Congratulations Pat!:ok:

Well done Pat!

I have my stage 3 on the 4th Dec and was wondering if anyone could just tell me about how the expenses work? It says that overnight expenses will only be paid in exceptional circumstances. Does anyone know what these are? I will be staying overnight and am quite happy to pay for it but was wondering if anyone had any past experience on this? I would also have petrol costs too.

Hey guys,

did anybody of you use the SkyTest prep software? It seems that there is a special software available exclusively designed for NATS screening. Can anybody tell me his experience if it's a good investment to buy it?

Thanks, Antony

skytest + stage 2
 

hey,

yeah I use both of the two SkyTest software. It's quite good, but the most important feature (the Strip test) has some serious (known) bugs, so it's practically useless. My advice is to wait for the patch and pay-and-enjoy then.

Can anyone remember how many Checkpoints we got at Stage 2 Strip Management Display task? 5, 6 or more?

Cheers

Congrats Fumbles, maybe be seeing you at college ;)

chippy 5687,

Im also going for stage 3 on the 4th Dec!
was wondering about the expenses too. i dont mind paying though. Im staying at the holiday inn in southampton. I was going to book the travelodge eastliegh but there is no breakfast included and i think after stage 2,(where i didnt have breakfast and my stomach wouldnt stop rumbling!) i should eat before !
where are you staying?

Stage 1 - 23/11/2009
 

Hey, and thanks to everyone who has answered my previous posts. Got the invitation to Stage 1 through the over day, and I'm very excited. I have chosen to book on to the 23 November at CTC, and was wondering if anyone from PPRuNe would be coming.

Also anyone in or around the Portsmouth area, who might be interested in doing a bit of pair preparation?

SDT Calculations
 

Does anyone have any good links for s/d/t calculation questions?
Thanks :ok:

Got my stage 1 in a couple of weeks and had a question on the format of the tests. Have read the post Pat42 made after sitting stage 1, but still had a couple of questions. Are the motivation and s/d/t papers multiple choice or just written answers?

Also, saw no mention of a numerical checking test at stage 1. Is this only tested within the pre-stage 1 SHL tests now?

Hi piqla,

> but the most important feature (the Strip test) has some serious (known) bugs, so it's practically useless

Their support told me yesterday that there's a new version available in the download area where the strip test bug has been fixed :ok:

Hi guys

Just curious how any of you who have passed felt you did on the level 1 tests? How many of the cubes, instructions questions did you answer and what would you guess your score was ?

On the maths im sure i got 100% (without wanting to sound big headed i found it really easy)

The motivational paper Im sure I only got 1 wrong (I made a point of remembering the 4 or 5 i wasnt 100% sure about and checked the answers after).

Cubes I managed all but 5 of them with an estimate of 3-5 mistakes

The instruction blocks I missed 8 and would estimate again a max of around 5 wrong.

I could of course be totally off the mark here, but this is my gut feeling

Just wondering how likely this is to be a pass/fail if my estimates are right ?

Lastly I of course wont tell anyone the questions so please dont ask :)

Thanks all

Rokkala,

the stage 1 tests are all multiple choice. the motivation paper gives you a choice of 4 answers and the same goes for the s/d/t. You get a scrap piece of paper though to use for rough working and calcs during the s/d/t

There is no numerical test on the day now. The tests are the motivation paper, s/d/t paper, the cubes and the diagramming with the boxes (there are examples of the last two on the NATS website).

hope that helps,
good luck when you go!:ok:

antony s.
 

hey,

oh, I didn't know about that.
Ps.: I just visited the site and couldn't find any patch/upgrade etc. thingy :(

Xinebessa,

I think that if you're estimates regarding how well you did are correct you shouldn't have much to worry about :)


Rokkala,

SDT questions are multiple choice, there is no numerical checking.


Hairymango,

Check out www.speeddistancetime.info/

Cheers Pat42! And congrats on passing stage3 :D

-
 

I haven't sat Stage1 yet, but this www.speeddistancetime.info/ seems really easy (too easy) for me... I assume at Stage1 there are a bit more difficult exercises... Or not?

Not significantly more difficult. Some of the questions are worded in funny ways to try and throw you, but the maths isn't particularly complicated at all.

Xinebessa and Piqla
 

Xinebessa - I have just done stage 1 and answered the following:

motivation paper - answered all of them
cubes - 27 out of 40
diagramming - 39 out of 50
sdt paper - 18 out of 20

I don't know how many I actually got right (motivation paper I know I definitely got at least 2 wrong) but somehow I have passed stage 1, so I would say that, assuming you got all the answers right, you should have a very good chance of making stage 2! Make sure you let us know when you hear, good luck!

Piqla - the sdt questions are a bit more involved than the ones on that link eg. 2 planes are xxx miles apart, travelling towards each other, one travelling at xxxmph, the other at xxxmph, how long before they meet? But I did find that link helpful for practising calculations, as I was very rusty - its been a long time since I used my brain for any sort of maths! If you look back through this thread you will find other people have posted various examples of the sort of sdt questions you get

Sauce

basilsauce and pat:

thanks for that, will let you know how i do

basilsauce, when do you have stage 2 ?

Ailzo

Im staying in the Eastleigh Travelodge because I have stayed there for the last 2 stages so know where it is! Have you been to any towers or Swanwick? Im going to Heathrow on Weds but want to try and get in contact with Swanwick and maybe see if I can visit the day before my stage 3. How do you feel about it all?

thanks Pat :ok:

Hey Chippy,

I'd definitely recommend the Swanwick visit, the area and aero jobs seem quite different and with the way things are going at the minute with the cancelling of aero courses at the college I'd imagine that area is the way to go at the moment. If you can fit it in before your interview it'll definitely be a help as well.

