You've received an invitation already?!

I was in the 2 o'clock group too, haven't received an email yet which would appear to be bad news :{

I also found the 1st paper to be fairly easy, and like a lot of others i was surprised to see that more than half didn't get through.

Answered 42/50 diagramming, pretty sure I got at least about 36 of these right.

the cubes - 1st 15 questions were pretty good and I was flying. Then it got hard, only got to question 30/40 when the buzzer went.

It was a good day, good learning experience but the lack of email would suggest I didnt get through. Good luck to everyone who did get through and those still to sit stage 1.

Any questions anyone has about the day who hasn't sat it yet just PM me.

So would you say if I read through the document a couple more times, I should be ok with the ATC? Like i say, only 4 days until stage 1 and only got my invite yesterday...

Anything I can use to revise for the cubes?

Thanks

@Kinny - check your KC inbox

ATC Wannabe no news may be good news!

I sat the Sheffield 9am session was in a pretty similar situation as Winklepickerdescribed, I was flying through the cubes and pretty happy with myself until I realised I had gone wrong somewhere as I was putting the answer down for an already answered question (problem was it was a different answer) I panicked a bit and couldn’t see where I had gone wrong (I had missed a couple out which I couldn’t answer straight away). Rather than go back through them I decided to concentrate on the ones which were left, finished the test and went back to finish a few which I had missed out.

Anyway point of the story is I got an email FOUR HOURS later! Unfortunately I was unsuccessful. I left a voicemail on the recruitment phone number asking if it was an automated error (someone on this forum had experienced this) however I think this is wishful thinking!

They MAY be notifying those who were nowhere near the mark (myself) and those who were performed exceptionally well (Winklepicker) early on and notifying the borderline candidates when they have the rest of the results and adjust the pass mark slightly to meet their quota.

This is a COMPLETE GUESS and I have no idea if this is the way it works. I am sure they will not lower their standard for anyone but perhaps they would raise it if slightly.

It seems strange that they are giving replies so soon when they told us to expect delays.

I would be interested to hear if anyone else has received results.

Good luck to you all!

They won't adjust the pass mark. If everyone achieves the required mark you all pass, it's not like they're just looking for the best 20 candidates.

I sat my test at 1pm in Sheffield and I am yet to hear back. They said it could take up to 14 days or even up to 30 since they are on the road recruiting at the moment. However they did mention that they will try and mark papers in their spare time and let candidates know as soon as they have results.

Rather than them choosing the best/worst I think it could just be chance that they happen to have marked the papers of the two previous posters and one was a pass and one was a fail, rather than anything else.

I am pretty sure I passed the diagramming paper and failed the cubes, but time will tell.

ATC wannabe. You might have passed. Fingers crossed. I was surprised I had received an email already, especially when they said it could take up to 30 days. There must have only been around 12 of us in the 2nd part. I was one of the only few wearing jeans. I knew it was casual but when everyone started turning up in suits I felt a little bit silly.

I have read a bit of the thread tonight and as others have said, read the leaflet and you won't go wrong.

Any thoughts?
 

Hi again everyone,
I sat the test at 2pm in Birmingham yesterday, I felt pretty confident when I ale out of the atc paper as everyone was discussing answers and we were checking back on our notes to see if we had answered
Correctly (which I had) however when the results were announced I hadn't passed which I was so disappointed about and it is very frustrating as there is no feedback or even a quick look at your paper would be good so you could see where you went wrong, just looking for some kind of closure does anyone have any idea of the pass mark they look for in this paper??? I know of 2 questions I got wrong but apart from that I genuinely think I got them all right. There were
Around 50 people at my time and they only took 7 to the next stage!!!! It's so frustrating the amount of work to put in to have an outcome
Like that :( any help advice feedback would be sincerely appreciated and best of luck to those who have still to sit tests :)

I attended Sheffield on 21st at 3pm, only 4/16 of us made the next part. Already received email and happy to say i made it through to stage 2 :)

I attended Sheffield at 3pm on Thursday. Only 4/16 of us made the 2nd part of the test. Already received the email and happy to say i've made it to stage 2 :)

Was in the 10am group in Birmingham yesterday, the one where the lad got disqualified after the diagramming for carrying on answering questions after the time was up.

The test paper was much simpler than I thought, surprised by the amount who didn't get through.

Diagramming I was ok with, but only answered about 35 questions I think due to not checking what the time was when we started so took too much time over them, but pretty sure I got nearly all those correct.

