The flight planning exercise is actually quite easy and candidates with no experience or knowledge in flight planning can do just as well as a jet pilot with an ATPL. Those with flying experience will find that the exercise does not resemble a real-life flight planning exercise in any way. So leave everything outside the door when you walk in, and enjoy yourself during the exercise.
I am not going to divulge too much information on the actual exercise itself. What I can say is that you will work with another candidate in finding the best route for a flight from A to B. You will be given a list of factors and constraints that will affect your calculations, such as flight times, expected fuel burn-off, turn-around times at tech stop, etc. To arrive at a reasonable answer you will need to do calculations on speed, distance, time and fuel burn. You will need to take ALL the given constraints into consideration, and come up with a conclusion. Pencils and paper will be provided on top of the actual materials required, and you will not be allowed to use a calculator - though it won't matter, the calculations are simple enough to be done in your head and on paper if necessary. You might need to convert units at times (I don't really remember) but if that is the case, the conversion factors should be provided in the materials.
During the exercise you are expected to work together with your team mates. Think of yourselves as airline crew; you might do your calculations independently but when you present your answers you do so as a team. Just keep a cool head, stay focused, and make sure of your answers before presenting them. Good luck!
