Selection | craviation

Selection:

On this page you will find lots of useful information regarding airline selection, Pilapt (Pilot aptitude), the maths test, group exercises and interviews tips and tricks.

Pilapt (Pilot Aptitude)

Pilapt is a series of computerised tests that determine your ability in a number of key areas including, hand-eye coordination, memory and multitasking. The tests below can be practised using a subscription to a number of sites. The site I chose to use was 'Latestpilotjobs'. A months subscription is approximately £32.

Crosshairs - Medium difficulty

The Crosshairs test assesses your ability to maintain an object as close a possible to a specific reference point. The scenario is quite similar to flying an ILS approach. The pink horizontal and vertical lines will be constantly moving in different directions and it is your task to the keep them centered at all time. The test usually lasts 5 minutes a time.

Advice: The Crosshairs test can be difficult. Throughout the test the sensitivity will change meaning you will have to adapt the amount of pressure on the joystick to keep it central. Practising this test before your assessment day will help a huge amount. At the end of the test you will be scored out of 10. Do not worry if you don't get straight 10's, just make sure that after each attempt you improve your score; or at least keep it the same.

Circle and Square - Easy

This test screens your information processing capability and spatial aptitude. You will be given an audio assignment to scan the given visual information and report back how many object of that type you have seen

For example, the audio will say "positive right square". This means how many people ARE holding a square in their right hand. In the example above the answer would be 3, all of them have a square in their right hand.

Another example may be, "negative left circle". This time you are counting how many people DO NOT have a circle in their left hand. In the example above the answer would be 0 as each person has a circle in their left hand. At the start of the test you have,say, 8 seconds to answer. As you progress through each round the amount of time to answer will decrease.

Advice: Personally, I found this test relatively easy and with a bit of practice hopefully you will to. However, if you are struggling with this test then start slowly and try and talk through the process to yourself in your head before you answer.

Flying through boxes - Easy

This three-dimensional pursuit game assesses your hand-eye coordination and evaluates your spatial awareness skills and accuracy. The goal is to keep the directional indicator on a steady course inside the approaching rectangular boxes at all time.

The picture above is the example from Latestpilotjobs, however, the test at L3 is slightly easier in my opinion. At L3 you will fly a small plane through a series of boxes and as long as you don't make any large movements with the joystick you will be fine.

Advice: Fine tune the course using small (but large enough) movements to keep the plane on an accurate path.

Numbers and Colours - Medium Difficulty

This test is developed to evaluate your dynamic attention and your ability to focus on a primary task while the conditions are constantly changing. When an element appears on the board in the colour indicated in the column and it is the letter indicated in the row, you should respond by pressing the correct keys.

This test can appear to relatively easy however don't be fooled. The aim is simply click when the colours at the top and the shapes down the side match. In the example above you would click because the Circle matches both the colour and shape. The amount of 'hits' (correct) and misses are shown on the right.

Advice: Throughout the test you may notice that the number of misses starts to increase, even if you are completing the task perfectly. Why, you ask? They are testing your ability to remain calm when things start to go wrong. If you are the type of person who will crumble seeing your misses increase then I highly advise you practice this test a lot. Instead, remain calm and ignore the misses. Concentrate on the task and try your best, chances are you will still pass even with a few misses here and there.

2D Pattern Test - Medium Difficulty

This test is designed to assess your ability to find important information when under pressure. An object is shown in the top window and it is your task to determine whether or not the object is also displayed in the three windows below.

Personally, I found this test relatively challenging and made sure I practised a lot before my assessment day. The aim is to simply work out whether the arrow (using above example) is in the left pattern, right pattern, both or neither of them.

Advice: My best advice would be to take your time with this test and really make sure your 100% confident with your answer before you click on your answer.

Shape Test - Easy

The purpose of this test is to assess your short term memory and reaction speed. You will hear an audio message mentioning a shape and a colour. You will then see several shapes with different colours. When the correct shape with the correct colour appears, you should press a key on your keyboard and enter information inside the shape.

Advice: This test is relatively easy but just make sure you press the right button. For example if you are a touch typer on a computer, try and refrain from doing this and make sure the button you press is the one you mean to press.

