Assessment Day Help

[Shunted]

The image above is the one you will do!
Go round 10 times starting from the right

 

[JohntyRogers]

I don't know if this has been mentioned but regarding the two hand coordination test, something you need to be aware of, especially if you have been practicing on the software is: on the practice software the joystick are essentially a infinity, by that I mean if you put on full left the cursre will continue left right up the the edge of the screen and when you release the joystick the courser will stay there until you put right joystick on. However, on the actual test, the dimensions are fixed full left will take to just to left of the track and no more and, most importantly, when you release the joystick the ball will flick back to the centre of the screen. Imagine the courser is on a spring and will always come back to the centre of the screen when the joysticks are released. Might sound trivial but it is a dynamic which might catch you out and you would do well to understand this on the practice stage.

 

[jjphotos]

That's useful to know, so a bit more like those marble labyrinth games that I recall playing as a kid

 

[TreacleMiller]

Yes, and remember, you "Hold" the red circle in position, even if you don't want to move it. It's not like a joystick!

 

[Jaguar]

Ok, so my understanding of this is that if you stop moving both of the joysticks together the red ball would flick to the centre of the screen potentially failing you?

 

[CardiffDan]

Ok, so my understanding of this is that if you stop moving both of the joysticks together the red ball would flick to the centre of the screen potentially failing you?

Not if you hold them in place where you currently are.

So you move right stick up and down. Left stick left and right.

Say you are going down the diagonal you can pause and aslong as you keep the sticks in the position they are in the ball stays the same place so you can have a breather.

If you let go of the sticks it would then go to the default position.

Not if you hold them in place where you currently are.

So you move right stick up and down. Left stick left and right.

Say you are going down the diagonal you can pause and aslong as you keep the sticks in the position they are in the ball stays the same place so you can have a breather.

If you let go of the sticks it would then go to the default position.

Also you don't necesssrily fail. On my first few attempts I bounced out alot. And I mean alot to the point I felt like walking out lol.

But I passed and just had my DMI so last step complete. Just a long wait now to see if I passed

 

[JohntyRogers]

Ok, so my understanding of this is that if you stop moving both of the joysticks together the red ball would flick to the centre of the screen potentially failing you?

Jo the ball will only flick back to centre if you let go of the joysticks. Which I did my mistake once. If you want to keep the ball in position on the map you have to keep the joysticks in that position. So my take on that was better to keep moving, if you try and be steady steady as you go you will have to then contend with involuntary flickering of your hands. Better to just go for it imo. I was finished in less than minute, went out loads of times, just be very alert to when you go out and bring it back in as fast and as directly as you can. No nice slow slopes to get back on track. Instead straight back on the track as quick as possible.

 

[Jaguar]

Thanks for the help, did any of you get the “cables and dials” test or the “dials” test recently?

 

[TreacleMiller]

Yes. Its a standard test.

 

[Twotwo]

Your kinda overthinking everything. There's two joysticks and one goes up and down and another goes sideways. You have practice turns, make use of this by not going to the end until your confident. Good luck.

 

[klkl]

Your kinda overthinking everything. There's two joysticks and one goes up and down and another goes sideways. You have practice turns, make use of this by not going to the end until your confident. Good luck.

Exactly this. The practice time is more than enough to familiarise yourself with the controls.

The mechanics of operation are simple enough. It comes down to your motor skill which you can’t really practice without a similar setup.

More important IMO than all this worry over the format of the tests is getting a decent nights rest before attending.

Good luck!

 

[Shunted]

The whole point of the test is to see if you panic or not when the ball leaves the track which it will!
Just bring it back on track and carry on and you will pass.
They’re not looking for a gaming champion!

 

[Jaguar]

Your kinda overthinking everything. There's two joysticks and one goes up and down and another goes sideways. You have practice turns, make use of this by not going to the end until your confident. Good luck.

Exactly this. The practice time is more than enough to familiarise yourself with the controls.

