E-tray Exercise / In-tray Exercise
An E-tray exercise (or In-tray exercise) is a computer based simulation of an email in box that lasts for, and must be completed within, a fixed amount of time.
During the exercise emails will arrive into your in box e-tray and you will be required to:
- Make basic calculations;
- Extract information from data provided;
- Make judgement calls on how to deal with demanding managers/unhappy clients, etc.
The E-tray exercise is the electronic equivalent of the In-tray exercise.
Master the In Tray Exercise
Normally the answers to this exercise are multiple choice. Be careful with calculation questions. Typically, the wrong answers listed will be common errors for that problem and can be misleading. You do not always necessarily need all the information provided, and sometimes more information than is necessary will be provided, to distract you.
Emails in an e-tray exercise will often arrive slowly at first and then get faster as time progresses. It is important that you do not begin to select random answers at the end as they will be testing to see how you perform under pressure.
E-tray Written Exercise
Some E-tray exercises will have a written part as well, where you will be required to respond to an email. Typically, no spell-checker is provided, so you must be certain to use words that you can spell confidently. Make sure you respond in a style appropriate to the email you have been sent, and ensure that it has a clear, logical structure.
Keep watch over time, and make sure you proof read what you have written before the time is up.
In-tray exercise
An In-tray exercise is a paper based business simulation. For this exercise you will be given a scenario and a number of related documents, such as letters from the company, organisation charts and news reports. You will then be required to make decisions and produce responses to certain tasks.
Get a free In-tray exercise