Hey Tobiwan, thanks for reply and reassurance, it does make me feel a bit better knowing that i'm not totally crazy!
Just got back from Stage 1- as has been mentioned thought that a large % of the applicants were totally unfriendly/excessively nervous/ there to pass the time.
However i did meet Kt from on here (hi Kt hope you got home ok- sorry you didn't have time for a bite to eat! hope you didn't think i was getting rid of you!) and a couple of other people that we had a good natter to and a bit of a laugh!
Day was.....interesting.
Initial session was Q&A with a non-validated ATCO- which i thought was a bit of a shame- would have been nice to have someone with some experience! Found myself asking a LOT of questions because no one else seemed interested. Honestly guys when you go for your stage 1 cut the guy some slack and have the balls to stand up and ask some questions.
Then came the multiple guess motivation paper.
if you have learnt the info they send you then you will pass. A knowledge of general aviation will help with a couple of questions, but only 2 i think. Practice SDT equations as a few of those came up- also spend sme timefinding out the distances between cities (not necessarily around the world- UK and Europe would be a good start), its a pity i know how far away syndey is (10,554 miles), but don't actually know how far away cities in Scotland are
Anyway then onto the tests themselves- one tip here, i would have been much much happier to do the tests first- they are far harder than the motivational paper (which isn't hard- as long as you know your stuff!) and the Q&A- in that case when they do the initial welcome, make sure that you get into the room early and sat down as they seem to leave those people sitting to start the tests.
As for the tests themselves- found the checking tests silly easy, with enough time on both the numbers and letters to check all the way through at least once.
At this point i was brimming with overconfidence and sheer arrogance
the next 2 tests soon sort me out.
Spatial awareness- as has been said these are the cubes- you have to do 40 different choices in 20 minutes- with 3 different cubes. If you don't know what i'm talking about then you defintely need to practice. I don't consider myself stupid by any means and i was very upset not to finish these- doing just 34 out of 40
- these are hard, and like all the test get harder as you go along! the last ones are really very very difficult- i strongly suggest you start to practice early.
The diagramming isn't impossible, but it is slow and helps if you are on the ball (i'd have been much quick if i could have remembered what all the symbols meant!)
Out of these i finished just 43 out of 50 (again you haev 20 minutes)
i have no idea what the pass mark is, and i "might" just scrape it (fingers crossed) but it is by no means easy.