The mechanics of operation are simple enough. It comes down to your motor skill which you can’t really practice without a similar setup.

More important IMO than all this worry over the format of the tests is getting a decent nights rest before attending.

Good luck!

Thanks for the constructive help and pointers about not finishing the practice go too early.

 

[JohntyRogers]

I seem to come accros advice on here from time to time telling people to do minimal preparation. "go through what they send you and you will be set". In my honest opinion it's bad advice. The prep material they send you is garbage and in no way prepares you fully. And considering your going up against people who have been practicing like mad, it seems to me prepping as much as humanly possible is the sensible thing to do. You don't want to just scrape through. Your scored, even though you don't get told you exact score.

Each stage is scored, you end the final hurdle, In my case the DMI with a final score, taking in all aspects of the selection process. If you want to maximise your chance of getting out of a talent pool, many wash out, maximise your scores at each stage as best you can. For me that was practice, practice, practice.

I bought all the softwares and practiced myself stupid. Each stage was relatively easy as a result, no surprises which there would have been had I relied on the material they send alone, and would have alomost certainly failed. The phone book test for example, if you followed all the instructions you would run the risk of taking too long and those who practiced on the software would know you just look for the double symbols and fly through it. Those who relied on the issued prep material and nothing else seldom finished I found.

 

[LCC106]

Yep. General aptitude goes out of the window with people going into too much detail on the forum over tests. A broad overview is ok, but the rate of incidents seems to be on a greater scale for new starters and those who have been employed for 12 years on average if I recall correctly. The psychometrics are stringent for a reason. Safety for one and all.

 

[CardiffDan]

I seem to come accros advice on here from time to time telling people to do minimal preparation. "go through what they send you and you will be set". In my honest opinion it's bad advice. The prep material they send you is garbage and in no way prepares you fully. And considering your going up against people who have been practicing like mad, it seems to me prepping as much as humanly possible is the sensible thing to do. You don't want to just scrape through. Your scored, even though you don't get told you exact score.

Each stage is scored, you end the final hurdle, In my case the DMI with a final score, taking in all aspects of the selection process. If you want to maximise your chance of getting out of a talent pool, many wash out, maximise your scores at each stage as best you can. For me that was practice, practice, practice.

I bought all the softwares and practiced myself stupid. Each stage was relatively easy as a result, no surprises which there would have been had I relied on the material they send alone, and would have alomost certainly failed. The phone book test for example, if you followed all the instructions you would run the risk of taking too long and those who practiced on the software would know you just look for the double symbols and fly through it. Those who relied on the issued prep material and nothing else seldom finished I found.

Do all TOCs do the marking score. I assume it was a pass fail sort of approach. So if you DMI was say half decent I thought you would just fail regardless if you did well on the previous.

 

[JohntyRogers]

From what I have been told by management and seen. Every stage has a clear defined pass mark. Once you score that or above you pass, be it mmi, dmi, opc. However, if you pass all stages, congratulations but all your scores from each stage are added together and then that's your final score, we don't see that or are told about it. But, the that score to then used to prioritise taking from the talent pool. When I went through training, all of us hadn't even been a in a talent pool, we all finished the dmi and a week later given a start date. We did meet people however, who were doing other roles around the railway and on team night out who had been in the same talent pool for years and still no start date, and newbies were still coming in over them. I would assume the reason is their overall score was low, but thats just gueswork. I think the whole process is unfair and if this is true which I'm confident it is, then they should just make the pass scores higher. But also, all those on my course used all the softwares and practiced like mad.

 

[TreacleMiller]

Thats pretty much what Northern told me at the end of asessment day. Partly why I was confused when LNER wanted me straight after the DMI.

 

[Jaguar]

Can any of you guys remember anything about the TRP part 1 passage (memory) ? which passage was it ? Also on the vigilance test did you already know what to look for? ie was car, pedestrian, road sign etc already on the side menu and did it stay the same throughout ?

