Online numerical reasoning test

[umpljazz]

Hi guys.

I'm applying for a trainee ATCO position and looks like I have this numerical reasoning test to do.
I have had a go at the practice test and did alright but there seems to be no information about what they expect of you or indeed how many questions they are going to ask. Only that the test will take 21mins!

Are they looking for 100% accuracy but not every question answered or every question attempted but not necessarily 100% accurate?

I appreciate you may think I am being a little over cautious and that I should just get on with it but it'd be nice to know a little more before I go and fail it!

Cheers, James

[DonDave]

dont worry about it.

it is shockingly hard, says not to use calc, but u will need to! but it doesnt matter as the pass mark is so low. i did awful (lucky if got half of them right) and still passed.

also doesnt count in 3 and out so if fail just try again

[umpljazz]

Well i just did it!

See what you mean...bloody hard! Will see how things go.

[classicwings]

Yer see whay you mean about that darn online numerical test. I did mine on Saturday afternoon and thought it was impossibly hard given the time we were allowed to do it in- I only managed to answer 3/4 of the questions so heavans knows how many I got right!

Considering I got as far as the interview stage at the first time of asking I would be rather disappointed if I didnt make it to the selection tests given that I passed them first time round!

Anyone out there in a similar predicament? Are you sure you are able to redo them without forfeiting an 1 of your 3 goes at applying? Help!!!

[Jen_M]

I just did the test and passed, fortunately, though I agree it's pretty hard! I actually thought the practise qus I got were harder than the real ones, if that's any encouragement. It's 21 qus in 21 mins and you're not allowed to go back to a question once you have given an answer, so I went for trying to get the ones that I did right rather than getting through every question. Ended up with only 1 minute left for the last 4 qus but didn't seem to matter! Oh and I was told you *should* use a calculator, I reckon it'd be almost impossible without and definitely you wouldn't be able to get through it in the available time without a calc.
HR replied the next day so at least you're not kept waiting too long for the results. Now I get to go to a selection day and do even more tests...yay!

[Someone_Else]

You sure about the calculator? How can it be a numerical reasoning test if you can use a calculator??

[mattcarus]

If you can pass that test without a calculator you should be applying for Stephen Hawking's job.

[Someone_Else]

Well until now, every person interviewed had to do the numerical test in a classroom environment without a calculator!

Mind you I suppose as there is no way to police that rule online they have probably changed the tests to account for calculator use.

Just seems to me that it takes away the point of testing your numerical reasoning if you can use a calculator to help you get the answers.

[Jen_M]

I bet even Stephen Hawking would want to use a calculator on that test!

I think that it's not just testing mental arithmetic, cause if it was they may as well just give us lots of big numbers to multiply and divide in our heads, instead of using all the statistical tables and graphs and things. The tables are there to see whether we can understand "complex" numerical data (ok, it's not cosmology, but you do have to think) quickly and figure out what the right thing to calculate is in the first place. There's also a bit of a test of data checking skills in there, for instance, you have to make sure you're looking at the figures for 1997 not 1998, etc!

I doubt the actual calculation itself is really the bit they're trying to test, in this particular case. If they wanted to test whether we could do mental arithmetic then an online test would be a daft way to do it, because as Someone_Else said, there's no way of policing it and some people would just use a calculator anyway! Maybe at some other point they'll check our mental arithmetic - they seem to have changed the application process recently anyway, judging by what people have been saying.

I don't mean to rant at Something_Else's comment, just that I reckon that the kind of things they're testing might've changed.

To be honest, I think the number of applicants must be going up, and this is probably a relatively cheap way for them to weed people out right at the start, so they don't have to give out so many free lunches at the selection test day! ;)

[SilentHandover]

You can use a calcuator exactly because it is a Numerical Reasoning test, the aim is to see if you can work out what what is required as an answer more than the answer itself. The sticking in the numbers once you've worked out what you need is the easy bit and that is the only bit you can use the calculator for.
I hope that makes more sense than the test just did to me!!!!

[Jen_M]

Yup, that's what I meant - but you put it better!
Hope you passed! Good luck with it all...

[tired-flyboy]

So its a maths test and not a arithmetic (sp? never my stong point!) test now??

What do you do after this - the old paper tests your predecesors did???

[SilentHandover]

tired-flyboy,

It appears that the next stage after the online Numerical Reasoning is the same testing process that NATS have been using for years.

SH

[Raffles01]

Do I not like this! I did the practice test last weekend and got it horribly wrong, went away to practice my maths and was going to do the proper test today to find I've been invited for the slection tests!
It had me fretting a bit as I passed to the second stage last year and wondered where it was all going wrong and I thought I was not going to make it because of a stupid computer test......give me a formal test in shirt and tie any day rather than in my dressing gown and slippers! Oh well, I suppose its all about being adaptable.
(By the way to anyone who hasn't done the test please don't just leave it and hope they invite you, i'm still going to do it!)
Good luck everyone!