Can you improve your aptitude..?

[Rugbyears]

A rather contentious question I agree….

The school of thought regarding aptitude tests is no you can not. I refuse to subscribe to such a notion, rather, you can always improve as well as learn new things, skills and so on – In fact, only recently whilst studying, I have discovered a new formula which facilitates the calculation of an equation so much quicker then I was taught at school. Like all things, repetition is essential; rarely do you hear of a darts player who can not count effectively!

If this notion is indeed correct, what type of material would one consider using..?

[Mach086]

From wikipedia (fountain of all knowledge lol!!!)

An aptitude is an innate, acquired or learned or developed component of a competency (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Competency) (being the others: knowledge (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge), understanding and attitude (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attitude)) to do a certain kind of work (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labour_(economics)) at a certain level. Aptitudes may be physical (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physical) or mental (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mental).

So answer is yes. You can improve aptitude.

Subsequent replies might go off on a tangent - i.e you can't practice for the pilapt test, its all natural ability blah blah zzzzz.

Good tip for example - when driving or whilst doing something, get someone to ask you maths questions, or get them to count down sequentially then change the difference and you have to signal the change.

Read billboard signs as quck as possible on the commute and try and remember what they said.

PLay your computer console and answer maths questions from someone in the room.

Therefore in relation to pilot training/selection test, you can improve your aptitude in order to pass a pilapt and maths/pysics tests.

[Rodders the great]

Hi,

I took the pilapt tests with Cabair a couple of months ago. I did ok, but you I reckon you could definitely improve with practice. Mach086's tips will definitely help. As will parcticing flying on Flight sim with a joystick, i swear my years of playstation helped me get a good score!

If you want a detailed run through of what happened at the tests, please send me a pm.

Rodders.

[ewsd02]

You definately can by working on your mental maths, multi tasking and playing lots of flight simulator or flying light aircraft.

Aptitude tests are just something dreamed up to make recruitment easier for employers in a competitive industry. What airlines really want is people who learn things quickly and so are cheaper to train, and they don't figure this out until they already have you on a course. Aptitude tests give them a steer only, but are they best they have at that stage.

[n.dave]

Hi Rubyyears,

The answer is Yes. You can always improve on things that you wanted to successful.

Before I did my Pilapt test with Cabair I prepared myself playing on Nintendo DS. Games like Sight Training and Brain Training are a good source to be practiced on. It gave my confidence a lift! I got a well above average score at the end of it.

In my belief, to do well on these test(s) is depended on how much concentration and focus you on to it.

Hope it helps.

n.dave

[Adios]

The whole purpose of flight training is to improve aptitude, so yes, you can improve it. Whether you can improve it enough is the question and I would say that in 90% of cases the answer is a definite yes.

[Rugbyears]

I thought it would be interesting to test ones wits against the EPST Aptitude test in order to identify arrears which would require improvement.

There were five separate tests, I was rather pleased to scored a respectable ‘Good’ grade for each assessment, that is except maths. I was astonished to merely attain a score of either ‘Satisfactory or Not-Satisfactory’; I don’t recall which one, as I had always considered oneself reasonable at mental arithmetic. Overall, I attained a ‘Good’ score grade which I was more then satisfied with!

I highly recommend doing it, it really is quite a bit of fun!
http://www.epst.com/com/ipas.htm (http://www.epst.com/com/ipas.htm)

[JohnRayner]

I did the pilapt tests, and improved my aptitude considerably by sleeping off the booze! :ok:

I suppose if you can improve aptitude via the medium of practice, then the question remains; How do you genuinely demonstrate ability (or lack thereof) in any given field? I imagine it must be a helluva feeling waking up one day, after spending many £000's, to realise that you just can't handle the job... :(

JR

p.s. My Pilapt scores were "good" "good" "sexy" "moist" and "chocolate sauce"

p.p.s. (sorry :rolleyes:)