Assessment day(s)

Assessment day. Two words that strike fear into the heart of anyone hoping to become a pilot. The dreaded aptitude tests, group tasks and personal interview. I can honestly say this now I’ve passed one, they're not that bad. Okay, so in the build up to mine (I went to 3 in all), I lost some (a lot) of sleep, worried endlessly and quite frankly was a pain in the arse - just ask my girlfriend! However, with preparation they can be a lot more bearable than you would think, maybe even… *hushed voice* fun?!

So all in all I went to 3 assessment days; two at CTC and one at Oxford. As we’re talking about CTC, I’ll explain why I went to two! As you can probably guess, I failed my first assessment day - ‘Oh no, why should I take advice from you when you failed?’ - because I have double the experience of course! Although the morning of the second one, this knowledge didn't calm me down one bit. I’ve also had the good and bad news at the end of the day, so I feel I’m in a pretty good position to give advice either way; I’ll talk about this at the end.

The first stage of applying is filling out CTC’s online form, where you’ll be asked about your background, education, flying experience etc. It’s pretty straight forward, so I won’t go into any more detail. This will be screened by the selection team, and you should receive a response within a couple of days. The reply (if you've passed this screening) will ask you to book an assessment day, normally in 2-3 weeks.

After confirming your assessment day, CTC will send you 4 questions that you need to answer. I wasn’t sure whether these were a part of the assessment or just a reference for the interview, so I wrote mine out like a personal statement for uni. These questions ask about your motivation to be a pilot, the necessary skills of a pilot, how you work in a team and how you cope with difficulty and stress. Be honest, and try to use as many examples from your life as you can. These will need to be emailed back before your assessment day.

I would recommend arriving the night before and staying in a hotel, as it is an early start, and means if anything goes wrong you're not too far away. I stayed at a lovely B&B, and I would absolutely recommend it, as although I didn't get much sleep, the rooms and service were excellent. Plus, if you mention you're going to a selection day with CTC, you'll get a 10% discount!

The Assessment Day

Preperation

Do your best to get a good nights sleep! I actually took a sleeping tablet my second time (see, experience!) and felt a lot better for it the next morning. The first time I got about an hours sleep, and the next morning I felt like warmed up death… So you're up, suited and ready to go. Make sure to have some food before you leave! Even if you have to force it down, you’ll feel better once you’ve settled in to the day - plus, lunch isn't until about 1pm. The day starts at 9am, so aim to be there for about quarter to. This will give you a chance to sign in, calm down and get to know everyone before you start.

The lovely Dibden Manor

Introduction

The first thing you'll have is a presentation about the day, the course and finance. This is excellent, purely because once it’s over you’ll feel calmer and know each other better. Next up are the aptitude tests and group tasks. Depending on how many people are on your selection day, you’ll either be split into two groups or stay as one. However, before these you’ll have a quick break. Make sure to use the loo if you need to, as once you go off to do the next sections you wont be able to for about and hour and a half!

Group tasks

I had to do the group tasks first. There will normally be two, or a longer one with new information given half way through. They are all about assessing how you work with others - it doesn't matter if you don’t complete the task, as long as you work well together. Make sure you appoint a time keeper, as once you get into the task time will fly by. When discussing, make sure you don’t talk over each other, and try to use peoples names. Besides it being more obvious than ‘Oi, you’, it also creates a better atmosphere to work in, and shows that you care about the team. I also found it useful to recap on everything we had discussed in the last couple of minutes, as it made sure I was involved, and also made sure I could talk to individuals and make sure they were happy with everything before decisions were made. Also, don’t forget to smile - again, it makes a much better atmosphere to work in, and shows that you are enjoying yourself.

Aptitude Tests

After a quick break, I then had to do the hardest part of the day - the aptitude tests. You’ll be taken into a room with a dozen computers, which still haunts my dreams. There will be a PC with your name on, and after you're all sat down and settled you'll get a quick brief of how it works. Then you'll be left to do your own thing.

