Incorrectly conducted assessment?

Kraken1234 · 30 Oct 2018

Hello.

I just had my assessment today for a train driver role in Glasgow.

I think one of the assessments may have been conducted incorrectly...

It was the test with the dials and lines (I won't give anything else away).

The test had 43 questions and 8 minutes. I was working very quickly, around 5 to 10 seconds per question. I only completed about 22 questions.

That would have meant I would have spent around 22 second a question... Which is a very long time

I think the assessor accidentally gave us 3 or 4 minutes for this assessment instead of the allocated 8.

Is there anything I can do about this?

RailUK Forums

Mike121 · 30 Oct 2018

Time goes very fast when you are doing these assessments. I am sure it would have been done correctly.

Kraken1234 · 30 Oct 2018

Mike121 said:
Time goes very fast when you are doing these assessments. I am sure it would have been done correctly.

Yes, I hope this is the case....

Do you, or anyone else, knows what the "pass" mark is on the dial test? Would 20+ correct answers be a pass?

Ciel · 30 Oct 2018

Hey, I too did the assessment today in Glasgow.

Yes, the time went very fast for the dial one - I was a bit surprised too.

Probably no wrong-doing though... Hopefully.

I mean, even if there was, if EVERYONE failed on that part, surely they'd look at it and lower the pass mark accordingly... right?

4F89 · 30 Oct 2018

Aaah, the one test I answered all of the questions. Time flies under pressure!

Kraken1234 · 30 Oct 2018

Jimathy said:
Aaah, the one test I answered all of the questions. Time flies under pressure!

You answered all 43 questions?

See, this makes me feel like my time was actually cut short - we had a break afterwards, and no-one in the group even made it past question 25...

josecc · 30 Oct 2018

I managed to answer 38. Some were harder than others so some took longer, some shorter.

Kraken1234 · 30 Oct 2018

josecc said:
I managed to answer 38. Some were harder than others so some took longer, some shorter.

Were you in the assessment today?

4F89 · 30 Oct 2018

I did, but it was the only assessment I did. I happen to be very good at that particular task, and I lucked in to seeing the answer a/b/c/d etc very quickly

ComUtoR · 30 Oct 2018

Kraken1234 said:
we had a break afterwards, and no-one in the group even made it past question 25...

People lie.

I still remember coming out of my assessment day thinking I failed. Lots of talk during the break whilst the papers were marked. "I answered this many.. I answered that" "the answer to this question was" etc etc.

The tests are designed to push people to their limit and often not designed to complete. It is also a case where people will fly through the questions to complete as many as they can but get too many wrong. Would you rather complete 22 questions and get 22/22 right or complete all 43 but get 22/43 with 21 wrong ?

Have you been told if you passed yet ?

In either case. Call the test centre and raise your concerns.

josecc · 30 Oct 2018

Kraken1234 said:
Were you in the assessment today?

No yesterday

Kraken1234 · 30 Oct 2018

josecc said:
No yesterday

Oh, best of luck to you!

Do you know if you passed? Also, how did you do on the Bourdon?

I averaged about 7 lines, and I think I might have missed 1 group of 4 in each section.

josecc · 30 Oct 2018

Kraken1234 said:
Oh, best of luck to you!

Do you know if you passed? Also, how did you do on the Bourdon?

I averaged about 7 lines, and I think I might have missed 1 group of 4 in each section.

Yeah I passed. I can't remember exactly how many I did because I didn't have time to count.

Good luck to you

Paull · 30 Oct 2018

The time really does fly when you’re under pressure. When I did the memory test I could’ve sworn it wasn’t 5 minutes to read the text!

Xlztt · 30 Oct 2018

Kraken1234 said:
You answered all 43 questions?

See, this makes me feel like my time was actually cut short - we had a break afterwards, and no-one in the group even made it past question 25...

Do you know this for fact that no one made it past Q25?

Apparently there were over 20 people there today, so did everyone disclose this openly?

Kraken1234 · 30 Oct 2018

Xlztt said:
Do you know this for fact that no one made it past Q25?

Apparently there were over 20 people there today, so did everyone disclose this openly?

Sorry, not everyone then, since we didn't have a group discussion about it.

But I asked around 10 of the people, and it wasn't above 25 for any of them.

I'm just really worried this one part of the assessment would mess it up for me... I pretty much aced all the other sections (apart from the Bourdon, I'm in the dark about that one).

Kraken1234 · 30 Oct 2018

Paull said:
The time really does fly when you’re under pressure. When I did the memory test I could’ve sworn it wasn’t 5 minutes to read the text!

I think the assessor should say the time out loud every now and again...

Xlztt · 30 Oct 2018

Kraken1234 said:
Sorry, not everyone then, since we didn't have a group discussion about it.

