Brief overview of Assessment Center Stage 2 now that I've completed it twice both times passing.
If stage one is what you're looking for then an overview is here:
Stage One Assessment Day Overview
The Day starts off with the WAFV, followed by ATAVT and then 2 hand coordination test. In both my experiences the results are shortly given to you on a one to one meeting after the tests. It lasts about 52 Mins to 1Hr for the assessment part of the day, if your TOC does the MMI on the same day then that will happen after X amount of time on that day and only after the SJE and Pre Questionnaire sheet is filled.
WAFV
Known as a Vigilance test, it lasts about 30mins and you're expected to react only when the flashing grey square turns Black. As others have said on this forum, you will be given a practice set before starting the real test and it shows you clearly the difference between the Grey square and Black Square. An example shown below:
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The Normal Shade, you do not react to this at all.
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The Black square, you're expected to react to it by pressing a Green Button.
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I completed the examples and started the test. It felt faster for me, time duration-wise, than the times I practiced it. I practiced for 1 week every day before the assessment using a tool called Rail Test Preparation, which has a few other tests on it and, in my opinion, replicated the WAFV very well. But then again, it's really only a flashing grey square that turns dark black
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The frequency of the black square was very manageable. I found ways to keep up my attention by adding in a tiny bit of distraction. For example, I ended up learning exactly how far away, test-wise, those sitting the test with me were. As I started first, I knew the person next to me was about 10 seconds behind, and the one after them, 25 behind, and the other 10 seconds behind that individual. Moving my focus to different corners of the squares rather than a whole head adjustment also corrected any loss of focus or blurriness, which will start to happen if you focus too long.
I personally didn't experience it, but some experienced a color disorientation in which the square appears to be getting darker and darker than it truly is. This led to misclicks, and in some cases, I heard several presses of the green button by a lass in the corner, of which I knew I hadn't encountered any part of the test that required that amount of button pressing. Thus, as we later discovered, they were false clicks as the disorientation had happened. Sadly, went down by 3 after that test, out of 5 down to mainly that.
I often like to understand why I do a test, and from the experience, I could tell that this test, as the name suggests, will test your ability to concentrate for an extended period of time and your reaction over that said time. As something gets monotonous, your mind can tend to lag, and the test wants to see if what starts off as a simple task can then become a difficult task for an individual, which could highlight an area of risk in train operation.
Tips for the test from my experience:
- Get yourself comfortable and in position, this matters a lot as you don't want to make any adjustments as much later, Your hand that will be used to press the button should be relaxed and of free movement to do so.
- Make sure you've used the toilet, kept a bottle of water near you but not distractingly close and any distractions on yourself like a Phone etc has been removed. You'll need to be of full attention.
- Don't overthink the test, there is only ever two shades and the two shades are exactly the same two you will see in the practice examples. They do not change mid test.
- Use the headphones for some noise dampening
- Relax once again, wait only for the square to go black before you react, It also gives you a bit of a hint that you've reacted to the Black square by the screen staying white for about 1 second more than usual before flashing to whatever the next shade of square is.
ATAVT
The test I worried about on both occasions but ended up passing it to very high standard. Its a test of visual perception. You are shown an image for about 1 second of a street or traffic and asked to later state what you see. The options were similar to:
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ATAVT Similar Video
You're given practice examples, as with the WAFV. It's important to note that the practice run will tell you that you've got the question wrong if you do not get all the items correct and will reshare the photo for you to select the correct ones. However, this does not mean that in the real test you need every item!!! Just select honestly what you saw and do not try to guess. You're negatively marked down on wrong answers, not missed answers. Just because you may have seen a pedestrian crossing a road doesn't mean they did so at a traffic light; it could have been a zebra crossing. Unless you remember exactly what it was, then don't assume.
On the device its these buttons for the test:
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The green button is only used to move to the next image; you're allowed to control when you move to the next set of images. I think there were 17-20 images in all, with about 12 minutes total time estimated. I just focused on the center of the images. My eyes were able to make out the big objects like cars and glowing objects like traffic lights, while I could check for people, cyclists, and road signs. It went quite well in my opinion, much better than what I expected. Once again, a test that you really shouldn't overthink.
I think it's self-explanatory with why you're tested on this, but briefly, as a driver, you'd be expected to have a decent level of visual recall, especially at some operational speeds of over 100mph. You'll need to be able to pick out details that often will be oblivious to others, and all that in a restricted amount of time while staying calm.
Tips for the test from my experience:
- Get yourself comfortable and in position, if you're using glasses then wipe those as you don't want fog to cause you issues.
- Don't overthink the test, only click the number relevant to the answer that you've seen(this becomes clear on the day but on the test device the numbers correspond to the answer you want to select).
- Take as much time as you realistically need before moving onto the next but not too long as you'll find yourself pandering over what you've seen and in some cases you might recreate the actual image you last remember seeing in your head.
- Make sure if you haven't already to have adjusted the sound in your headset. The audio beep that plays before the image is shown is important and you don't want it too quiet yet too loud.
- Relax, ideally you should have found a focus point on the test practice examples in which you will be aiming to focus on for all the images. Use the practice examples to the max before starting the real test on the day!
2 Hand Coordination
Like the ATAVT there isn't much that can prepare you for this test, you either have the ability or don't but your day to day life may have used the certain fine motor skills and hand eye coordination required for the test itself. The main area that makes it hard to practice the test is that the Joysticks:
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Do not feel like most conventional joysticks and are thus harder to replicate with dual-shock joysticks like those on the Playstation, etc. However, they do flick back slowly to the neutral position, so bear in mind this if you let go during the test. The left joystick controls only the right and left movement of the ball and is restricted to this axis, while the right controls the up and down movement of the ball and is also restricted to this axis.
The real test will look somewhat similar to below:
You are given a practice round first, which involves simply moving the ball to a Point marked B. There's no track in this example. Use the examples to get a feel for positioning; I found that holding the joysticks halfway worked best for me, so you'll need to experiment for yourself. These examples are not timed, and it's up to you to move on by moving the ball to the destination marked B.
Another example after the first practice stage is the circuit itself, and this is your last chance to adjust your audio, find a feel for placement on the joystick, and get to grips with the test. Once you complete the circuit, the test is next. It should take about 10 minutes, estimated, and there are a few tracks. You'll go out for sure in this test; I went out on the first 4 about 3 times each, and there is a clear audio beep telling you this. Try not to panic and just get back on track. I'm very sure they can see how you react to the audio beep, especially if the ball right after increases the distance it's already fallen off the track by.
Going off track isn't too much of a problem; just try not to be too frequent with it. How quickly you get back on track is very important. You'll feel yourself getting better. All 10 track test attempts are the same. By test attempt 7, I was going off the track only once on each, with the 10th not coming off at all. You'll improve as you go along.
I don't really have any tips for this one as it's basically a game of ability here.
Hopefully, you're called in after the suite of tests is done and are told you've passed. In which case, you may do the MMI on the day and be told how the final part of that day will proceed. The MMI is so well covered in this forum that I'd be repeating lots of already valuable information on here. Best of luck!
