how I failed DART
After almost 2 years of preparation, I passed (in my country which is a part of Eurocontrol) Feast I, but failed DART.
By preparation I mean: Skytest, reading about aviation, reading about the national organization, watching movies about aircrafts and accidents. In my country, I had to pass medical and psychological examination, English and Feast I to get to DART.
About Feast I I have to say it was pretty similar to Skytest and preparation was very important to me. Everybody I knew had prepared, but not everybody passed. After Feast I, there were about 60 of us who were tested for DART. We were 400 at the beginning, so I felt good.
About DART, well, it's simple: at Skytest level 3, I got 100% at 5 subtasks and over 90% at the other subtasks.
But in the real test, at level 6, I had the revelation: I don't want to do this. I don't want to be an air traffic controller. I got mad during the test and I thought: this is what I had prepared for? This is what I would be doing for the rest of my life?
Well, I don't want you to say: she failed, what could she say? So, I will get more precise about my failure.
At level 6, I couldn't hear anything in my ears (those numbers and letters) for a long period of time. I only could hear what my colleagues heard in their own. And I started to check the level of sound. But this got me mad, why wasn't it like it supposed to be? Why couldn't I hear anything like my colleagues did? And I finished first the DART, but with this feeling that I'm not made for this. I expected something more spectacular from level 6. I expected something interesting. And it was very predictable and boring. And DART felt easy, but only because I already had demotivated.
One more thing about the people I met during the tests is this: don't make friends with them. It will cut your concentration. Those who passed seemed aggresive, silent, perverse, individualistic, cold and proffesional. They will talk to you about something and think about a very different thing.
They will seem weak and encouraging but they are just perverse. They reject you with a smile on their lips, because they feel stronger.
And what do I think in the end of the exams? You have to prefer numbers instead of words. Do you like to count anything? Then maybe you're good for the job.
And the last but not the least: how did you find out about this job? The ideal thing is that somebody announced you because they thought you might be good at it.
So, indeed it is not about the Skytest, although the preparation test is very good, it is not about this forum because you have to love numbers not words, and it is not about the people you meet there but about the ones who choose you. Or not.
In my native language, we say about a job that you have to have a calling for this, but by calling we don't mean the skills, but the fact that somebody has to call you for that job, because they think you're good for this.
So, good luck! If you think that you want to spend the rest of your life in front of a boring radar, talking and doing everything like a robot, and you think that you can do it for that amazind pay, have a nice experience. I had mine, and I say no, no, no.