It seems to me that the sort of people who can trawl the Internet, find the information on tests, study for them and pass them are exactly the sort that will do well on an integrated course. When they start training, they'll be handed 20 kilos of books and a stack of CDs. Even though a great deal of the material will then be spoon fed to them in class, they will nonetheless have to absorb most of it on their own in slow time over many nights and weekends. They will go through question banks for hours on end, hopefully learning some of the material, as well as the answers, and then they'll be tested. Once they finish flight training and get a job. Their TRTO will hand them another stack of books and a bigger stack of CDs and take away the spoon. I therefore propose that the sort of lad or lady who can improve his or her performance on aptitude tests by researching and practicing for them of their own initiative is demonstrating the precise abilities needed to succeed in training.
I'm sure there are plenty who can't be bothered to do the research or the preparation that fall by the wayside and there are probably quite a few who have a better than average education or they are just naturally gifted and ace the tests with little preparation.
You can criticise the tests and those who require them all you want, but they are here to stay. You can't get into the RAF without passing theirs. You can't get into BA without passing theirs. Plenty of people on this forum advise wannabees to take them at GAPAN. Even NASA uses them and the Mercury, Gemina, Apollo and Shuttle astronauts were put through endless batteries of tests, some quite ridiculous. I suspect the criticism here has more to do with a Ppruners attitude towards a particular FTO or three than it has to do with objective reality.
All aptitude tests can produce false positives and false negatives. False negatives mean the school rejects a potential paying customer who would have passed the course. False positives mean they waste time trying to train someone who ultimately won't make it or will limp across the finish line with a third series IR and struggle to get work or fail to impress a hiring airline with the quality of the school's output. Both scenarios are harmful, so the school has an incentive to choose their process carefully and to improve it if they can.
For the wannabe who takes the decision to go integrated, if you haven't prepared and fail the tests, revise and try again. If you fail them repeatedly at more than one school or even GAPAN, then perhaps this could be a glimpse of your future training record if you proceed.
Last edited by Adios; 2nd Feb 2011 at 22:55.