Transpennine Express New Trainee Driver Vacancies

[youngboy]

I know what your saying and I'm not wanting to turn this into a heated debate but look at the mechanical comprehension test. How many people would have passed that with out revising online?

It does need changing but all that would happen is pass marks would just be a lot lower.

I agree mate I do understand your point but like you say, how many people would pass the mech test without revising ??? In short I would say anyone who wishes to be a train driver should be passing without revising, it can be done, some lads on here have gone in blind and passed everything.

 

[chrisdmadd]

I agree mate I do understand your point but like you say, how many people would pass the mech test without revising ??? In short I would say anyone who wishes to be a train driver should be passing without revising, it can be done, some lads on here have gone in blind and passed everything.

Without revising and without people on forums telling them all about the tests

I don't know and I'm certainly not qualified to know the effectiveness of these tests in the first place. I suppose drop out and failure rates are closely monitored.

Anyhow I just want the reaction test to be here already!!

 

[SilentChill]

The only thing i practised was the dots test and on my first try i was doing 9-10 lines with a couple of omissions so I think I actually only did it 4 or 5 times and thought that would be good enough.

Everything else I have done was blind I had no idea about the DFFT or the TRP tests.

I actually think the practice material books they give us are full of too much info and give those who are not that way minded the chance to pass.

Just the way I feel about it and wish everyone would go in blind and it be a fair assessment.

I already have an awesome job on the railway so whatever happens its all gravy......

 

[Beveridges]

It was easy enough, although some tit working everything out under his breath was doing my nut in, I really should of said something.

Theres always one

I agree mate I do understand your point but like you say, how many people would pass the mech test without revising ??? In short I would say anyone who wishes to be a train driver should be passing without revising, it can be done, some lads on here have gone in blind and passed everything.

Why go in blind when you can increase your chances by doing some practice?
Thats what my thoughts were back in 2008 and it has more than paid off as I'm now in the Maintenance Depot Driving grade.

As for the Mechanical Comprehension test. This test is "supposed" to measure how a candidate will cope with traction training - but it doesn't. It's rubbish and should be removed.

It has been known for a Fitter to fail it at my place. How useless does that make the tests look?

So a Fitter has been removed from the selection process because the Assessment centre deemed him unable to be able to cope with the traction training?
To put it lightly, traction training is very simple and basic compared to what Fitters already know.

 

[JAMBO]

Can't have been a very good fitter then can he! Anyone who comes from an engineering background should fly through the mechanical part

 

[Mattm123]

Well that's the testing done for me this morning.
I didnt like the tests, but saying that, i dont like any tests like that haha.

Just the waiting game now

 

[Flyboy]

Youngboy - Good points.

Silentchill - As I said in my edited post, please go back to the previous page and edit your post that requotes my earlier information.

 

[BulldogBurt]

Flyboy - I myself didn't have a problem with what you originally posted, it didn't give much more away than was already in the practice booklet anyway. However, I'd take you to task over your strategy for guessing for one minute of the 8, if you answered 30 in 7 minutes this is just over 4 correct answers (hopefully) per minute and if you guessed 'A' for the remaining 13 answers, each with 4 possible answers then you would be statistically likely to guess 3 correct if there was an even spread of A B C and D answers (which there isn't) so the odds are stacked against you getting even 3, and therefore your time would be better spent getting the 4 correct answers you could have got.

 

[sidekick]

Well I managed to mess up TRP2, got to the end of a page to realise i had missed a question and had been marking the answers in the wrong box. Hopefully it was only for say 1-2 questions or I can count myself out of the running! My own fault I know, annoying cos I double checked all my answers so I know they are correct, just in the wrong box! Got to 29 anyway, hopefully it's enough.

Good luck to everyone else and hopefully the wait to found out our results won't be too long!

 

[Bert and Ernie]

Had my tests today just got back thought they were ok just the trp 1 test was a funny one for me I wonder how many right you have to get right to get a good pass?

I know I've messed up on 4 of them but I think I did we'll on the others so hopefully it will be ok

 

[youngboy]

Why go in blind when you can increase your chances by doing some practice?

