NATS interview process

[P-P-Powerbook]

Thanks for the advice Bamboozle, it's appreciated!

See you in a year!

[glasgowgirl]

visit

ok i'm like a few of you guys waiting for my stage 3 date - prob in jan. But wanna use me time wisely and organise a few visits. Got a contact at prestwick and can hopefully use them. Wondering if i wanna visit anywhere else has anyone got contacts or knows the protocol???

[Arrows2100]

Waiting for results...

I tell you, the waiting is the worst bit.

Im getting a night away this weekend and I would have loved to have known if I was getting to the medical by then. Gives me an excuse to celebrate, or to drown my sorrows. Either or :P

Oh well, I was warned of a 15-day wait lol.

Best of luck to everyone with their stages in the coming days though

[biffytheking1980]

Glasgowgirl,

I have visited newcastle ATC and got a visit to Prestwick lined up. The Prestwick one was done through the lovely HR guys. Just phoned them up and asked if they knew who I could contact to arrange a visit.

I have to say that the Prestwick people couldnt have been more helpfull and accomodating to get a date for me to visit Is there a nasty ATC about?!! because I have yet to meet one.....lol!

The newcastle tower one again was just done by ringing them up and they were only too glad to help.

[whitelighter]

Swatting Up

Hi all,

Really glad I found this thread, just wish I had 4 years ago.

I am trying to do as much background reading before Stage 1 as I can, and I have been desperately trying to find some practise assessment papers - especially the spatial awareness cubes. Throughout this thread there are a lot of references to someones Tiscali web page, but that now appears to be offline.

If anyone can shove me in the right direction that would be much appreciated. I have the 9th edition of Dukes Air Traffic Control which I am working my through and am hoping to arrange a tower visit anytime.

I have also been playing around with what appears to be a good simulator (www.atc-sim.com) but I dont know if this will be helping or hindering? Is it a bit like trying to play golf before having proper lessons I wonder?

I am pretty happy with my general maths and the checking exercises but I really cant find much oon the diagramming or cubes. Any help would be really, really great.

[proff1]

Hi All,

Like a few of you found out I passed Stage 2 recently - from Thursday 27th am. Well done Calder - hope Friday was ok.

Like a few others I'm waiting for dates in January.

Just thought I should post and join in the NATS application experience through PPRuNe.

I found the test from this link useful for practicing Speed/Distance/Time questions for stages 1 and 2.

Speed Distance Time | Test

Good luck everyone...

[mike1711]

Hi Whitelighter,

dont bother with a tower visit at this stage you dont need to do that until after stage 2.
The ATC sim game is good fun, ive played it for ages but again it wont really help you at this stage, more like a distraction to be honest but fun none the less.

The Tiscali web page is dead so dont bother looking for it anymore, I did and spent ages pm - ing people and eventually found out it isnt hosted anymore.

This thread is your best place for advice, I printed the whole thing and had a good read!

Check your PM for some links to other useful stuff, and I also bought a book called 'Mechanical and spatial apptitude' from amazon and 'Air traffic control career prep' which has got some good DST stuff and comes with a handy cd which is good practice.

Best of luck!

[whitelighter]

Thanks

Hi Mike,

Thanks for the PM - those two site look really useful. I have my half day booked for January 23rd so plenty of time to practise hard and read all the info NATS have sent through.

I was suprised to read it was the error checking that most people fall down on, I thought it would be the blooming cubes.

I guess accuracy (and therefor safety) are key for any ATC so it makes sense.

Have read the bulk of this thread going back to early 2007 - I wasnt sure if the really early stuff was still relevant and I dont want to confuse myself. One last thing, the first web page says there are no negative scores so if you dont know or run out of time you might as well just guess. That doesnt ring true, or is that really the case?

[calder]

anyone going for their stage 3 in london on friday?

[windneckin]

Hi whitelighter,

Yep, I have seen the topic of guessing answers if you run out of time coming up here a couple of times. I am going to give you my two cents through the stupidest example ever:

Imagine you are in front of your radar screen controlling some 30 aircrafts (just about). Suddenly, 5 more aircrafts pop up on the screen but you have no time to listen to what they have to say nor look at their levels/headings. You then decide to give them random FLs and headings hoping they will not crash into each other nor into the other aircrafts.

Even if you succeed and nobody notices anything.... to the point that you get the "ATCO of the month" award... I do not think it is good going for an ATCO.

