SAMFS has switched its 2026 firefighter aptitude test to Talogy

SAMFS Just Switched Test Providers to Talogy — Here’s What That Actually Means for Your Application

The SAMFS Talogy test is officially replacing the old SHL aptitude test for 2026 recruitment, after nearly a decade of the same format.

If you’re still prepping off last year’s material, you’re prepping for a test that no longer exists – and this is the point in the recruitment cycle where good candidates usually get filtered out without ever realising why.

If you want to know exactly what’s changed and whether you’re ready for it, book a quick chat with my team , coaching spots are already filling faster than usual.

Hi guys, Brent here with an important one for anyone going for a spot with the SAMFS – South Australian Metropolitan Fire Service.

If you’ve had SAMFS recruitment circled on your calendar for 2026, listen up – because the aptitude testing side of things has just changed, and it’s the kind of change that knocks people out of the running, particularly those that have tried a few times and passed the aptitude test.

The SAMFS test has been relatively easy for around the last 10 years but with the change your familiarity edge is now gone.

SAMFS has moved on from its old testing setup and is now running candidates through Talogy. If that name doesn’t mean much to you yet, that’s exactly the problem I want to help you fix in this post.

Quick answer: The SAMFS Talogy test is now the official firefighter aptitude test provider for South Australian Metropolitan Fire Service recruitment as of 2026, replacing the previous SHL-based online assessment. Talogy assessments typically combine timed cognitive reasoning (numerical, logical, mechanical) with personality and behavioural questionnaires, scored against a benchmarked applicant pool rather than a fixed pass mark.

What’s Actually Changed: The New SAMFS Talogy Test

For the last many intakes, SAMFS candidates have sat an SHL-style online aptitude test – unsupervised, done from home, covering general abilities and mechanical reasoning. It caught plenty of good candidates out simply because they treated it too casually.

This year, that’s being replaced. SAMFS is bringing in Talogy as its new testing partner, and this isn’t a cosmetic rebrand like some services have done with their provider names. Talogy operates on different assessment technology, a different scoring philosophy, and from what we’re seeing early on a different candidate experience altogether.

If you’re prepping using old SHL-style practice material and assuming it’ll transfer across, that’s exactly the kind of assumption that costs people a shot they’ve worked years toward. The SAMFS Talogy test simply doesn’t reward that kind of guesswork.

Who Is Talogy, and Why Should You Care?

Talogy isn’t a brand-new player that’s come out of nowhere. It was formed when PSI combined forces with more than a dozen established talent-testing companies — including Cubiks, Select International, Caliper, OPRA, and others — under one name. Their whole focus is on using assessment technology to make recruitment more streamlined and more objective, which is exactly why large-scale employers running high-volume, high-stakes selection processes lean on them.

That’s the bit worth sitting with for a second. Talogy builds its testing specifically for organisations that need to screen a lot of applicants fairly and consistently — which is precisely the situation SAMFS is in every time recruitment opens. This isn’t some generic off-the-shelf quiz. It’s built to filter, and it’s built to do it at scale.

What a Talogy Assessment Typically Involves

Depending on how SAMFS has configured it, a Talogy-based process can draw on:

• Cognitive ability testing (numerical and logical reasoning under time pressure)
• Personality and behavioural questionnaires
• Role-specific or situational assessments, depending on what the employer wants measured

Employers using Talogy typically receive a lot more than a raw pass/fail score — think percentile rankings, competency breakdowns, and benchmark comparisons against other candidates. In other words, SAMFS isn’t just checking whether you clear a bar. They’re ranking you against everyone else who sat the same test, in far more detail than before.

Where Candidates Usually Get Caught Out

The numerical and logical reasoning sections tend to be the ones people underestimate, mainly because success depends on managing your time as much as getting the answers right. We see this pattern constantly, no matter which provider a service is using — it’s rarely raw intelligence that trips people up, it’s pacing, and it’s walking in without having practiced under real time pressure.

What We’re Picking Up From Inside Our Own Coaching Sessions

We ran a coaching special on this exact test with our SAMFS clients, and one detail keeps catching people off guard: once you move past a question on the real SAMFS Talogy test, you can’t go back to it. No skipping ahead and circling back at the end, no changing your mind on question four after you’ve had time to think on question nine. Whatever you land on when you move forward is locked in.