Flight Director + 2 things - Hard

The final test you will sit during your Pilapt assessment will be the toughest. This test assesses your advanced multi-tasking abilities. During this test, you will have to combine your listening skills with visual monitoring skills as well as manual coordination. You will have to keep the vertical and horizontal lines centered, recognise shapes and keep track of numbers.

Advice: This test is not easy and my best advice is to practice as much as you can prior to your assessment day. Remember to focus and try and not let the pressure get to you or the overload of work. Remember to fly the plane first of all (crosshairs). Again, if the 'misses' number starts to increase even though you have been doing well try and not to get flustered and remain calm. They could be testing to see how you react. Once you've completed this test you will have finished Pilapt and yes you will more than likely be feeling exhausted.

5 top tips:

Practice, practice, practice!
Remain calm and focus on the current task.
Take each test as it comes and use all of the practice time allotted.
Take a rest in between each test.
Try and enjoy it. It's just a very important computer game :P

For more information and tips about Pilapt feel free to consult Google or send me a direct message!

*NEW* cut-e online psychometric test

Before your assessment day you will be emailed a link to complete an online psychometric test using cut-e. For my application to the easyJet programme the questionnaire consisted of roughly 50 questions (may be slightly less I can't quite remember the exact figure).

This questionnaire is designed to see how you would behave in certain situations typical to the job as a pilot. You will be presented with several case scenarios and the task is to either choose the response behaviours that you are most and least likely to display, or the responses that you think would be the most and least effective in each scenario.

Unlike situational judgement tests developed by other companies, cut-e refers to its assessment as a 'questionnaire' and not a 'test'. The purpose of this is to avoid the pressure people feel about 'taking a test'. Accordingly, this Situational Judgement Questionnaire (SJQ) has no time limit, however, when I completed mine it recommended to complete it within good time to avoid overthinking the scenarios.

Example type question:

You have 6 points to allocate between three possible scenarios. For example, you can allocate all 6 points to one scenario, 2 to each or any other combination you feel is suitable. You do not need to allocate all 6 points if you do not want to. The more points you allocate to a particular scenario the stronger you agree with the statement.

Which of the following scenarios best describes you?

In the example above I allocated all 6 points between the 3 scenarios shown by the black circles.

Advice: The questionnaire can be tough as you may find it hard to allocate between the three scenarios as in some cases they may all be important for the role as an airline pilot. The key is to answer honestly and go with what first comes to mind, try to not to think about them too much and just go for what you naturally feel best illustrates your behaviour and attributes.

Note: To do not try and cheat the test or lie. If you are found to have lied throughout the test your application will be deleted and you will be barred from reapplying to the programme. Additionally, some scenarios are repeated and just worded slightly different so make sure that you answer honestly as your interview questions may be based on the responses that you give.

Maths Test

The maths test you will sit for your assessment is not hard in that the maths is difficult. What makes it hard is that you are racing against the clock, you will not have a calculator and you will most likely be extremely nervous!

You will have 15 minutes to answer 15 questions. (So that's 1 question every minute... corr i'm good at maths :p). It will include a number of areas such as long multiplication/division, currency conversions, unit conversions, time/speed/distance and ratios/fractions/decimals. If you have not read my Virgin Atlantic MPL blog, then you will not be aware that the first time I attended an assessment I failed the maths test. However, second time around I focused a lot more on preparing for the dreaded test to make sure that I pass. I used BBC Bitesize and other online sites to focus on key areas, like those that I mentioned above. Trust me, the practice does help.

Pass marks: I am unaware of a specific pass mark, however obviously try and get full marks if you can. People who I have spoken to have said different things with regards to the pass mark. Some say that you need to get every question you ANSWER right, within reason. (meaning you could only answer say 10 questions but if you got them all right then you would still pass). Others, including myself believe that there is a 'pass mark'. So for example that could be 80% or 12/15 questions answered correctly.

If anyone has any more information regarding pass marks or is aware of an actual figure then it would be great to hear so I can update this information. However, when sitting the maths test, instead of thinking about a possible pass mark, try your best and try and get full marks!

