I was also wondering if there is parking at Prestwick?

I presume for the speed/distance/time tests that you do not get a calculator, do you get scrap paper?

Cubes look like my downfall, need to get practicing!


Thanks again guys.

FEAST Part 2
 

So I spent a lot of time trough theese forums, and did not found much clues for FEAST part 2, except that I must sleep well, rest good and concentrate much on what im doing. Can anyone can tell is there exercises of diagramming, concentration or something else? Any maths? The reply will be very appreciated. Thanks in advance.

I've just booked in for my Stage One assessment with NATS and downloaded all of the material they have provided, however, there doesn't seem to be anything which provides details of the numberical tests other than 'practice speed/distance/time calculations and points of the compass'. Can anyone tell me whether or not the numerical tests are solely based on these types of calculations or do they cover a whole range of mathematics questions?

Hi Peter,

Thanks for your help, I suppose what I meant was is there a certain part of it that crops up often, but I am and have been studying it inside out.

Guess I am just worrying and like to be reassured.

Thanks again.

Feast part2
 

Well, I would say no way of knowing what u r going to struggle with:E.. Better not to know than be confused and stressed. Generally, it is simulation of part of what ATC work is (or what used to be), kinda multitasking. U will have plenty of time for reading instructions and for practicing. You will work with electronic strips and change data according to instructions (voice) and search time-conflicts in strip bays. No way u can prepare for it unless you are good software engineer and willing make similar game:}

Hi Sammy,

I have recently applayed, and they have invited me to do the online test, do you know what is all about? i don't want to have a bad start!!!

Good luck wih your first stage.

Paul_foley

I had the same problem. I had to send numerous emails, but the one they replied to was the one where I contacted them through the careers website, rather than replying to the email to which they tell you to reply to (if that made any sense, lol!).

Anyway, it took me 3 months to get from sending in my application, to getting invited to take the tests!

Persevere and pester them! You will eventually get a reply!

Good luck,
binbrain

Hi Sofia,

I presume you have applied and they have invited you to do the online test?

They give you a sequence of numbers and letters, and give you 5 x answers, one of the answers is the same as the sequence initially given and you have to match them up.

Think there are 5 sets of 5 questions and the time limit goes down on each one. They give you some test ones before hand though so I wouldn'y worry.

Good luck and let me know how you get on.

Hi, Ive got a interview within NATs tomorrow. I was Wondering if anyone knows what systems TOMS uses other than TLPD?
Thanks

Hi roxylife,

Have you done the shl test? please any info would be much appreciated.

thanks

Assessment Stage 1
 

hi to all,i'm currently at Romford and booked my assessment on december,any advise where can i stay there before the stage 1 exam,it's hard to take the exam if you've been on a long travel.any advise.

hi SOFIA ATC,what SHL test are you pertaining to,is it the on-line assessment? if so,you will check a series of numbers and match it on the multiple choices,it's time limit so make sure you don't waste time on each checking.good luck!!!

Hi DJ1425

Where are you taking stage one? If its down south, I stay in Portsmouth. Its a nice place, and only about 20mins away from the centre

Thanks binbrain,i'll be taking my stage 1 at Parkway Whiteley Fareham Hants PO15 7FL,hope you can help me.btw,how much do you charge.thanks.

Binbrain

Cheers for that, that makes perfect sense to me, I'll get onto them via the website then!

What was the proceedure for you reapplying? Did you miss anything out or do anything new as you've done it before?

Cheers,

Paul

NATS Medical
 

Hi guys! Does anyone know if we can have the Medical done on a Saturday or Sunday? Thanks in advance!

Phew, entire thread done! :eek:

I have to say though that if someone else like me wants to prepare, you can without a problem skip at least the first 150 pages, since the application process did change quite a bit in the middle anyway.

I still have one question though:
It says a few pages (like 20 I belive) back that the stage 1 was changed so that you first do two papers (Motivation and numeracy), these are then graded and only the ones who pass them get to do the other two papers. Is this still true?