But I asked around 10 of the people, and it wasn't above 25 for any of them.

I'm just really worried this one part of the assessment would mess it up for me... I pretty much aced all the other sections (apart from the Bourdon, I'm in the dark about that one).

The reason I ask is because my friend was there too today and scored more than 25...

What’s done is done, chill and wait until you know what the outcome is.

For what it’s worth, I know someone who passed getting to Q21 and I’m sure I read on another Scotrail thread a couple of years back of someone passing after getting to Q14!

falcon · 30 Oct 2018

Kraken1234 said:
Sorry, not everyone then, since we didn't have a group discussion about it.

But I asked around 10 of the people, and it wasn't above 25 for any of them.

I'm just really worried this one part of the assessment would mess it up for me... I pretty much aced all the other sections (apart from the Bourdon, I'm in the dark about that one).

If you pass the assesment you will realise that time passes quicker than you think.

If you fail the assessment you will realise you have failed the assessment.

I hope that helps. 8-)

martin2345uk · 30 Oct 2018

I got up to 29 on the dials at my assessment day and passed

heedfan · 30 Oct 2018

Ciel said:
I mean, even if there was, if EVERYONE failed on that part, surely they'd look at it and lower the pass mark accordingly... right?

No. That’s absolutely not how it works, I’m afraid. The pass mark is the pass mark. If everyone fails, is that necessarily an indication that the test has been incorrectly administered, or is it simply that the entire cohort is not good enough? If they discovered that the tests had been incorrectly administered then your results would likely be voided or similar and you’d perhaps be invited to a resit.

For what’s its worth, I very much doubt that there has been an error. In my experience these people are very professional. I would agree that time just seems to go more quickly under the test conditions! Hopefully you get the result that you want.

Ciel · 30 Oct 2018

heedfan said:
No. That’s absolutely not how it works, I’m afraid. The pass mark is the pass mark. If everyone fails, is that necessarily an indication that the test has been incorrectly administered, or is it simply that the entire cohort is not good enough? If they discovered that the tests had been incorrectly administered then your results would likely be voided or similar and you’d perhaps be invited to a resit.

For what’s its worth, I very much doubt that there has been an error. In my experience these people are very professional. I would agree that time just seems to go more quickly under the test conditions! Hopefully you get the result that you want.

Yep. When I had my assessment, there were 2 assessors, so the chances of there being an error and both of them missing it would be a bit low in my opinion.

OP is probably worrying about nothing, to be honest.

ANWP Tom · 30 Oct 2018

In these style of assessment there is an expectation you won't finish, DB has some similar ones that I did, finished a few sections but not others, (this was 5 year ago like) but was told it was graded in a strange way I cant remember the details of. In the end I got offered a shunters job in Eastleigh 8 weeks after already taking a promotion with NR I had interviewed for the same week. 5 years on in 11 years deep in maintenance from apprentice to Project Delivery so done ok

Driver2B · 4 Nov 2018

I'm sure that it was done correctly - time flies under pressure!

I think I got up to around 30-35 on mine, but others on the same day reported doing less (about 22, I think).

If you are really concerned, you could raise it with them, which might flag up if there were lower scores on that day. However, 22 isn't unusually low, so I would suspect that time flies.

Personally, unless I had timed it and knew that it was incorrectly administered, I wouldn't mention it, especially if you passed!

Algren71 · 6 Nov 2018

Kraken1234 said:
Hello.

I just had my assessment today for a train driver role in Glasgow.

I think one of the assessments may have been conducted incorrectly...

It was the test with the dials and lines (I won't give anything else away).

The test had 43 questions and 8 minutes. I was working very quickly, around 5 to 10 seconds per question. I only completed about 22 questions.

That would have meant I would have spent around 22 second a question... Which is a very long time

I think the assessor accidentally gave us 3 or 4 minutes for this assessment instead of the allocated 8.

Is there anything I can do about this?

I don't think it was an error. The time goes remarkably fast and I only completed about half of the questions. Indeed, I was pretty shocked when they called time. Another guy at the assessment centre said that he did all 43, which is incredible. I managed to get through the assessment, so I can only assume that my accuracy counted more than my speed.

craigybagel · 6 Nov 2018

It's also worth pointing out that is not just anyone from HR or whatever running these tests - it requires a lot of specialist training, so I'd very very surprised if a mistake like that was made. I can also vouch for how quickly some of the tests can feel like going by. And for the record, the dials test was the one I personally found the easiest when I passed my assessments, but I still didn't finish it in the time given.

Gooner18 · 6 Nov 2018

I found the VSE test the hardest

StephenB · 7 Nov 2018

I did my assessment in Glasgow on this date, I got to 34 and was shocked when she called time, definitely flew in. I’ve got my interview on Friday

Incorrectly conducted assessment?

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