{"id":3859,"date":"2026-03-25T11:26:00","date_gmt":"2026-03-25T11:26:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.big5assessments.com\/blog\/?p=3859"},"modified":"2026-03-25T19:20:20","modified_gmt":"2026-03-25T19:20:20","slug":"dont-let-just-anyone-cross-your-drawbridge-and-enter-your-castle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.big5assessments.com\/blog\/nigels-notes\/dont-let-just-anyone-cross-your-drawbridge-and-enter-your-castle\/","title":{"rendered":"Don\u2019t let just anyone cross your drawbridge and enter your castle"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Once upon a time a royal family lived in a\nbig castle. Although they were very happy living in their castle, they needed\nhelp to clean and tidy and maintain their household. So, they asked people in\nthe nearby towns and villages to apply for jobs. Importantly, the royal family\nhad a very strict housekeeper so anyone who applied for work had to satisfy\nthree tests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"alignleft is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.big5assessments.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/38363-bodiam-castle-robertsbridge-01-2-1024x573.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-3862\" width=\"373\" height=\"208\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.big5assessments.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/38363-bodiam-castle-robertsbridge-01-2-1024x573.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.big5assessments.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/38363-bodiam-castle-robertsbridge-01-2-300x168.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.big5assessments.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/38363-bodiam-castle-robertsbridge-01-2-768x430.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.big5assessments.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/38363-bodiam-castle-robertsbridge-01-2.jpg 1680w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 373px) 100vw, 373px\" \/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>The first test was to correctly count the\nnumber of flags atop the castle ramparts \u2013 since counting was very important in\ncertain jobs like working in the kitchen or managing the money.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The second test was to answer a series of\nquestions posed by the housekeeper to determine which of the many household\njobs they were best suited to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The third test was a series of challenges\nset by the royal family to see how honest, reliable and cooperative each\napplicant could be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Only those that passed all the tests were\nallowed to cross the drawbridge and work in the castle \u2013 and so they all lived\n(and worked) happily ever after\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That was then \u2013 this is now and little has\nchanged. We believe that the castle has become your business and our tests\nensure applicants are in the right jobs and behave in an acceptable manner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cDon\u2019t let just anyone cross your\ndrawbridge and enter your castle\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Once upon a time a royal family lived in a big castle. Although they were very happy living in their castle, they needed help to clean and tidy and maintain their household. So, they asked people in the nearby towns and villages to apply for jobs. Importantly, the royal family had a very strict housekeeper [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3859","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nigels-notes"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.big5assessments.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3859"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.big5assessments.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.big5assessments.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.big5assessments.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.big5assessments.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3859"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.big5assessments.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3859\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4332,"href":"https:\/\/www.big5assessments.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3859\/revisions\/4332"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.big5assessments.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3859"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.big5assessments.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3859"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.big5assessments.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3859"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}