That’s a genuinely different discipline to the old SHL test, where plenty of candidates would fly through the easy questions first and mop up the harder ones with whatever time was left. That strategy doesn’t exist anymore. You need to be making a real decision on every single question, in order, first time – which is exactly why we built the timed practice set further down this page to work the same way.

Why This Matters More Than People Realise

Here’s the thing about a test provider change — it doesn’t get announced with fireworks. SAMFS isn’t going to send out a press release explaining exactly how different this is going to feel compared to last time. Most applicants will find out the hard way, mid-test, when the format doesn’t match what they crammed for the night before.

We’ve watched this exact scenario play out with other services over the years — FRNSW moving off Revelian onto Criteria, ARFF losing its SHL contract, ACTFR shifting onto TestGorilla. Every single time, there’s a wave of capable candidates who get filtered out early, not because they weren’t good enough to be firefighters, but because they prepared for the wrong exam.

If you’re serious about this — and if you’ve read this far, I’m going to assume you are — the worst thing you can do right now is keep grinding through generic aptitude practice that has nothing to do with how the SAMFS Talogy test actually structures its questions.

What To Prioritise If You’re Applying to SAMFS This Year

If you’re sitting the SAMFS Talogy test this year, here’s where to put your energy:

1. Stop assuming your old prep still applies. SHL-style practice and Talogy-style practice are not interchangeable. The reasoning styles, question formats, and pacing are different enough to matter.
2. Get comfortable with strict self-timing. Talogy-based tests reward candidates who manage the clock as well as the content.
3. Take the personality and behavioural components seriously. These aren’t a formality — they feed directly into how you’re ranked.
4. Understand you’re being benchmarked, not just marked. With detailed percentile and competency reporting on the other end, “good enough” against an old standard may not be good enough against this year’s applicant pool.
5. Practice without the safety net of going back. The real test won’t let you skip a question and return to it later, so train yourself to make a call and move on, not second-guess your way through in order.

Where This Leaves You

I’ll be straight with you — I’m not fussed about which path you choose here. Some of you will go away, dig into this yourselves, piece together your own prep, and that’s a perfectly valid road to take. Firefighting is worth the effort no matter how you get there.

What I would say is this: every SAMFS intake gets more competitive, not less, and a provider change like this is exactly the moment where the gap between prepared and unprepared candidates widens the most. It’s also the exact moment our coaching spots tend to fill up fastest, simply because people don’t want to walk into a test they don’t understand.

If you want to know exactly where you stand and whether we can actually help you get ahead of this change before applications open, get in touch and have a chat with my right-hand man. No pressure either way — but if you’re going to move, I’d do it sooner rather than later this time round.

Wherever you’re at in your journey — just starting to look into it, or gearing up for your third attempt — we’re here for it. Let’s make sure the SAMFS Talogy test works in your favour, not against you.

Our Approach

We don’t guess. We don’t generalise. And we don’t treat the SAMFS Talogy test like a generic aptitude exam because we wouldn’t get results if we did.

Our approach is simple and proven:

We start by understanding the actual test – not internet versions, not recycled corporate aptitude questions, but the real style, pressure, and decision-making demands you will face on the day.

From there, my hand picked coaches – all of whom score at the very top end of these assessments and have worked with SAMFS and Australian firefighting aptitude testing for over a decade – break the test down properly. Patterns, traps, timing thresholds, and the specific ways strong candidates can separate from average ones.

Then we do the part most prep providers and applicants skip:
we work directly with our clients to close the gap fast.

That means:

• No guessing what matters
• No wasting time on low-yield question types
• No “hope it clicks on the day” preparation

You’re shown exactly how to approach each section, how to manage time when it gets tight, and how to avoid the small, preventable mistakes that quietly knock people out of contention.

We also look beyond the test itself.

Because getting a good score isn’t the goal – progressing is.

So we support the full picture:

• Test-day strategy and execution
• Application strength and supporting requirements
• Mindset and pressure control, so performance doesn’t drop when it counts

When thousands of applicants are competing and only a few hundred move forward, the difference is rarely intelligence.
It’s preparation, familiarity, and knowing precisely what to do when the clock starts.