To be honest Bev, the test's are being changed for that exact reason aren't they, well I think they are ??
How many people are currently working in the rail industry, maybe even driving who would not have passed all the assessment's without prior knowledge ??
I'd bet there's a fair few who through taking advantage of the system/internet have elevated themselves to a position that under normal 'going in blind' condition's they wouldn't have stood a chance of getting. Am not criticising those people, the internet is there to be used, I've also taken advice from someone regarding the Group Bourdon but flyboy posted detail's of the assessment he'd taken yesterday and silentchill obviously thinks he's given people today a helping hand, tbh I just see it that we're all cheating to a certain extent and none of us can point the finger at anyone else. !!

 

[Flyboy]

Bulldog - Yes you've got a point, would have worked better statistically if there'd been 50 or 60 answers, but I'd made the decision to do that at the start of the test and stuck to my decision.

I think that 30 is more than enough anyway.

 

[TDK]

Hmm, not sure I'd recommend the guessing game.

The guessing game is using your initiative. I went through the paper and marked all the one I knew were 100%, went through again and marked the ones I thought were correct then guessed the rest and had a minute to spare to double check. I passed with a good grade!

 

[Beveridges]

If your faced with the choice of guessing or leaving it blank, it has to be guessing. Whats better you'll get 25% chance of a correct answer than a 0% chance if left blank.

 

[Flyboy]

If your faced with the choice of guessing or leaving it blank, it has to be guessing. Whats better you'll get 25% chance of a correct answer than a 0% chance if left blank.

Exactly my point, but written in a much better way.

TDK - That's very good going, those 8 minutes absolutely flew by.

 

[BulldogBurt]

The guessing game is using your initiative. I went through the paper and marked all the one I knew were 100%, went through again and marked the ones I thought were correct then guessed the rest and had a minute to spare to double check. I passed with a good grade!

Are you referring to the cables and dials test? I can understand this approach with the mechanical test but with the cables and dials all the questions are more or less the same difficulty, so you're just working through as many as possible rather than leaving some out to come back to in my experience.

 

[Eduardo]

If your faced with the choice of guessing or leaving it blank, it has to be guessing. Whats better you'll get 25% chance of a correct answer than a 0% chance if left blank.

With regards to the Dials Test; I don't agree with guessing the answer.

Why not focus the time on answering the questions properly until you are told to put 'pens down'?

If it takes you 40 seconds to guess the last eight, (based on 5 seconds per question to do the bloody shading in!), you may get them all wrong.

Why not use that time to answer a couple more, knowing you are correct.

I left about six or seven blank in my assessment this week, yet still achieved a 'very good pass' in this area.

Proof that guessing is not necessary. :roll:

 

[BulldogBurt]

If your faced with the choice of guessing or leaving it blank, it has to be guessing. Whats better you'll get 25% chance of a correct answer than a 0% chance if left blank.

My point is that it wasn't a choice though as there was limited time available and it was better spent answering (not difficult) questions correctly, i.e. if you use your 25% then it's better to spend time answering a question 100% correct than guessing 4. I managed 36 but didn't waste time looking at a stopwatch to calculate how long I'd need to leave to guess the remaining ones, just hope it was enough and that they were correct after all that!

 

[Beveridges]

It took me about 1 second to shade in 3 answers. So on the mech test say I had 9 questions at the end that I wanted to wild guess it just took 3 seconds to shade them in.

Probably got 2-3 extra marks out of it. Not bad for 3 seconds work.

On the Dials test I am not sure if guessing is the best way. I didn't guess on that test - I left the ones I didn't get to blank. But then again I found the Dials test easy so never even needed to do any guessing to boost my score.

 

[Flyboy]

Beveridges - which test are you referring to in regard to the "mech" test? If it's the Mechanical Comprehension test then we didn't do that. Also, our dials test was not the same as that in the practice booklet, which was easy as you say, the one on the day was a little more difficult. In the practice booklet (with only 3 dials, 3 colours and no numbers) I could answer all 8 in about 30 seconds, but in the real test (more dials, less colours, and numbers) I only managed about 2 in the same 30 seconds.

Had the dials been the same as in the practice booklet I would certainly have done all 43 well inside the time allowed. Additionally, as Eduardo says below, making sure the answer box was completely filled in took a few seconds in itself.

 

[Eduardo]

It took me about 1 second to shade in 3 answers. So on the mech test say I had 9 questions at the end that I wanted to wild guess it just took 3 seconds to shade them in.

I'm impressed. Thats really quick moving.