Virgin Atlantic MPL: For those of you applying to the Virgin Atlantic MPL there is a rumour that the pass mark is 100%. This will act as another way to narrow down the numbers so be aware!

Group Exercise

The group exercise is your chance to show the assessors just who you are and how well you work in team. In this exercise you will normally complete two activities in your group. Although I can not detail the activities that I have been involved in, as long as you have researched your airline, or the airline industry if your not applying to a tagged programme, you will be fine.

The first activity is normally always about the airline or is some form of team building activity, such as crafting a structure using provided materials. Possible first activities may be:

Discuss, as a group, the ways to save fuel in the airline industry.
Using the materials provided, build a tower that can support a pencil for 10 seconds.

The second activity is normally always one which involves a lot more discussion due to the quite wordy, scenario based question that can often relate to morals and individual views. For example the second activity may be something along the lines of.:

Your ship has grounded on a rock 1.5 miles from the shore and is servery damaged, water is gushing in and the ship will be completely submerged in 10 minutes. A storm is fast approaching; shelter, fire and food are essential for your survival. The Captain has managed to send a distress signal but help will not arrive for at least 2 days due to the storm. You and your 4 other crew members have made it on to the life raft that will take you to shore but each crew member can only carry 2 items with them from the ship. As a group discuss and decide which 10 items you will take from the ship using the list below.

I really enjoy working with new people

I have strong leadership skills

Safety is a priority in everything I do

2x 1 Litre bottles of water
2 used bandages
2 wooden oar's
Box of matches
5m sheet of Tarpaulin
10 ration packs
1 flare
First aid kit
Large knife
2 large rucksacks
A flask
Bar of milk chocolate

Radio
50m of fishing nets
1 litre of fuel
2 packs of biscuits
Shampoo & shower gel set
Pack of cards
A compass
1 tent (large enough for 2 people)
Water purification tablets
Map of local islands
6 sets of clothes
Guide to surivial book

For this type of activity it is crucial to take notes, detailing the important information that you need to know. This will help you make decision on what equipment you should take. Using the example above, I would have jotted down the following:

Ship grounded & servery damaged.
10 minutes to make decision.
Storm is approaching.
Priorities - Shelter, fire and food.
Distress signal sent - 2 days until rescue.
Only 10 items can be chosen.

Jotting down the important information will save time during the activity meaning you wont have to keep reading through the quite long winded extract to find the information you need. This will also help you to be able to make impressive additions as you have fully understood the brief and can spend your time looking at the list of items instead of still trying to warp you head around the extract.

When you actually start discussing as a group, use your initiative and make worthy contributions. Use your common sense! Yes, the pack of cards and bar of chocolate would be nice to have, but when you only have 10 items to choose from there are a number of items a lot more important than those. The group exercise is all about your team work, communication & listening skills and leadership potential. So, if you do not agree with someones decision, do not outright disagree, you need to appraise them but offer a better suggestion. For example:

Person: "I think the set of 2 oar's would be a useful item as it would help us to paddle to shore as we are 1.5 miles out... and also we could use them as firewood perhaps to keep warm and cook our food".

You: "I think that's a great idea... but do you think the oars would dry in time for us to use them as firewood? There is a storm coming in too we need to remember".

Something along these lines will look a lot better than just outright disagreeing with someone's views.

Advice: Remain calm and listen to everyone else. Do not interrupt or disagree with anyone and make sure you listen to the brief and jot down any important information. The assessors will be writing down everything you say so make sure you contribute. However, do not be over dominant as this will not go in your favour. Lastly, knowing the steps to making a decision will be extremely useful if you feel like you may struggle with the group exercise.

The steps to making a decision are as follows:

Define the problem to be solved and the decision to be made. (Ship has crashed, need to choose 10 items to take to shore)
Gather the necessary information. (Jot down the important information)
List all the possible choices. (Dismiss the stupid items like the chocolate bar and highlight the important ones)
Consider the possible outcomes for each choice. (Relate to the brief, will it help you survive or just make you happy?)
Check how others feel about each of the choices. (Check with your team to see if they agree with you)
Relate the choices to your values and priorities. (Check your selected items relate to your proprieties of survival)
Commit to one choice. (Or this case 10 as we are choosing 10 items)
Evaluate progress

For some more great top tips check the 'downloads' page for a free PDF on how to pass a group exercise.