I was there on Saturday morning and it was really cool - the crazy weather mean't that the whole building was in overdrive, quite exciting!

my stage 3 Pat42
 

Congratulations Pat42,only the medical test for you.I would like to ask you some questions related to stage 3 as I´ve just received an email saying I passed stage 2.Do you remenber which questions they asked you? and do you remenber what did you responde?.I would like if it is possible to have as much information as I can to prepare this final step because I heard it is last at least one hour and it is very complicated.

Thanks a lot.

basilsauce and Pat
 

Basilsauce: thanks for the reply and please check PM;
Pat: thanks for the examples!

Thanks a lot,I have now an idea how the questions can be.I´ll work on it.Thanks again.

If they ask, "Are you confident with the decisions you make?" don't answer with, "I think so."

Can't find gtios site only dead link!
 

Anyone know where the gtios site went? I tried to log in but no luck, so how can I check my application progress and also the stage test scores? Any help will be great!

Why not? What do you think is a good answer?

Xinebessa - my stage 2 is this Friday, getting nervous now! A few people have said that playing computer games is good prep for stage 2, and I don't play computer games - oh dear!

Congratulations Pat!!!

I found out on friday that I never made the cut. The news was absolutely devistating at the time and its still not nice to think about.

I spoke to NATS today who provided me with a very detailed breakdown of what I was good at and what I wasn't, which I thought was very good of them and was massively helpful.

I still believe that I got on well with my interviewers and although I felt I had prepared enough to tackle the interview, reflecting back I definately didn't do enough of it. SO if I could offer anyone any advice, prepare and plan your answers and situations, have mock interviews, practice and make sure the examples you think of hit the nail on the head.

I have definately decided that this is the career for me, I was training to be a paramedic and the weekend has made me realise that I am willing to go to the ends of the earth for this career.

Heres to my application next year!

Fretwanger,

I know it's hard to deal with rejection, you're doing great. Keep up the positive attitude - it'll get you far. Good luck with your new application.

S88

Fretwanger,

Sorry to hear your news. :\

Could you share any of this, here or through PM?

Because it doesn't show confidence in your answer. You can't say you are confident in your decisions by answering, "I think so."

This happened to me...luckily, I reacted quickly, made a joke and we all laughed. Then again, interviewing is one of my best skills. My best suggestion for the interview is to not be nervous and have some fun with it.

A good part of my interviewing was spent laughing with the controller and the HR lady.

Sorry to hear your news Fretwanger,

Apparently quite a lot of people who fail at stage 3 the first time get through on their second attempt, so it's well worth applying again. You obviously have most of the aptitudes they are looking for as it's pretty tough just getting to that stage, another year's life experience and a little foreknowledge of what is going to come will give you a lot of extra benefit next year :)

-Unless they change the stages by then.

Sound advice; stay involved in aviation, keep reading up and re-apply. From what I hear many people fail to get through first time. Incidentally, I believe it is 12 months from the date of submission of your first application? I stand to be corrected, think I heard someone mention this before?

I went through the interviews before it changed. Do they still ask 'Do you consider yourself to be a risk taker?' Answer this one carefully!

Stage 1 Questions
 

Hi Everyone,

Just wondered if someone could answer my questions about Stage 1.

1) On the Personality questionnaire, are they looking for you to mostly put "Strongly Agree" to everything?
If you put Disagree to something positive, are you unlikely to proceed to the next stage?

2) Is the practice Basic Checking test the same format as the real one, if not, how is it different?

Thanks

nats personality tests
 

hi there,

i applied for nats last year and failed the personality tests and i again this year have another one. i found the test last year really strange as the four options were all positive statements. can anyone offer my any advicee at all on these tests?

Well just got some crap news...didnt pass stage 1 at Prestwick on Friday 6th Nov :ugh: which is totally playing on me big time, after making it to the interview stage last year :confused: and because its only stage 1, I cant get any feedback?? So theres my second attempt down the swany :(

Need to wait ANOTHER 12 months to re-apply....not a happy bunny atall!!!

Anyone else from prestwick stage 1 on Friday 6th Nov get there results today?

Cheryl

Just select the answer you honestly think applies most to you. Don't try to second guess the questions or what NATS might want.

Andrew,

With regards to the personality questionaire, I don't think anyone apart from NATS could tell you what they are looking for (if anything) in it. It's worth remembering though that what the questionnaire isn't is a test - there are no right or wrong answers and there is no right or wrong way of going about it. I'd also bare in mind that the way these things work is a lot more complicated and well thought out than most people realise, trying to trick the system by always "strongly agreeing" is likely to tell them something very different about you than you might think (unless of course you genuinely feel that strongly). I know someone who is an assessor for these type of tests for another company, and it is phenomenol the way they work - after answering about 50 questions they were able to tell me in great detail a lot about myself, and were extremely accurate even when talking about character traits and behaviours that were in no way directly connected to any of the questions... so by trying to trick the system you could end up portraying yourself in a very different light than you realise.

I would also point out that companies who use these kind of tests are often able to ascertain quite accurately how honest you've been in them. If you try and give the answers you think they want to hear rather than the answers that are true for you then I can almost guarantee that they will be able to tell, and dishonesty is one trait that will almost certainly see you not going through to the next stage. My advise; answer the questionnaire honestly and don't try to over think it or analyse what they might be looking for in each question, you'll get your knickers in a twist and will probably end up showing yourself in a worse light than you otherwise would.

There is no checking test at stage 1 (you do one online prior to stage 1 on the SHL website, but rumour has it that this doesn't actually have any bearing on your stage 1 results - apparently you are just being a test dummy for SHL on NATS behalf)