I am booked on my S1 for the 11th of November, is anyone else going then? I will be arriving the night before and staying at the Premier inn, so if anyone else is there a day erly maybe we can eat dinner together and have a chat? If you're intrested leave a note here or send me a PM :ok:

EDIT:
BTW, while I'm waiting I'm having fun with some various games, one being the multitasking game: Multitask | Armor Games
Anyone want to compete for high scores? I just managed 243, I feel quite nerdy :8:p

DJ1425 - there's a Premier Inn www.PremierInn.com very close to where you'll do your tests in Whiteley. There is also a hotel walking distance to the testing centre - The Solent Hotel www.SolentHotel.com.

Good afternoon all :)

As you can tell it's my first post here. I completed my ATCO application on friday, and since then I've taken and passed the intial test (which was more difficult than I imagined, but still :confused:) and have now received an invite to attend S1.

I've gone ahead and booked the latest day that I could (10/12, Swanwick) in order to prepare as fully as possible. Im not too worried about the cubes (should I get that far) or revising the pdf document since thats a matter of putting in legwork, what does concern me is the numerical test and the diagramming.

Has anyone managed to find a resource that they have used to pass the diagramming? To be honest I was struggling slightly with the practise question, I think mostly because I didnt fully understand what it was asking, so am keen to try others.

With regards to the numerical test, obviously S,T,D are the basis of most of the questions, however it strikes me after reading one sum someone posted earlier that the questions may involve long division that obviously has to be done quickly. Since I havent done LD since I left school, can anyone give me an idea of how much of this is in the test?

Hopefully the next 2 months will give me a chance to gen up on it all and pass with relative comfort.... :D:D

Thanks again, and this thread is a wonderful resource :)

Thank you so much papillon83 for your reply,that really helps.hope to see you guys there and all the way to the training at CATC in bournemouth! cheers!!!

Invite to online test.
 

Hi everyone.

I am currently reading through all the pages but i thought that i may aswell see if i can get a answer this way too. I just submitted my application form yesterday and today have recieved a email inviting me to an online test.

What do these online test consist of? And is this stage one? Or do you have to pass the tests to then be invited to stage one?

Thanks

Philip

As was said a couple of pages back the online test is checking information in a short timescale, it's harder than it sounds :p It's not stage one, youneed to pass it to be invited to stage one. Good luck!

Hello people,

I have had a look through the last few pages, however I am at work and can't get away with looking through the whole thing! So forgive me if I am asking questions answered previously. If I am, could someone be kind enough to inform me of the page the information is on?

Quick summary.... I am going up to Prestwick next week to take part in the stage 3 interview. I thought it would do no harm to come on here and see if there are any tips from those that have been succesful in the past?

I have already been to visit the Heathrow tower, and when I was there one of the lads mentioned learning certain information. However he went through the process a few years back and it is my understanding that it has changed since then. I can't find any mention from NATS about learning information before the interview, could it be that what he is refering to is now covered in stage 1?

Also one thing I have noticed is the time gap from acceptance to the start of training, some of you saying Nov 2011? Does that mean if I am accepted, and the medical goes fine, it is likely to be 2012 before the start of training?

Thanks in advance for any help given,

Owen.

hi Ph1l1pncl,

the online test is not the stage 1 you will take the online test practice first (time limit) then if successful you'll be invited to stage 1 and booked your appointment.Good luck!!! hope we can get through all stages.

Hi Owzy,

any advise on stages 1 and 2.congrats for going through those stages.

Thanks,
DJ1425

Thanks guys for your comments, i am ready for the first stage!!!

@ DJ1425

Thanks mate.

All I can say to you is, for stage 1, learn all in the booklet you are provided with, including the information on the planes & routes at the back. I didn't think they would test on that so I didn't learn it very thoroughly, luckily I was able to remember what I did learn! Also practice you S.D.T calculations, a reasonable proportion of questions on the day are related to this.

For stage 2 there is nothing you can really do to practice as far as I am aware. Get a good nights sleep & this probably goes without saying but stay away from any booze the night before as you will need a clear head! Just take your time & don't get put off by others finishing before/after you. I was the first to finish on the last test so I thought I had rushed it & failed, luckily this did not turn out to be the case, and goes to show it doesn't make a difference to you how others are getting along.

Also if you have to drive a reasonable distance to get there I would book a hotel & stay down there as it starts fairly early & I personally would not have done as-well having driven two hours before hand I think!

You probably know most of this anyway but won't do any harm writing it again.

Anyone who got past stage 3 reading?

