Originally Posted by
alfred_the_great
or the aptitude was designed for 18-21 year old males as the “norm”, a long time ago and haven’t been upgraded…
”best” is generally subjective, and absolutely subject to conservative bias, sunk cost fallacies, and cultural barriers to change.
put it this way, if F-35 were the only basis for selection, the test would be different to selection for GR7/FA2…
They are updated and adapted on a regular basis. The Lead Psychologist that oversees the aptitude test’s design is a woman (a biological one) and also would tick the so-called “BAME” box (a term that many despise and the RAF should stop using). The tests are designed to ensure that you have the ability to pass the earlier stages of flying training (and other phase 2 training for other Branches/Professions). They are designed with an expectation that those under 24 will achieve the highest results. Just because you have a high aptitude score does not mean you will be successful to conduct the hardest flying roles - it just means that you are likely to pass early flying training. They have looked at CBAT, MicroPAT and the earlier mechanical aptitude tests to see whether high aptitude scores correlated to those that get streamed to fast jets and go on to fly single-seaters - they don’t correlate at all. However, the more recent CBAT and MicroPAT do correlate to a very low failure rate.
Some uncomfortable truths in that little lot…