First up here is the maths, where you'll be expected to complete 15 questions in 15 minutes. It’s GCSE standard stuff, but you wont have a calculator. You are given a pen and paper, however. The test covers long division and multiplication, addition and subtraction, conversions and percentages. It’s not difficult as long as you've practiced and you don’t let the time limit pressure you. I did it with about 3 minutes to spare, and got full marks. The questions get progressively harder, so try to do the first few as quickly as possible.

After the maths, you’ll go straight into the actual aptitude test, which consists of 6 tasks. Each task will give you a practice and then 3 attempts, so try to improve your score each round.

Crosshairs - Keep a vertical and horizontal beam centred. They will move about randomly, and the amount of force you need to use on the joystick will change. Small, gentle and smooth movements are key here. Fairly simple, 4/10.

Boxes - Here you have to fly a ‘plane’ through boxes. I’d liken it to a low quality flight simulator, so any experience with using a flight sim or actually flying should help here. Again, small, gentle and smooth movements. This is also fairly simple, 3/10.

Shapes - This was one of my favourites. You get a 6x6 grid, with shapes on one axis and colours on the other. Shapes will pop up in the grid, and when the colour and shape matches the axis then you have to click on it. The shapes and colours on the axis will move around, so you need to get a scan going between the grid and each axis to keep your situational awareness. This one required a lot of concentration, so was a bit more difficult, maybe 5/10.

Obviously the blue shape would be yellow in the test

Patterns - I absolutely hated this one. You are given 3 boxes. The box at the bottom shows the shape you are looking for, and the two boxes above are filled with random lines, where the shape could be hidden. The shape will be the same size and orientation as the one shown in the bottom box. You’re given 60 seconds for each shape, and have to decide whether the shape is in the left or right box, neither or both boxes. The longer you take, the lower your score (I think). I kept second guessing myself, so used all the time available and got quite a low score (or maybe I was just terrible at seeing if the shape was there). Either way, I found this quite hard, 7/10.

Hands - This one was quite fun, and not too difficult when you worked out a method. You’ll be given an audio message saying something like ‘positive right hand circle’. You’ll then be shown 3 pictures of a man in different orientations, with a square in one hand and a circle in the other. You have to look to see how many match up with the audio cue you are given. In this case, a man with a circle in his right hand. If you are given something such as ‘negative left hand square’ it is easier to think of it as ‘positive left hand circle’ or ‘positive right hand square’. After about 5 attempts, the time will decrease. This will happen about 3 times, until you only have around 2 seconds to see how many match. Fun, but required concentration, 6/10.

Capacity - The grand daddy of all the tasks, this was horrible! First you were given a countdown of numbers, such as 980, 975, 970. When the sequence changed, you would have to pull the trigger and the joystick, e.g. 980, 975, 970, 964 *trigger*, 958… After a go at this, you will have to do it together with the crosshairs task. If you lose track of the countdown, focus on the crosshairs part, then try to pick the sequence back up. After this, it becomes even more fun! You'll be given the countdown and crosshairs, and be given a series of shapes scrolling down the side of the screen. You’ll be told something like ‘red square’. When you see a red square, you have to press a button on the keyboard, and type the number that appears in the shape. Again, the primary focus is to keep the crosshairs centred. Think of it as the crosshairs are you flying the plane, you don’t want to lose control by getting distracted with the other tasks. This was very difficult, especially after concentrating so much on all the other tasks, 9/10.

Lunch

Now you're finished with the aptitude tests, hooray! It’s lunch time! I was actually the first person to leave the aptitude testing room, and I was on my own eating lunch for about 10 minutes before anyone else left - I thought I’d done something wrong! CTC put on a pretty good lunch, its buffet style with meats, cheese, bread, fruit, salad, crisps and chocolate etc. You’ll get about 45 minutes for lunch, then get briefed by the selection team about the interviews. The first selection day I had, you weren’t guaranteed an interview, so there was a nervous wait over lunch, but CTC have recently changed it so that everyone has an interview and you’re told whether you've been successful the same day!