The Interview
(No not the film :p)

The interview is probably the most important part of the selection process. It is your chance to shine (gosh that sounds cheesy) and show the assessors what makes you different and why they should offer you a place. It is said that the first minute of any interview is the most important; with first impressions counting. My top tips for a great first impression when meeting your interviewer are as follows:

Smile
Have a strong handshake (but don't pull their arm off)
Look into their eyes (eye contact is proven to build rapport)
Greet them using their name

In most cases the interviewer will come and collect you and take you to the interview room. This leaves a minute or so between greeting to interview room for you to build the rapport even further. Even something as simple as commenting about the weather will initiate a conversation and illustrate to the interviewer that you are a social person.

Once sat down your usually told to make yourself comfortable. So do! If you want to take off your blazer, just ask. If you would like some water, just ask. Personally, I found that having a glass of water at hand can help by acting as a tool to generate a pause. For example, your struggling to think of something to say and fear an awkward silence. Simple, have a sip of water and use it to delay your speech. Obviously do not use this in exaggeration or it will not work in your favour. Another great tip would be if you need some time to think then just say something along the lines of "would it be possible to have moment to think about that please". The interviewers are more than likely going to allow you this time to compose yourself, after all they want you to pass just as much as you do.

Introductory questions

Okay, so on with the actual interview now. The interviewer will start by introducing him/herself and tell you a little bit of information about themselves. Afterwards, they (interviewer) will ask a few introductory questions to warm you up. You can almost predict what these questions will be beforehand which is great, and some good intro question can be found on my 'downloads' page. As you are applying to a FLIGHT school and wanting to become a PILOT, you will most certainly be asked "why do you want to be a pilot" and "why did you choose this flight school". Additionally, if you are applying to an airline tagged scheme you will most likely be asked "why xyz airlines". My best advice to answering these types of questions is to jot down all of your reasons to each of the questions onto a piece of paper and form some form of response prior to your interview. Practising in front of the mirror helps too :p

Competency interview questions

After the introductory questions are done and dusted its time for the competency questions. This is make or break! Competency questions are all about reflection. For example, by remembering that time a you illustrated strong team work skills but there was that one thing you wished you had done differently next time.

The interviewer will ask a number of questions in this kind of format, "tell me a time you have shown..." and will expect you to answer in a clear and concise manner. They will also want to know what you learnt from the experience and what you would do differently next time, they are not looking for perfect people. Typical examples may be:

Tell me a time you have worked well in a team?
Tell me a time you have shown strong leadership skills?
Tell me a time you have been criticised for your work?

From my experience, the interviewer will ask roughly 5-8 competency examples, but make sure you have plenty to choose from!

Once you have finished with these, the interviewer may ask you some admin questions such as "when can you start", "do you have any visible tattoos" or "can you confirm your above xyz in height" for instance. After this, it is your time to ask away. I would say that this is a very important part of your interview as its your last chance to make a good impression. Questions you could ask could be something along the lines of:

In what ways can I progress within the company?
What can I do while i'm waiting to ensure a smooth start?

Both of these are great questions! Number 1 is showing the interviewer that you want to progress and will not happy be with staying in the same position for the rest of your working career. In the airline industry, this would you mean you would be looking to progress and become a Captain for instance, and remember airlines only employ future Captains! The second question is another great question as it telling the interviewer that you are a proactive person and are willing to put the work in before you even start!

Asking a question or two like this will certainly leave a good impression and will make you stand out! Try and adapt your question to the company or flight school and I would avoid asking questions about money or holidays.

You're nearly done! All that's left for you to do is leave with a strong handshake, thank you and a smile and the interview will be over. Now you'll just have to wait to hear back :p

For more information about the selection process there are a large number of websites and blogs online that will provide you with some great advice. Alternatively, feel free to drop me a message and I'll be happy to help.