Recommended Books Prior To Application

[gconatyuk]

Ive eventually decided to make the decision to apply to NATS and am almost finished completing the application prior to submitting it, however, i would like to be fully prepared for any intial tests after submitting my application as i am not sure how long it usually takes from submitting an application to hearing about whether or not the papersift has been successful (maybe someone can answer this?).

Does anyone know of any good books which can help to prepare me for the psychometric testing?

Many thanks

Graham

[RAF Nav-Aid Tech]

Well I'm still awaiting the news of wether I was successful or not for the tests I've just taken, so anything I suggest should be taken with a pinch of salt.

'Career, Aptitude and Selection Tests' & 'How To Pass Advance Aptitude Tests' both by Jim Barrett.

The first book focuses on finding a job title that suits your aptitude, motivation and personality. It's quite an interesting insight into what role you might be happiest and successful in. The aptitude tests are always good practice, even if you get to the end of the book and it suggests that you look for a career in flower arranging.
The second book is a good expansion of the first, and is closer to the degree of difficulty that the SHL tests are pitched at.

One thing that is missing from these books is an adequate 'spatial recognition' test. The SHL test was a series of cubes. You were shown the unfoldeed layout of the cube, and then had to match a constructed version of that cube according to the markings on 3 of the faces (I hope that makes more sense to you!). I found this test quite challenging compared to the others so I'd definately recommend getting yourself to Borders or WH Smiths and finding a test book with plenty of cube examples.

Good luck!

[anotherthing]

although you cannot really 'beat' the system, I believe you can train your mind to think in th ecorrect way for these tests, or at least prepare it for the them.

I used 'test your own IQ' books just to get my mind up and running again and to get the grey matter working. It's not the same as the tests, but anything to get you thinking logically may help.

Try searching on Amazon - the author of the books I bought (which I thought were fairly good) was Hans J. Eysenck (3 books called know your own IQ, test your IQ, check your own IQ) but there are tons of others out there

[bebe188]

I think this link will help you a lot :8

http://freespace.virgin.net/at.co/atco/resources/books.htm

[skinnygav]

I didnt use any books for my assessment, and failed.

one lad had a proper exam paper from shl - looked like it was a practise/past paper of spatial awareness questions - not the rubbish 2 questions they have on their site - try getting on of those, in my opinion it is the only thing that would really help as a lot of the books i have seen are either far to easy or just arent relevant..