We were under strict instruction to shade in completely the boxes when giving the answer.

Seemed like it took a lifetime shading in the boxes. I know that takes up vital seconds.

The dials test isn't difficult, it just eats time due to a large number of questions with little time. Got to work fast.

The Mech Comp test takes up more thinking time. I would say thats more suited to guess work if time is running out.

Although I never clocked watched during the tests. It takes up too much time. I just knuckled down and got stuck in.

 

[benjy_b]

It turns out I've just been offered the position of Trainee Train Driver at East Coast, so I will be withdrawing my application for this post.

Chuffed to bits!

 

[PeteH]

The guessing game is using your initiative. I went through the paper and marked all the one I knew were 100%, went through again and marked the ones I thought were correct then guessed the rest and had a minute to spare to double check. I passed with a good grade!

What? On the dials? I'm quite surprised that you had time to go back over double checking!

 

[youngboy]

It turns out I've just been offered the position of Trainee Train Driver at East Coast, so I will be withdrawing my application for this post.

Chuffed to bits!

I bet you are matey, well done.... it's weekend go celebrate !!!!

 

[PeteH]

The dials test isn't difficult, it just eats time due to a large number of questions with little time. Got to work fast.

The Mech Comp test takes up more thinking time. I would say thats more suited to guess work if time is running out.

Opposite for me. I finished mech in about half the allotted time. The dials took much more thinking time, particularly for those where the pointers were in the same shade and one had to take account of the numerical indication.

 

[Flyboy]

benjy - excellent, well done. Given that East Coast don't advertise externally for trainee drivers (well I certainly don't recall anyone on here mentioning any East Coast vacancies recently) I assume you're an internal applicant?

PeteH - firstly, would you be kind enough to go back and edit your post on page 32 that directly quotes the test info I posted that upset some, Silentchill has edited his so yours is the only one that now contains the info I posted. Secondly, I think TDK is talking about the mechanical comprehension test, the dials test is not the sort where you would miss out difficult ones and then go back to them later.

Also, I'm fairly sure Eduardo didn't do the same dials test as us, I believe his was just the 3 dials and 3 colours with no numbers, hence he came so close to finishing all the questions which I don't think he would have done had it been the 4 dials, 3 shades of grey + white, and numbers like ours.

Eduardo - The FTPE dials test this week was a slightly different format to the one I think you did, it had 4 dials and was a bit more difficult, needing more time per question - about 15 seconds or so, hence why it was slightly more feasible to guess any unanswered ones at the end as there would obviously be more of them than in your test.

It would appear from what I've read in this topic over the last few days that we've all done a variety of slightly different tests, it's therefore impractical to compare performances without stating the exact test format, and as some don't like giving out too much information to "opponents" then we can't really compare accurately.

 

[benjy_b]

benjy - excellent, well done. Given that East Coast don't advertise externally for trainee drivers (well I certainly don't recall anyone on here mentioning any East Coast vacancies recently) I assume you're an internal applicant?

Hi, yes, I'm currently a Train Guard with East Coast.

In the five years I've been with the company I've never known an external recruitement of drivers. I believe it is part of all Toc's franchise agreements that they recruit externally every so often. However, seeing as the East Coast Franchise has been with three companys in the time I've been on it, then that may be why they havn't recruited externally.

I am aware that they have recently advertised externally for Train Guards

 

[Eduardo]

Flyboy, your assumption is wrong.

Our test was the four dials test. The standard national test set by the OPC.

I've never seen a three dials test, apart from the one in the practice material.

I spent the time getting as many as I could correct.

 

[Lanc688]

Hi all !

Just a quick note to wish you all good luck with the stage 3 Assessments, for those of you lucky enough to be doing them soon.

For those of you not lucky enough.....keep plugging away and don't be disheartened !

Training going ok on the course at the mo...we'll be driving proper for the first time in May and I can't wait....keep the work up as it's all worth it, as I'm sure you are well aware.

PS...I do understand that some people will need to budget while on the training salary, so just for your info....the RPI rise just came through and you should be looking at £19,497.00 as of now !

Laters
Lanc

 

[Eduardo]

Hi Lanc

Good to hear from you.

I can't believe how quick the time has gone.

Hope your still living the dream and not missing the old place mate.

I don't think for one minute you've have any regrets!!