FBI Special Agent Selection System (SASS) Phase I Practice Test 2026 - Free SASS Phase I Practice Questions and Study Guide

Verbal ability, nonverbal/figural reasoning, and memory/attention are all core measures of cognitive processing. They test how you understand language, recognize patterns, and maintain and manipulate information under attention-demanding tasks—skills directly tied to problem-solving and real-time decision making.

A personality traits assessment, on the other hand, focuses on character patterns, motivations, and behavioral tendencies rather than how you think or remember. In the FBI SASS Phase I battery, the emphasis is on cognitive function, so a tool that gauges personality traits isn’t typically included in this cognitive portion. It would be addressed separately later in the process to look at suitability beyond pure cognitive ability.

So, the item not typically part of the Phase I cognitive battery is the personality traits assessment, because it measures different attributes (personality) than the cognitive abilities this phase is designed to evaluate.