Interview

This is probably the second most nervous wait of the day, as you all wait in the lounge area to be taken for your interview. There are normally two assessors interviewing, so it doesn't take too long to get through everyone. When you finally get into your interview, make sure you get a glass of water; it obviously stops you getting a dry throat, and also means if you need a couple of seconds to think you can just take a drink. The first few questions will be about your drive and motivation to become a pilot, and are really there to help set you at ease. The majority of the questions are competency based, which means they will be along the lines of ‘Tell us about a time when you have led a team’ or similar. What is important here is conveying what the interviewer needs to hear, as opposed to a story that rambles on a bit and doesn't highlight your skills. There will be some questions about the aviation industry, and the wider world in general - this is why it’s important to keep up with current events. You should avoid saying anything negative about team members or managers that you have worked with, as it makes you look like you are unable to compromise or work with difficult people. If you happen to say anything negative about yourself, or are asked a question such as ‘What is your biggest weakness’, finish it off with a positive spin e.g. ‘I’m a perfectionist, which means I sometimes take longer to complete a job, but I rarely miss important details’. It can be useful to pre-prepare some answers, or at least some notes, to help you structure your answer and not ‘ramble’ on. Make sure to make lots of eye contact, and smile too - an interview can be just as awkward for the interviewer as the interviewee. Another key detail here is don’t lie; if you're not sure about something, say so. It might help to say where you can find a certain piece of information if you don’t actually know it. Lastly, try to enjoy it. It may be difficult, but if you look like you're enjoying yourself it will be more comfortable for both you and the interviewer. Remember, the interview for the most part is about you, and who knows you better than you?

Results

So after all of that is the worst wait of all. You’ll all be together in the lounge again, and the assessors will go off together to do assessor things. Some time later (about 30 mins), they’ll come back and split you into two groups. Imagine the X-factor boot camp, and it'll be similar (although less people and no cameras). You’ll then be given news that will make you feel on top of the world, or absolutely devastated (trust me, I’ve been on both ends). For me (the second time), it was the good news! There were hand shakes and congratulations all round, huge sighs of relief (a lot of them from me), and then the only bad part about the success - having to console the guys and gals that weren't as lucky. It’s difficult, as you've bonded during the day, but once you’ve left you won’t be able to get the smile off your face - I know I couldn’t!

So, if you get the positive news - congratulations! Theres lots of form filling, contract signing, bank sorting outing, smiling, celebrating and excitement to come (as well as another maths and a physics test, more of that another time).

If it’s not the news you were hoping for, don’t despair. A bit of sadness is good! It shows you care for a start. When I failed my first assessment day, I was devastated - but you have to move on. You’ll be given the chance to assess your performance, after which CTC will give you feedback. Be brutal with yourself, otherwise you won’t improve. And being quite honest, I think failing the first assessment day was good for me. It gave me a wake up call, and made me kick everything up a gear. I can honestly say that I’ve grown and developed as a person since then, and if CTC do invite you to re-apply (normally 6 months), then showing them this is the aim.

Tips

• Do your research. Know the course inside out. Proper Preparation Prevents P**s Poor Performance.
• Before you even consider applying, start reading aviation news and get up to date on current events, especially if you're just out of 6th Form/College. You’re probably not going to have all the experience and times you've demonstrated ‘soft skills’ as someone who’s been to University, so being able to discuss important events and the aviation industry in a mature and knowledgeable way is going help you stand out. 
• Get your head in a maths book; GCSE level is sufficient, but speed is key. Other things to prepare for are the interview, aptitude tests and group tasks.
• For the interview, I’d recommend finding some typical competency based interview questions and practice answering them in front of someone.
• There’s not really much you can do to prepare for the aptitude tests, there are a couple of websites that have a couple of similar tests to what you’ll have to do (I used Pilot Aptitude Test), but you’ll have to pay for these. A lot of blogs I read suggested playing a flight simulator, or even better (and you’ll be able to talk about this in an interview, and actually make sure you enjoy flying) get a trial lesson. Although this wont be cheap (my local club offers an hour trial lesson for £180), it’s a drop in the ocean if you want to become a commercial pilot.
• The group tasks are all about how you interact with the others in your group, so be yourself. Try and pretend to be someone you're not, and it will show up.

Useful links

CTC selection day booklet

Dale Farm House (B&B)

Pilot Aptitude Test (PAT)

Don’t hesitate to contact me if you have any questions about CTC or Oxford selection days, or anything else!

Sorry about the long post, couple more months and it will get more exciting!

Adam