Exercise order and assessment centre performance

Ratings from an operational assessment centre (AC) were examined as a function of the order that candidates participated in the assessments. Assessment scheduling had a significant multivariate effect on the preconsensus exercise‐based ratings. The effect was small, however, accounting for at most 1% of the rating variance. Differences in exercise order were seen as being unlikely to result in serious unfairness to applicants, although programme designers should be sensitive to the possibility of early vs. late‐day performance differences.