 

[nb2001uk]

Can any of you guys remember anything about the TRP part 1 passage (memory) ? which passage was it ? Also on the vigilance test did you already know what to look for? ie was car, pedestrian, road sign etc already on the side menu and did it stay the same throughout ?

All these type of questions/answers are here all over the thread; many people had had similar questions but answers are already here just spend time searching on the forum. I promise, you really don't need to be spoon fed everything.

 

[Twotwo]

Can any of you guys remember anything about the TRP part 1 passage (memory) ? which passage was it ? Also on the vigilance test did you already know what to look for? ie was car, pedestrian, road sign etc already on the side menu and did it stay the same throughout ?

It doesn't matter what the passage is because believe me it's on a topic you can't read up on. Just read the passage and memorise the key points.

Vigilance, it's different pics but the options remain the same example road signs, pedestrian etc so is not as hard as the practice ones as you know what to look out for.

Your kinda overthinking everything now, everything is explained on the day and if you ain't sure just ask them. You have practice go's first so use that to your advantage.

 

[CardiffDan]

For the picture one. A photo pops up for half a second. There will be a mix of 5 items but always the same 5 options.
Don't try to guess, it seems you are better only putting what you defiantly seen, rather than second guessing.

 

[TreacleMiller]

For the picture one. A photo pops up for half a second. There will be a mix of 5 items but always the same 5 options.
Don't try to guess, it seems you are better only putting what you defiantly seen, rather than second guessing.

This and Google ATAVT for a demo of the real thing.

 

[Bobbydavro]

I thought I would write this to offer you an insight into the Assessment day.

I went in for the assessment day at Leeds City centre. I got there at 08:30 and went to a waiting are where over the course of 15 mins I met three other candidates who would be on the assessment day with me. We went in at 09:00 where we had an introduction to the day and to the paper tests. My biggest tip for the written tests would be to take a stop watch with you.

Group Bourdon test
This was as you expect, the "dot test" this test was easier in person than the practice tool and the 5 tests were across three pages of a book each had bout 16 lines. I managed between 8-10 lines on all 5 pages.

Phonebook test
This was the second test which we moved straight into, we were given a piece of A3 paper which was in the form of a phonebook, at the end of everything in the book there was shapes. We had to circle all of the double shapes two circles or two triangles for example. However as you would expect there was many different and made to confuse you.
The second part of this test was an audio, we had to listen for High and Low tone beeps. We had to ignore the low tone and only count the high tone and this was effectively the floor that the elevator was on.
The third part was putting both tests together and doing them at the same time.

Memory test
This was where we were given an audio chat of some learning material. After this we were given 5 mins to read through the same material and take notes. After the 5 mins they were taken off us and we were given an answer booklet. We had to wait 5 mins again before starting. We then had a multiple choice answer booklet to answer questions on the material. TIP! if you have a stop watch and you only have seconds remaining randomly select the remaining answers as you are not punished for wrong answers!

At this stage we were sent back to the waiting area to await our results.
Two candidates were taken separately and were informed they had not been successful.

We remaining two were given a 5 minute break before the PC tests.

First test
We had to stare at a monitor with a white screen for 33mins every so often a grey square would pop up and if it turned black we had to press a button.

Second test
We were shown photos for a split second and had to remember items we seen in that picture.

Third test
Joystick test, We had to navigate through a shape not leaving the lines as fast as we could.

We were again given a break after being told our results.

We went back in and had to do a situational judgement test on the PC and write a prep for our MMI.
We then went into our MMI and were told the results straight after.

Any help needed just ask.

Hi. First of all congratulations.

I have my tests soon. Can you answer a few questions for me please?

Group Bourdon – was it 2 minutes per page?

Phone directory – was it just shape symbols or was there actual phone numbers too. The practice material I am using uses phone numbers with symbols for plumbers/post office/cinema etc.
Also – were you allowed to look down the phone book list vertically? Or did the assessors insist that you looked across from left to right then go down a line (like on the Group Bourdon)?

