I am not entirely sure how they sort through the applications, but I applied in the last days of December 2020. And I got an email from AFA that is was invited to do the online assessment sometime in the first week of February. Approximately two weeks after doing the online assessment I got an email stating that my online assessment was successful and that I would be added to a holding pool, and that I would be contacted in due time for setting up the actual physical assessment. And a day later I was offered two possible dates to attend the assessment in Bergamo, Italy.
As a piece of advice, I would not focus too much on those cut-e tests. Sure it is great to just go through them to get a feel of the actual tests but in my opinion, your time is much more well spent digging through your old ATPL notes if you are a bit rusty, as this is also part of the online assessment and most certainly will be part of the technical questions you will get if you get to the actual physical assessment.