Then the cubes, oh my good god almighty, the cubes :ugh:

No chance I passed those so not expecting to get through. Still started checking my e-mails on the way home though, just in case :p

Good luck to everyone else who was there.

I was in the 11am group at Birmingham yesterday. The motivation paper, I felt ok about. Nervous to begin with, but the more I answered the questions that I'd revised in the NATS document, the more relaxed I became.

The waiting was the worst part. We were told it would be 20 minutes before we were called back in for our results - it felt like an hour!:eek:

Roughly half of the group passed it. It is a ruthless way they do it: the successful candidates get taken next door and the unsuccessful are "invited to leave"...that's the nature of it though, sadly.

The diagramming, I only answered about 35/36, as I also messed up my timings. The cubes, I actually enjoyed - I'd practiced them for ages and felt that they went ok. I answered 37/40.

Just need to wait 3/6 weeks now for the result...hopefully sooner rather than later. Good luck to everyone else also waiting.

Whatever happens, it was a good day and I met some top-notch folk - particularly a certain Edinburgh Ppruner who was in the 3pm group!:ok::D

good luck to everyone on monday @ southampton:D

I was at the 12 o'clock at Birmingham yesterday and passed the first test. Felt pretty good about the second exams; answered all the diagramming questions and 38/40 on the cubes.

Waiting to hear if I've moved on to stage 2 - sounds like some folks in the Sheffield group have already gotten their results. I wasn't expecting to hear from NATS until at least Monday, but has anyone from the Birmingham test heard anything yet? Lemme know, thanks!

Stage One
 

I was on the Birmingham 3pm yesterday (22/02/13), Motivation paper was fine, diagramming was fine as well - I think - answered about 40/50, CUBES were very difficult :mad: answered 35/40 but definitely not sure about it! Spoke to some really nice folk, well done to those who got through, better luck next time to those who didn't, don't be too downhearted; you'll have a better indication now for next time! If anyone else was on the 3pm let me know how you get on!! All the best. :ok:

I'm sitting stage 1 tomorrow in Southampton. I'm starting to get a bit nervous now as I don't want to wait two years to reapply if I don't succeed.

I'm fairly confident with the ATC test, but I'm not so sure about the diagramming and cubes. Even with all the practise tests/android apps people have been sharing on here.

I'll post back tomorrow afternoon. Is anyone going to the 12pm assessment?

hey
 

The 2 year wait absolutely sucks right. I hope you pass all stages though if you need advice for stage 2 i can help you once you've passed stage 1 anyways.

Good luck

Got through stage one.. Didn't think I had!

When my name was read out I thought we were the failures! I guessed a few but found the memory ones fairly easy and I'm naturally good at math so didn't practice

I answered about 37 of the diagramming questions and a bit one of the cubes
The cubes really started easy and got very hard.

I was pretty confident that I got almost all the diagrams right but was aware I was not quick enough
The cubes I started well and some were really easy and I want sure on a few towards the end

My test was the 22nd at Birmingham at 10am

The guy that got kicked out in second session... Wow.. He protested for a while but the invigilator w having none of it

@Al4x

Morning,

I was in the 10am group in Birmingham as well, when did you get the e-mail saying you were through to Stage 2?

Congratulations though, well done.

Im in Southampton now for the first stage which starts at 14:00. As long as I make it through the first round...

Hello, is there anyone who has got the results from the stage 1 at birmingham?:uhoh::uhoh::uhoh:

Just booked stage 2 for the 13th.

Need to pick a hotel that makes the place fairly easy to get to from. Is it easy enough to stay in Southampton overnight and travel in the morning or is it advisable to travel to fareham the day before and stay there?

When I went to Fareham I stayed in Southampton. It's easy enough to get to Swanwick from there but if it's an early start I'd recommend staying a bit closer. If memory serves it's about 20 minutes by train and about 15 in a taxi from the station.

Just passed the ATC test, just waiting to take the other two now.

@ Posijohn good luck for the rest of your test, btw is there any S D/T(maths) questions, are you provided with a calculator & how much information came from the aircraft types example Boeing 737-300/400..etc mine is tommorow any hints and tips would be much appreciated

@weirdgirl I was at Birmingham last week and have not heard anything yet. They did say it maybe longer than the usual 15 days though.

There were around 20 people in my group and only half of us went through which surprised me.

I did better on the cubes this time, I answered 35/40 but I struggled with the diagramming. I only managed 32/50 for those. I'm confident every answer was right, but I don't think I did enough. This is probably where I exit.