Tones – I was told it was counting low tones. Do you think they change it then? i.e. one assessment day it is high tones, another day it is low tones?

Cheers

 

[ajc1988]

Hi. First of all congratulations.

I have my tests soon. Can you answer a few questions for me please?

Group Bourdon – was it 2 minutes per page?

Phone directory – was it just shape symbols or was there actual phone numbers too. The practice material I am using uses phone numbers with symbols for plumbers/post office/cinema etc.
Also – were you allowed to look down the phone book list vertically? Or did the assessors insist that you looked across from left to right then go down a line (like on the Group Bourdon)?

Tones – I was told it was counting low tones. Do you think they change it then? i.e. one assessment day it is high tones, another day it is low tones?

Cheers

I sat mine in may

1. Yes 2 mins per section

2. Your only looking for double symbols no numbers, ignore the sheet they give you with symbols to look for aswel as they are the only ones there to mark so it's a distraction

3. Count the low tones ignore the high tones is what I remember

Good luck

 

[Bobbydavro]

I seem to come accros advice on here from time to time telling people to do minimal preparation. "go through what they send you and you will be set". In my honest opinion it's bad advice. The prep material they send you is garbage and in no way prepares you fully. And considering your going up against people who have been practicing like mad, it seems to me prepping as much as humanly possible is the sensible thing to do. You don't want to just scrape through. Your scored, even though you don't get told you exact score.

Each stage is scored, you end the final hurdle, In my case the DMI with a final score, taking in all aspects of the selection process. If you want to maximise your chance of getting out of a talent pool, many wash out, maximise your scores at each stage as best you can. For me that was practice, practice, practice.

I bought all the softwares and practiced myself stupid. Each stage was relatively easy as a result, no surprises which there would have been had I relied on the material they send alone, and would have alomost certainly failed. The phone book test for example, if you followed all the instructions you would run the risk of taking too long and those who practiced on the software would know you just look for the double symbols and fly through it. Those who relied on the issued prep material and nothing else seldom finished I found.

On the phone book test, was it always looking for double symbols? Just double symbols? Were there any actual phone numbers next to the symbols? (Someone told me recently they had to look for plumbers with a particular phone dialling code).
Also, did you look down the list vertically to find the symbols? Or did the assessors insist you went from left to right then go down a line?

I sat mine in may

1. Yes 2 mins per section

2. Your only looking for double symbols no numbers, ignore the sheet they give you with symbols to look for aswel as they are the only ones there to mark so it's a distraction

3. Count the low tones ignore the high tones is what I remember

Good luck

Cheers. Sorry to be so specific. Was it looking for symbols only or next to an occupation e.g. plumbers with double triangles next to them?

 

[ajc1988]

On the phone book test, was it always looking for double symbols? Just double symbols? Were there any actual phone numbers next to the symbols? (Someone told me recently they had to look for plumbers with a particular phone dialling code).
Also, did you look down the list vertically to find the symbols? Or did the assessors insist you went from left to right then go down a line?


Cheers. Sorry to be so specific. Was it looking for symbols only or next to an occupation e.g. plumbers with double triangles next to them?

Just double symbols thats all you need to worry about, they try to tell you a story to distract you but again just double symbols

 

[Bobbydavro]

Just double symbols thats all you need to worry about, they try to tell you a story to distract you but again just double symbols

So I am using the wrong practice material that uses symbols and phone numbers. Do u know of any better practice material for this phone book test?

 

[CardiffDan]

So I am using the wrong practice material that uses symbols and phone numbers. Do u know of any better practice material for this phone book test?

To be honest you really don't need to practice. It's as easy as they come this one.
Literally look down the column of the symbols.
Some are double symbols and you should finish it quite quickly. Don't ready anythjng to the left of them.

 

[Bobbydavro]

OK, cheers for that.