Hi Guys,
I recently attended Stage 2 and passed! I just thought I would drop a few observations about the day as I know I was confused about it beforehand and can see others are too. I won’t go into detail about the testing as everything you have access to already explains this - google search FEAST/DART for decent enough info, though stay away from the totally pointless smartphone apps. Ultimately you can’t prepare for FEAST/DART – your brain either works that way or it doesn’t, and it’s the point of the testing day to figure this out, so I wouldn’t stress about that side of things. You have no excuse to not pass the Multiple-Choice Questions though – that’s 100% in your control.
Anyways, this is my experience and may well differ from person to person/group to group, but should hopefully give you an idea:
Arrival Time – the stage 2 email confirmation isn’t explicit about what time to actually walk through the door of NATS (interestingly the stage 3 invite is). To confirm – you should arrive at 7:30am. They have an airport security style reception where you need to empty your pockets, put bags on a conveyor belt, and you walk through to be scanned by a machine and patted down by security – just like in an airport. The reason they ask you to arrive that early is because reception can get very busy at that time (as it was when I was there) and it takes a long time to get everyone through. Save yourself the stress of potentially missing the start time and get there in good time. The local taxi number is 01329 282 282 – get that in your phone now as if you don’t drive, you’ll be needing it.
Toilets – go to the toilet whenever they offer it, regardless of whether or not you need to go – squeeze whatever you have in you out. Seriously. The security level at NATS means that the testing group is on an ‘accompany at all times’ pass. This means that a member of staff must go with you everywhere and at all times. Now, as there’s only 1 member of staff that starts the day off with you, you all have to be escorted as a group. So if you need the loo – everyone’s going with you, or they will have to find another member of staff to take you out of the room. Either doesn’t look great for you, and they don’t pause the test once it starts so you would be screwed. So once you have been collected from reception and go up to around the testing room, they will offer you a toilet visit before going in, and you won’t be out again as a group for another 2.5 hours – so go then (let’s just say I regretted not taking them up on this offer – I was about ready to burst, as were others).
Phones/Belongings – you are asked to turn off your phones and put them, along with any bags etc in a box at the front of the room. You won’t have access to these for the rest of the day. You are however allowed to keep a bottle of water with you if you bought one, though it must have a screw top lid.
Removal from the process – once you complete the multiple-choice questions AND FEAST, is when the group is told who has passed and who hasn’t. It is a bit brutal – someone (who is monitoring what you are doing in the next room) comes in after the last person finishes (everyone in your group will finish at different times) and reads out who needs to leave the building with them. I’m sure it feels a bit sucky for those who are asked to leave, but there’s no other way of doing it.
Breaks – If you pass the MCQ’s and FEAST you will then get a break of around half an hour. At this point we all scrambled to the toilet, were taken for a glass of water, and sat with the member of staff who had just escorted the failed candidates out. This is so the person doing your tests can set up DART. This is your opportunity to eat if you want to, and we all just had an informal chat about NATS/our backgrounds etc – nothing scary. Grab something to eat at this point if you like, and don’t be frightened to ask to go to the loo again if you need it – you won’t be out for another couple of hours.
Refreshments – when the email says there is only 1 vending machine, they mean it. The vending machine doesn’t have anything like sandwiches etc in – it’s just crisps/chocolate bars, and theres no canteen or anything. One guy in our group hoped to grab some lunch whilst he was there – no dice. So either bring something with you, or be prepared to live off salt and sugar for the day.
Finish – once DARTS over with, you have a little debrief and are escorted from the building. We finished about 2pm, but this would vary depending on the group and everyone’s finish times. There’s a large shopping mall/cinema across the road – perfect to go and grab some food and calm your brain down after what is an incredibly challenging, however thoroughly enjoyable day.
Apologies for the length of this, but hope that helps some of you. I’ll be back to let everyone know how stage 3 is laid out (I won’t go into detail about actual testing). But feel free to drop me a message if any of this needs expanding on.