That’s the edge we focus on and it’s why our candidates don’t just pass, they stay in the process and get selected.

In a process where every half-percent matters, clarity beats confidence – and the right preparation beats both.

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SAMFS Talogy Practice Tests at Fire Recruitment Australia

If you’re gearing up for the SAMFS Talogy test, this is where our team’s work matters most. At Fire Recruitment Australia, we’re actively updating our question banks to fully align with the NEW – SAMFS TALOGY format, drawing on:

• Current SAMFS requirements
• Historical firefighter-style questions (REAL DATA)
• Modern reasoning standards used in emergency services recruitment

Our resources cover:

• Numeracy
• General reasoning
• Language
• Literacy

All designed specifically for SAMFS testing & Australian firefighter recruitment, not generic aptitude testing.

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Try It Yourself: A Timed SAMFS Talogy-Style Practice Set

Reading about the format only gets you so far. Below is a short timed set built the same way the real thing works – once you move on from a question, that’s it, no going back. Ten questions, four minutes, pulled straight from our Numeracy, General Reasoning, Language and Literacy banks.

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Final Word for SAMFS Applicants

If you've found your way here while trying to understand how the SAMFS Talogy test is changing your recruitment odds, that's a good sign - it means you're preparing early, not reacting late.

The move to Talogy doesn't mean you need to start from scratch.
But it does mean preparation needs to match the way this test is actually designed and assessed.

One thing to be aware of: whenever any service changes provider, new "practice test" offers suddenly appear in search. This happens every recruitment cycle.

Most are generic aptitude tests quickly rebranded to match the latest terminology, without any real connection to firefighter recruitment or how these assessments are actually used.

MFS's aptitude test has been one of the least competitive in Australia but that's about to change. You're not aiming to pass - you're aiming to place high enough to progress.

When thousands apply and only a few hundred move forward, relying on guesswork or off-the-shelf practice is a risk most candidates don't realise they're taking.

Focus on the correct Talogy-style reasoning.

Take mechanical reasoning seriously if it's a weak area.
Train for speed so your performance holds under pressure.

That approach doesn't just help you pass - it helps you stay in the process.

Thanks,
Brent

Frequently Asked Questions: SAMFS Talogy Test Change

Quick answers to the most common questions we're getting about the SAMFS Talogy test.

What aptitude test does SAMFS use in 2026?

The SAMFS Talogy test is the current aptitude testing format for 2026 recruitment, replacing the SHL-based online test used in previous intakes.

Who is Talogy?

Talogy is a talent assessment company formed when PSI combined with over a dozen established testing providers, including Cubiks, Select International, Caliper, and OPRA. Talogy builds cognitive, personality, and situational assessments for large-scale employer recruitment, including public-sector and emergency services hiring.

Is the SAMFS Talogy test harder than the old SHL test?

It's not necessarily harder in raw difficulty, but it's structured differently. Talogy assessments place heavy weight on timed numerical and logical reasoning, alongside personality and behavioural questionnaires, and candidates are benchmarked against the wider applicant pool rather than judged against a fixed cut score. Candidates who prepared for the old SHL format may find the pacing and question style unfamiliar.

Can I go back and change my answers on the SAMFS Talogy test?

No. Once you move past a question on the real test, it's locked in - there's no going back to review or change it later. That's different to the old SHL format, where candidates could skip around and mop up questions at the end.

How do I prepare for the SAMFS Talogy aptitude test?

Focus on timed numerical and logical reasoning practice, get comfortable answering personality/behavioural questions consistently (rather than trying to guess the "right" answer), practice working through questions in order without going back, and avoid relying on old SHL-specific practice material, since the formats aren't interchangeable.

Is there Talogy-specific practice material available for SAMFS applicants?

Fire Recruitment Australia is actively updating its question banks to align with the new SAMFS Talogy format, drawing on current SAMFS requirements, historical firefighter-style questions, and modern reasoning standards used in emergency services recruitment. This covers numeracy, general reasoning, language, and literacy, designed specifically for SAMFS testing rather than generic aptitude practice.

When does SAMFS recruitment open in 2026?

SAMFS recruitment timing varies year to year and is typically confirmed closer to the applications window. Check our SAMFS recruitment page for the latest dates, or get in touch and we'll let you know as soon as it's confirmed.