I attended the DLR on 09.03.11 and just received an email that I am one of the lucky ones that passed the first part.
The interesting thing is that I apparently messed up my English test. So it is possible to pass the DLR without being an ace on all the tests. They wrote me that my basic assessment showed a weakness in English, which they will recheck during the selection process. We recommend to prepare specifically for this part??? Anyone else experience with this???
In my experience most of the tests where not as hard as the CBT's on level 3. I had difficulties with SKT, MIC and VMC which where harder in my opinion. In SKT I was pressing the middle button at least 70% percent of the time which was the other way around in the CBT's.
In VMC there where a lot of other confusing figures and I was totally lost during the 5 back (I just pressed NO 95% of the time). I had troubles witch the MIC test and was completely of from my heading and altitude from time to time. I was really fighting with the controls. I concentrated a lot on the number sequences and don't think I made a lot of mistakes there.
I used the CBT's and Skytest to prepare myself. Skytest helped me a lot for the VMC, OWT, and VLR preparation. I was above 90% in all the CBT's except for RMS 32%, KRN 75% to 85% and VMC 75% to 80%.
The most important thing is to stay as calm and relaxed during the testing. You will make mistakes and **** up some tests but just stay at it. And don’t forget to sit back as far as possible during the OWT test.
For the guys I met on the assessment, I was the Dutch guy with brown hair and eyes and some turbo prop experience. I hope that a lot of you passed as well and to see you in the next rounds. And thanks a lot for all of the info shared in this thread which helped me a lot. Feel free ask any questions.