Strange OAA COMPASS result...?

[contacttower118.2]

I recently did the OAA COMPASS test for the easyJet MPL scheme and have got some feedback from Oxford that has me scratching my head slightly...

I had at first been told that I had scored 21 in the test after I replied to the email that informed me of my lack of success in the scheme.

However a bit later I was contacted by Oxford and told that I had in fact scored 24 and my specific results as follows...

Slalom 5 - fair enough, that is what I thought I had done...
Orientation 6 - again sounds about right...
Memory 6 - pretty good...
Hand/eye/foot - 2 as expected, I found the fact that the ball/pedal relationship is reversed compared to a real aircraft really confusing since I have a PPL and it was all over the place!
Maths 4 - OK I only managed 18 of the questions...
Multi tasking 1 - I can't for the life of me understand! I thought I was doing well!

Can someone who perhaps knows about the COMPASS test possibly advise me what I might have done wrong? I thought I was doing really well, hitting the right keys as the red squares appeared but I think I must have misunderstood the instructions and been doing the wrong thing?? Anyone got any thoughts? http://images.ibsrv.net/ibsrv/res/src:www.pprune.org/get/images/smilies/confused.gif

[pudoc]

I have no idea, but I wouldn't get hung up on it. Doesn't mean you are a bad pilot or anything.

[limesoda]

Hey there,

I'm not going to be much help with the strange result but when i went to OAA for an open day i had a play on the Hand/Eye/Foot and also found it odd that it was reversed! I'm starting to get nervous about my actual assessment now as i feel it will hinder my potential performance! Any advice there?

Also did you end up getting through onto the scheme?

Cheers

[contacttower118.2]

No I didn't get onto the scheme unfortunately.

As far as the hand/eye/foot test if you have previous flying experience, or indeed even just flight sim time with pedals I would focus most of your attention on the ball for the simple reason that because it is reversed compared to a real plane the instinct of the foot is to move the ball in the opposite direction to what the test requires...hopefully by really focusing on it though you can override what your feet naturally want to do.

I mean don't ignore the needle at all but because it moves in the 'natural' sense it shouldn't need as much conscious attention as the ball does.

[Lew747]

I woudn't worry too much about it bud. I went for the Flybe MPL scheme at Oxford and scored a 1 on the slalom test.


There was me thinking a 'slalom' was moving in and out of the dots as they ran down the screen. After a while making a lot of noise with my joystick and noticing how quiet everyone else was, i looked around to see everyone running up the middle of the cones. D'oh! :mad: So because of that they wouldn't let me proceed any further.

[ChrisA87]

I suspect the hand/eye test is designed that way intentonally to see if you can adapt.

After reading the instructions I also was worried about the reverse behaviour of the ball but just had to re-program my brain. The (extensive!) practice you're allowed really helped me with this.

Were you also updating the autopilot panel on the multi-tasking test? The red-square-cancelling was described as a "secondary task, but equally important"

[contacttower118.2]

Thanks to a kind PM I think I have now confirmed in all probability what went wrong.

As those who have taken COMPASS will know the multi tasking exercise involves entering data that appears on the bottom right of the screen into an 'autopilot' panel on the left side of the screen. While doing this random red squares appear in the top left and top right of the screen and depending on exactly where they appear in their respective boxes you have to press corresponding keys on the number pad.

My understanding of the test was that if for example a red square appeared in the top left corner of its box one presses the 7 key on the number pad to acknowledge it because out of the nine keys 7 corresponds to the location of the square inside the box, 1 for bottom left, 9 for top right, so on and so fourth.

What I think I did was hit 'number lock' in response to a top left red square instead of hitting 7. We were warned at the start of the test to ensure that number lock was off because this would mess up certain aspects of the tests. I can only assume that having it 'number lock' early on this stopped the system from registering all my further key entries on the number pad.

[AnotherWannabe]

In the email I received it was quite clearly stated that there is no feedback offered on the tests taken at OAA.
How come you got your scores back ?

[contacttower118.2]

I was contacted by one of their 'brand managers' (what a pretentious title btw :rolleyes:) and I asked them for my scores.

The 'brand manager' essentially said that they feel I could pass COMPASS if I just improved a bit in one or two key areas, so why don't not come back in three months and do an assessment for our APP course.

I think they have a policy, obviously since they are a business, of contacting all those candidates who weren't successful in a specific airline scheme but that they think they have a reasonable chance of selling their APP course to.

Obviously they have an interest in getting those people, should they take up the offer of an APP assessment at reduced cost, to pass the COMPASS test. Hence them divulging which areas are in need of improvement.

[4redsyourdead]

Personally think they are a load of rubbish. I failed a compass test and was told I would never become an airline pilot. Now fly 737's for a large European carrier.

[contacttower118.2]

I couldn't agree more about them being a load of rubbish. While I was at OAA the guy who was showing us around made some stupid comment along the lines of...

"sorry we have to put you through these tests but one day people's lives will be in your hands, we have to make sure you are up to the job"

I had to really bite my tongue...

However as was seen with the latest round of easyJet experienced pilot recruitment computer based aptitude testing is here to stay as a selection tool both for ab-initio and experienced crews. There is definitely a knack to passing these sorts of tests so getting to grips with the skill set required for them from the outset will stand one in good stead for the future.

[contacttower118.2]

Did you get through to the next round, would have thought you would have with a mid 30s score?

Edit to add: Sorry just noticed your other post asking about stage 3/4 - well done on getting thus far. You can obviously read instructions better than I can. :D

[Paxi_R6]

I have had the same problem, Can't believe what I scored. They originally gave me am 8 :eek: I knew I scored more than that might not of been 32 but somewhere in the 20s. There having a problem with mine, my computer crashed and I had to start all over again :D but there not getting my full results.

I thought only part I done bad in was the maths, Memory I thought I done well, Multitasking didn't miss a single alarm or change in altitude? The rest where straight forward enough with spatial, Rudder & joystick were not the easiest. Seems to be something fishy about this whole thing :confused: something's up in my opinion, The marking scheme of it seems really wired.

[contacttower118.2]

So what happened in the end Paxi_R6, did you manage to establish your real score?