At the end, we were told that if we were successful we would be notified within 48 hours. If we were not, then it could be anything up to a month.

There are no clocks in either room so I would advise taking a watch.

Ossy01, you can not use a calculator and you aren't given any spare paper either. There are some maths questions, but nothing you shouldn't be able to do in your head. If you practise on the links provided over the past few pages you should be fine.

I don't want to give too much away as apparently they do monitor these pages. I'd learn as much of the aircraft as possible. Everything you need to know is in the information provided so if you've read it, you should be fine.

With the cubes, the android app that someone shared a few pages back helped me a lot. I recommend getting that and using it as much as possible. Just search for Spatial Awareness in Play Store.

@ k - stand 89

i got it on sundays of all days. i was surprised as they said the wait could be quite long!

that guy wont get another chance will he as it was 'cheating' i presume?

Anyone got details on the second test? i know you cant really prepare for it but it would be nice to have some sort of idea of the tests involved!

Al4x,

No he shouldn't get another chance. Cheating or not, if you aren't mature enough to follow simple, basic instructions when going for a job based on extreme safety then you don't deserve anything in my opinion.

Well done on getting through, couple the fact that you got notified on the weekend, with the 'if successful you will hear in 48 hours' from the fella above, I am resigning myself to being unsuccessful.

Damn it.

Any ideas what's the pass/fail score for diagramming and cubes at stage 1?

i m getting nervous!!! who told you guys about if u are successful they are gonna let u know in 48 hrs?

The invigilator told us.

I have no idea what the pass/fail scores are for the second tests, but I've seen people comment that they answered more than I did with confidence and failed. I'd guess it's quite a high score.

Anyone down for noon tomorrow at Novotel Southampton?

I'm flying from Belfast at 0645.. I'm sure I'll sleep well tonight :uhoh:

Good luck to those awaiting on responses..

Guys the "practice tests on SHL website" link just takes me to their home page, can anybody tell me what tests I should be looking for on there? Thanks

Try this link, it works for me.

SHL Direct | Practice Tests

Any advice for stage 2 as got mine on Wednesday.

Going Insane!!
 

I wish I never heard "you'll find out within 15 working days, or maybe 30", instead I just wish they said "you'll find out whenever"!!!:ugh::ugh::ugh:

Going completely insane and it's only working day 1 of a possible 30!!!!:eek:

Coupled with the fact that other folk already have their results from last week, and I'm edging ever closer to losing all sanity!

If anyone else from Fri 22nd@Birmingham receives an e-mail from NATS, give us a shout please!:ok:

FYI they have added more dates for the first stage. guess they haven't had the sufficient amount of successful candidates :)

anyway I will see some of yous at S2 on 12/03 !

Where are the extra dates?? You can bet your bottom dollar that there will be a Glasgow/Edinburgh date, after me having to trek down to Birmingham!!:mad:

I jest, I jest - I'm not complaining at all! If I wasn't at Birmingham, I wouldn't have met the top-notch folk I did!:ok:

Good luck to everyone still to do their stage 1 (and 2 & 3 obviously!). I'm praying for a congratulatory e-mail tomorrow...:ugh:

Stage 3
 

What is the structure for the stage 3 interview? I was pretty sure it was a group exercise followed by a competency interview.... however it says "interview and scenario based questions" on the invitations. Can anyone help?!

This is the first time I posted on here but I took the Inital Selection Tests at Southampton yesterday. I didn't feel 100% going in as I have had a hectic couple weeks since applying and hadn't been able to go through the ATC booklet as much as I would have liked. But it would seem I did enough to get through to the next 2 tests. I finished 40 of the diagramming ones and felt confident I got them all correct. I also got through most of the cubes, 5 short, something like that and also felt confident they were all 100%.

To be honest, with what I have seen so far and am expecting, you either have it or you don't. The tests are not difficult if you have what NATS want. I believe you need the right internal skills, skills that you may not be able to neccessarily learn. Your brain definitely needs to work logically and analytically, processing data all at once and not one bit at a time.

I for one looked at 3 examples of diagramming and the cubes and told myself I cannot learn to get these right, I need to know I can get these right. I didn't revise this anymore than those 3 examples before the tests. I spent my little time reading the material and hoped my skills for those other 2 would be adequate.

I don't know if I have it or not, there is still a long way to go and I may fail at a test someone else finds simple, that makes them the ATC, not me. And I'm not going to say the tests are not difficult, the examples got progressively harder and took more and more time to work out.

Anyhow got the email at 9am this morning inviting me to the next stage, I'll be there on the 15th.