There’s no interview on the first assessment day (I’m assuming that it’s the same whichever station you’re applying for, I applied for Paddington) it’s literally just the testing. I felt fairly confident coming out of the testing, I found the concentration test was probably the toughest for me personally, some pages I got over halfway down the page, some pages I bearly got halfway through! I finished the test where you have to answer the questions about the text from the railway rule book (sorry can’t remember what it was called) and I think I was on the last page of the ticketing test when time ran out. I didn’t get stressed by the ticketing or railway rules testing, I felt pressured on the concentration test because I felt that I wasn’t getting far enough on each page. Obviously wasn’t a problem though as I got an email that evening saying I’d passed! Be thorough on the railway rules passages test though as the answers sometimes aren’t literally lifted from the text passage and you need to read between the lines a bit to select the right answer, some of them look correct at a glance but on closer inspection will be slightly incorrect. The secret is to work steadily without rushing on all of them, don’t worry about finishing, worry about being accurate, but at the same time be aware that you need to work efficiently if that’s any help.
Just waiting for the final assessment/interview now, I was offered a date within about a week of my first assessment, but I couldn’t make it as it gave me six days notice and I’m rostered for my current job a month in advance. Hoping they get back to me soon and I might have to have a “cold” if they offer me another date where I’m supposed to be working, as it’s probably pretty easy for them to just overlook me and go onto someone else if I can’t make the next date. Paddington and Reading current adverts both close tomorrow so hopefully I can get slotted in for the final assessment with the next bunch from the current application fingers crossed!
