Firstly, thanks to the few people on here twisting my words...!
Of course you can fail stage 1 first time and go on to pass all 3 stages.
If you actually read what I said, which was "if you fail THE FIRST PART of stage 1 then I wouldnt bother re-applying"....That is if you fail the literature and numeracy paper...
Im sorry but this test is ridiculously easy, if you can do your 6x tables and read the practise paper through a couple of times it is impossible to fail, hence in my honest opinion anyone who cannot pass this test has absolutely no chance of getting through cube/diagramming/feast etc etc testing. Thats just my opinion!
Best wishes!