I took the tests three weeks ago so happy to ask any questions! Tips I can think of off the top of my head:
- Have a beer in the mess the night before. Seriously, it's something a lot of people said to me as well and I thought it was weird. But it relaxes you and puts you in a good mind-set. Only one, mind....
- Take your shoes off for any test where you have to use the rudder pedals. My psychomotor skills aren't fantastic but it helps your feet get a better feel. They're a bit of a nightmare the pedals to be honest, incredibly sensitive. Just try your best.
- There's a number of tests (especially the one where you're expected to follow a load of different coloured aircraft coming on and off the screen) where you will most likely have no idea what the answer is. Don't lose faith, just give a good stab and move on.
- Take every break you are assigned. There's temptation towards the end of the day to slip into "I-want-to-finish-itis", but you'll fatigue yourself. Go to the waiting room so you can inanely stare at the mock Spitfire out the window. Lovely feat of engineering.
- When you're expected to memorise long series of numbers or letters, come up with a way of reciting them back to yourself. For letters, I either made up a noise for it if it had enough vowels in it, or I tried to find common acronyms in them to aid my recall. For numbers, I just constantly muttered them back to myself until it asked me to type it back in. Probably sounded like a mad man...
- If you fail, try again in a year. This was the third time doing the tests, having passed them (just) once, then the second time I failed, and this recent one I got a competitive score. Don't give up.
Good luck, I'll keep an eye on this thread and answer any questions!
P.S. Just had a quick look at the SDT questions and they're relatively similar. Also revise closing speeds (I had literally no idea so just pressed a random key for each!) and fuel consumption calculations because they throw a few of each in....
Last edited by Culio; 9th Nov 2014 at 22:50.
Reason: Added the PS