If so answer my previous post. Thank you please :ok:

Thanks Owzy, it is really helpful. I really appreciate your reply.hope i can get through all stages.wish me luck as well as the others. I am really looking forward for this opportunity.btw,try to watch Pushing Tin,starring Angelina Jolie and John Cusack,it's fairly old movie but it about ATC.:p

DJ1425

Hey guys

Im starting stage one on 5/11/2010. Ive strated reading the PDF book in the email. My questions are : -

1 - Is there an easy way to remember the SDT calculations? (if anyone could provide a couple examples, that would be awesome )

2 - Is there any software on the net that I can use to practice the cubes ( other than the couple questions I got with the NATS email offering me to go to stage 1 )



Thanks

Hey

I think my old post never made it for some reason....:(

Anyways, to repeat - Im starting stage 1 at Prestwick on the 5/11/2010. Can anyone suggest easy methods of calculating S D T?? A few examples would be awesome and appreciated.

Can anyone suggest - other than within the NATS email - practice tests for the cubes?

Thanks

I think a suggestion for the cubes was a couple of pages back. As to the calcs, theres really no easy way, you just need to practise. Other than to know the rules for calculationg, as in distance =speed x time and time= distance divided by speed etc, thats all you can know.

paulfoley30

The procedure for reapplying was pretty much the same as last year. A couple different things, the main one being you had to pick your skills from a drop down list rather than being able to actually write about yourself.

Even though the system remembers your email and password (you log in obviously, lol) you have to fill in all your details again rather than just updating. Then its on to the online tests and S1.

Its very annoying, as you have to go through all the stages again, rather than being able to continue. That is, I made it through to stage 3 last year, so have shown that I am capable of passing the tests. Yet I have to sit S1 and S2 again this year (providing I pass again). Frustrating, they know I can do it! And it costs a lot of money that I dont have everytime I go, lol.

I suppose it'll be worth it in the end, lol. I assume from you asking me then that yours is a reapplication and not your first time?

Could someone please advise on the qurstions on stage one. in the 1st section, the atc and sdt qurestions, are they all multiple choice?

With the second set of questions (hopefully I make it this far), are these also multiple choice. I believe that the cubes are obviously. I also believe that there are 3 different cubes? What about the diagramming, are the questions as on the test paper with 3 squares on a question.


Thanks in advance guys.

Stage 1
 

Hi, I'm doing my stage 1 in Bournemouth 14th October. I've practically learnt the whole of the document and am just moving onto practising the rest.

I know it's a stupid question but am I right in thinking that for s/d/t you do not get a calculator? My long division is awful so I'd better get practising to be in with a chance!

Any extra information anyone could provide me with would be very helpful!

Thank you :)

No calculators, it's all to be done in your head (I do belive you get a bit of skratchpaper though but I'm not promisining this)

The key for me seems to be to learn the most common stuff in my head, division by 60 is common (divide by ten, one zero less and then by six). Also it helps to learn the most common stuff in your head, like if someone goes 180 knots that's 3nm/minute etc. So if they go 250 (common speed beneath 10 000 feet, or FL100) that's a bit more than 4nm/minute (since 240 knots=4 nm / minute).

And in the end, practice practice practice :p

I have been doing my SDT practice on the RAF website and all of the questions are in MPH. Are the questions on stage one in nautical miles.

A nautical mile is 1.25 miles, am I right? Will they be in the questions?

Thanks

A nautical mile = 1.15 miles.

I believe the questions are a mixture of the two, to check if you're paying attention... :ugh:

crash323, Tip for the cubes; draw the cube onto the rubber provided and then just rotate the rubber, worked for me.

Isnt that cheating? :ok: Id prefer to call it "creative use of resources", wihich is a pretty useful skill for an ATCO :p

I took the tests several times and never got picked up for cheating. Just shows initiative :E

What I do not understand is this

Trhey give you examples of what to practice - the cubes, the basic check, the diagramming and the PDF document. Why dont they give you examples of SDT calculations? Not complaining... I just dont see why they tell you whats in half the questions, but not the other half? Seems a bit odd. Just to catch you off guard maybe?

Yeh im using the RAF website as well and its all in MPH. I suppose its all the same maths really, except You have to know your conversions to nautical miles etc.