But then again, this is just my opinion, probably some people here will disagree. I cannot help think that it sounds a bit like desperate measures... we all know there is no need to answer all the questions to pass. Even if there are no negative points... they can analyse the results in all sorts of ways (number of errors, location of the errors, ... they obviously want to get a good idea of every candidate's "modus operandi").

Good luck!

[eyeinthesky]

QUOTE
Imagine you are in front of your radar screen controlling some 30 aircrafts (just about). Suddenly, 5 more aircrafts pop up on the screen but you have no time to listen to what they have to say nor look at their levels/headings. You then decide to give them random FLs and headings hoping they will not crash into each other nor into the other aircrafts.
UNQUOTE

I can think of more than one trainee I have seen over the years who seemed to take that approach! They didn't last very long!

P.S. Plural of aircraft=aircraft

[ManWithNoMouth]

I don't think you can apply that logic to the tests. Just because I have a few guesses on a test doesn't mean I'd do the same in an entirely different context, i.e. on the job in ATC. Personally I think it's the logical thing to do, to try and make some educated guesses when running out of time / unsure on a test, because it's a test and you want to prove your aptitude on that by getting as big a score as possible. If NATS are penalising guesses that would be foolish, you'd want people who make the best of a situation which in this case would surely be getting the most marks as possible even if it means guesses.

When I applied last year I answered about 25/40 cube questions but was sure I got them right. I did get through that stage. This year I guessed some so I managed to answer 39/40 questions, if I don't get through this time I think they will definitely be penalising the guesses (as well as creating one very angry wannabe controller! ).

[mike1711]

I also think there is a difference between a random guess and an educated guess as because the time is not unlimited on the tests and im pretty sure that most people dont finish them, you might look at the cube questions and quickly make a decision about which one you THINK it is, rather than just leave the last 10 questions on your answer sheet blank because you didnt have lots of time to spend looking at them.

Can everyone who has passed stage 2 computer tests honestly say that they actually did ALL the maths questions in their head whilst managing NOT to crash any aircraft??? I doubt it! If so I humbly salute you for being as clever as me

[whitelighter]

Blimey, you make stage 2 sound a bit daunting.

FWIW I agree with you on the guessing thing. I assumed NATS are looking for consistancy and accuracy so will just be doing my best to get through as much as possible while getting them right.

I have done the little sample paper that NATS send you know, and got all of the questions right first time and well within the suggested time (1 minute for data checking, 3 mins for the other two). Hopefully that bodes well for the assessment. Would still like to do some more praccy just to make sure.

[mike1711]

I found data checkin pretty easy to be honest, but cubes were hellish, lots more difficult than the ones in the practice paper. I made my own cubes and then flattened them out and practiced thinking what they would look like from different angles/views etc to try and get my mind into that way of thinking. Commands also are do-able but again its lack of time that really holds you back, just be as well prepared as you can be, make sure you know the motivation paper backwards and then try and stay as calm as poss on the day and do your best.

Good luck

[windneckin]

A few quick points:

- I am not sure about those educated guesses. In the last minute of a test I would always try to DO as many questions as possible rather than rush through a lot more. Something tells me that I would be more likely to get more correct answers in the first case.

- Regarding stage 2, I passed it and I did not answer all the math questions in the computer tests (nowhere near), in fact, I only answered the ones I calculated.

- Thanks a lot for the plural of aircraft correction, eyeinthesky!

- Finally, when I was in university back in Spain, all the tests we had were such that each incorrect answer would count negative (-1/total number of incorrect answers in each question). That was especially tricky in the tests where there were multiple correct answers per question, you had to select all the correct ones so there were isolated cases of people getting a negative mark!

[angry_muppet]

I did my stage 2 with windneckin. I'm through and I answered NONE of the maths questions. Yes, NONE. Essentially, they were a distraction to the main issue - moving the "planes".

Also, my 2p? Better to answer what you know are correct and go back to the others after, IF you have time. Why waste time on a guess when you could have 2 more right?

[NeoDude]

I was of the understanding that the Stage 2 computer tests are not used at all in the selection process, and that they are only there being trialled to see if there is a link between the results and applicant success.

[Gonzo]

Oh no, they are most certainly used.

[jack.raven]

I got through stage 2, and I can assure you my computer test was a disaster, I hated knowing when I had got something wrong, but I now believe what everyone says, "everyone thinks they do bad."