Well I'm not blowing my own trumpet here but after doing very little preparation for the cubes I answered them all and got through stage 1. As many people have said, over practice and you're just kidding yourself, if you have practiced for hours for a 20 minute test, how long are you going to have to spend extra if you get through and go onto training?
I think it is important to know whats ahead of you but unlike GCSEs and A levels you're not working against a set curriculum as such and therefore it should be treat like that. I'm not saying don't prepare but hours and hours of practice may get you past stage one but its your time you're wasting when you don't get past S2, S3, training or validation.
All in all if NATS wanted you to practice, they would let you do so on the SHL website or their own.
You owe it to yourself to relax, get a good nights sleep and a good breakfast, and thats it! Thats certainly the mindset I'm taking in with me to S2 anyway!
I dont agree with these comments at all. If you cant do the cubes, then practise like mad until you can. Being able to the the cubes straight away is absolutely no indication of wether you are going to become a valid ATCO. I couldn't do the cubes, I made cubes and practised for hours, and I still struggled on the test day. How can you say people are wasting there time by practising for hours and hours, its a crazy statement to make.
Like I said, I practised for hours and hours. I did the same for my interviews, and when I got to college, I revised for hours and hours each night, and when I got to Swanwick, I revised for hours and hours. I validated, some others who validated might have revised and practised for less time, some for more time, some might have sussed the cubes straight away, others after hours of practise. I still cant do the cubes now, but I have my ticket.