. The tags are ours; they tell you what the scenario is mainly about, not how the Civil Service would mark it. The titles are listed so that you can see the spread before you start.
| No. | Scenario | Behaviour tag (ours) | Access |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The figure in the minister's box | Working Together | Free on this page |
| 2 | An error in your figures | Managing a Quality Service | In the full set |
| 3 | A colleague falling behind | Developing Self and Others | In the full set |
| 4 | Legal advice missing overnight | Making Effective Decisions | In the full set |
| 5 | A spreadsheet for the train | Managing a Quality Service | In the full set |
| 6 | An angry trade association | Communicating and Influencing | In the full set |
| 7 | A quiet voice in meetings | Working Together | In the full set |
| 8 | A vague request in passing | Communicating and Influencing | In the full set |
| 9 | Leaving a post on Friday | Managing a Quality Service | In the full set |
| 10 | Testing dropped to hit launch | Making Effective Decisions | In the full set |
| 11 | Data promised by another department | Working Together | In the full set |
| 12 | Spending the underspend | Managing a Quality Service | In the full set |
Counted by tag, that is four scenarios on Managing a Quality Service, two each on Making Effective Decisions, Communicating and Influencing, and Working Together, and one each on Delivering at Pace and Developing Self and Others. Every scenario has four actions to rate, 48 in all, with the reason for each rating. The set is text only and independent of the Civil Service.
If something went wrong with a test
| Situation | What the official pages say |
|---|---|
| You need more time or a different format | The online tests are untimed, allow self-directed breaks between and during the tests, and are compatible with screen readers, so these do not need to be requested. |
| You find the questions hard to read | You can seek help from a family member, friend or colleague to read them, but the answers must be honest and your own. |
| You want to skip the online tests | Not possible. The page says candidates are not able to bypass the online tests. |
| You have a query about your application | Submit a request for help through the contact page. |
| You want to complain | Complaints go to the address on the contact page, normally within 1 month of the action complained about. The team commits to acknowledge within 5 days and aims to reply in full within 20 working days. |
| You disagree with an assessment-centre judgement | The page says simply disagreeing with the judgement of the Assessment Centre is not considered grounds for complaint. |
Practise it, don't just read it
Rate the four actions in a full Fast Stream scenario, free, then see the answers and the reasons for each one.
What we could not find
Not published on any official page we read on 14 October 2026
- A sample, layout or list of headings for the online-test feedback.
- Whether the online-test feedback shows a score, a band or a percentile.
- Any statement that the Work-based scenarios test is scored against named Civil Service behaviours.
- The number of actions in each real scenario, or how ratings are scored.
- A pass mark, or how one is set, for 2027 entry.
- How long the online-test feedback stays on your applicant homepage.
- What feedback, if any, follows a Final Selection Board.
Quoted text is from Civil Service Careers and GOV.UK, which publish under the Open Government Licence v3.0. This guide is independent and is not written or endorsed by the Civil Service.
Frequently asked questions
Do you get a feedback report after the Fast Stream online tests?
You receive feedback whether or not you are successful. The official page says it will reflect your individual performance, highlight your strengths and provide tips to help you develop. The words “feedback report” are used on the Fast Stream pages only for the assessment-centre report.
Does the Fast Stream feedback tell you your score?
For the online tests, the official page does not mention a score. For the assessment centre, the guide says the performance report gives feedback on your scores on each exercise, with a description of what a high-performing response looks like.
If my feedback is positive, have I passed?
Not necessarily. The official page says the feedback focuses on your performance and potential and does not indicate whether you will progress to the next stage, because the process is highly competitive.
How long is the Fast Stream feedback report available?
The assessment-centre guide says the feedback report is removed at the end of May 2027 and cannot be requested after that date, so save or screenshot it. No retention period is published for the online-test feedback.
What does the Work-based scenarios test measure?
The official page says it measures interpersonal skills. You watch short videos of work situations, in 12 scenarios, and rate how effective several possible actions would be on a four-point scale.
Which Civil Service behaviours does the Work-based scenarios test assess?
The Fast Stream pages do not name any. GOV.UK says behaviours can be assessed by situational judgement tests in general. Linking this test to Working together, Communicating and influencing and the other behaviours is our reading, not an official mapping.
What is the best tip for the Work-based scenarios?
Learn the four scale definitions well enough to say what separates each neighbouring pair, then rate the official example and check which way your misses lean. In that example the only Effective action is the one where you speak to the other manager yourself and offer a workable alternative.
When are Fast Stream online test results released?
The official page for 2027 entry says results should be available in December 2026 and that you will be emailed when they are released.
Good luck from all of us
Whatever stage you are at, getting this far takes real effort, and that is worth being proud of. Prepare at a pace that works for you, check the official Civil Service Careers pages for anything that decides your application, and look after yourself along the way. We are wishing you every success.
Great works are performed not by strength, but perseverance.
More in this series
- Fast Stream online tests
- Fast Stream assessment centre (FSAC)
- Fast Stream success rates by scheme
- Fast Stream schemes and eligibility
- Fast Stream salary by year
- Fast Stream vs other routes
- Case Study assessment: format and practice
- Fast Stream 2027 application dates and timeline
- Online tests: pass mark and results
- Situational judgement test (Work-based scenarios)
- Is there a numerical test?
- Fast Stream practice test (free)
- Work-based scenarios answers and tips
- Fast Stream work style questionnaire
- Fast Stream example questions
- Fast Stream acceptance rate
- UK Fast Stream notice board — alerts and updates
Sources
- official — Civil Service Careers — Online tests
- official — Civil Service Careers — Example question: work-based scenario
- official — FSAC guide — After the Fast Stream Assessment Centre
- official — FSAC guide — What is assessed and how to prepare
- official — FSAC guide — The assessments
- official — Civil Service Careers — Additional information
- official — Civil Service Careers — Fast Stream contact us and complaints process
- official — Civil Service Careers — Fast Stream reasonable adjustments
- official — GOV.UK — Success Profiles: Civil Service behaviours
- official — Civil Service Careers — Behaviours
- official — GOV.UK — Civil Service online tests (practice tests for other Civil Service tests)
- official — Civil Service Careers — Civil Service grades and pay
- official — GOV.UK — Civil Service Fast Stream recruitment data 2026
official = a document published by the conducting body. reported = a news or coaching site we could not check against an original. Where sources disagree this page says so rather than picking one.
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