Civil Service - EO exams

gary the great

Just did the samples

got 14 out of 16 in verbal reasoning
got 7 out of 12 in the maths

Went with C in both the job simulation like most of you.

Anymore of these exmas? Dont think them results will get me high enough up the panel so wnat to practice a bit more

Supercell

Well that was interesting, did anyone find themselves playing spot the boardsie?

I did brutal on the maths, was going going great guns until that question about people watching or participating in sports, the second question kept giving me 25% as the answer no matter what way I tried to work it out ..only problem was that answer wasnt on the list!!!, spent far to long on that and ended up randomly guessing the last 8 or so when the guy called time:(

Madge

Supercell wrote: »

Well that was interesting, did anyone find themselves playing spot the boardsie?

I did brutal on the maths, was going going great guns until that question about people watching or participating in sports, the second question kept giving me 25% as the answer no matter what way I tried to work it out ..only problem was that answer wasnt on the list!!!, spent far to long on that and ended up randomly guessing the last 8 or so when the guy called time:(

Was that the question that has a table based on a survey on peoples' sports activity and there was those who participate in team sports, watch it on T.V. etc? I didn't understand the 2 middle q's on that, thought it was badly phrased.

They don't expect you to get all the numerical reasoning q's completed anyway, you might have done better than you think!

yabadabado

afaik in the job simulation there is no right/wrong answer .if for example 100 people do the test and on a particular question the majority say the answer is A then answer A gets the most marks and the rest of the answers get lower marks ranked by the amount of people that picked them.

yabadabado

Madge wrote: »

They don't expect you to get all the numerical reasoning q's completed anyway, you might have done better than you think!

the numerical reasoning is only used to make a cut of point the other 2 parts are the ones that you get marked on .i think you need to get 12 correct out of the 28 to make the cut.

Supercell

Madge wrote: »

Was that the question that has a table based on a survey on peoples' sports activity and there was those who participate in team sports, watch it on T.V. etc? I didn't understand the 2 middle q's on that, thought it was badly phrased.

They don't expect you to get all the numerical reasoning q's completed anyway, you might have done better than you think!

Yeah thats the one, I had a eureka moment afterwards on that question about 72% dont do any sport so how many do both individual AND watching sport etc..I just didnt like that damn sports one at all!

Hopefully lots of other's didn't either
Also what was with the 20 minute "practice " test at the start?, that was pretty tiring and cruel to have in its own right.

Madge

Supercell wrote: »

Yeah thats the one, I had a eureka moment afterwards on that question about 72% dont do any sport so how many do both individual AND watching sport etc..I just didnt like that damn sports one at all!

Well that means I got 2 wrong as I think I marked cannot tell

Supercell wrote: »

Also what was with the 20 minute "practice " test at the start?, that was pretty tiring and cruel to have in its own right.

That was abominable! I found those q's pretty hard and different to the actual real test, I didn't see the point in them :mad:

Did anyone fill out the nosy survey at the end, asking about your sexual orientation and your religion etc. My friend put bisexual in for the laugh.
They shouldn't be asking questions like that 'tho

cerise

I thought the maths test was V hard & so unlike the numerical tests they ran in the last 2 -3 years which I always passed. The practise tests were so easy in comparison. The job simulation & verbal reasoning test* was tough too ( looks like it will change in the future based on our 25* min trial test). I don't work in CS and looks like I never will as I won't apply to do EO level testsever again.

Supercell

Madge wrote: »

Did anyone fill out the nosy survey at the end, asking about your sexual orientation and your religion etc. My friend put bisexual in for the laugh.
They shouldn't be asking questions like that 'tho

I thought that was a bit odd, yer man going on about being non race, gender, religion etc oriented..but would you mind filling out a survey that, well, asks you what your race, gender, religion etc is!!

TheBigLebowski

yabadabado wrote: »

.i think you need to get 12 correct out of the 28 to make the cut.

Where did hear this? Is it a reliable source. I might have got 12 correct but not much more...

turtleshead

Applied for the jobs as EO(ICT) and done the test and found parts 1 & 2 fairly easy however did anyone think that part 3 would be totally irrelevant for a job in IT. I can understand the relevance if you were going for a Junior Management position but not for an IT job. I read the job familiarisation booklet for the Junior Systems Analyst job in the Dept of Agriculture and found the tests there more relevant.

I just wonder why there isnt 2 seperate competitions....

gary the great

It says on the publicjobs forum that you need a passport sized photo? Or will regular ID suffice?

fletch

On the Test Day Checklist, it says you need "Student ID, passport or driving licence."

passinginterest

Did this yesterday, the girlfriend is doing hers today.

I'm already a CO for the last 18 months so have a fair idea what it's all about.

I was worried about the maths, but, the questions were definitely easier than the samples. Managed to finish all the tests with a good few minutes to spare, the first one in particular, I though I finished about a minute early, then realised I had miscounted and there was about 7 minutes left!

Job simulation is impossible to judge, ambiguous questions, just went with instinct. Tried to pick a middle ground, not too formal, not too confrontational.

On the waiting times they definitely said mid May for results and June for interviews. Then don't be surprised if you're down the list to be waiting 6 months or even a year for an interview.

The practice test was pretty off putting, they're trying out new types of tests, not sure if it's the best place to be testing them.

gary the great

Thought the numberical reasoning was a lot harder than the examples, the pressure and siutation make it harder to think as well.

Overall think i did ok.

A question though, im sure theres thousands of people doing the exams, therefore its likely that a lot of people will get the exact same score. Who gets higher on the panel? Does it then go to the numberical score result?

carveone

gary the great wrote: »

Thought the numberical reasoning was a lot harder than the examples, the pressure and siutation make it harder to think as well.

It's the situation that makes it harder all right. I finished the numerical with 60 seconds to spare; I miscounted the time on the verbal and didn't finish which annoyed the hell out of me. It's a speed reading contest more than anything.
Plus they had incorrect use of apostrophes in the verbal. As in "apostrophe's". Which I took pleasure in pointing out in the feedback form!

Lots of groans in the hall after he called time on the numerical :rolleyes:

Madge wrote:

Did anyone fill out the nosy survey at the end, asking about your sexual orientation and your religion etc. My friend put bisexual in for the laugh.
They shouldn't be asking questions like that 'tho

I agree. They say it's anonymous but they specifically ask for your candidate number which makes it fully trackable. It might also make it illegal. They are not magically exempt from legislation regarding employment interviews.

Conor.

tSubh Dearg

Supercell wrote: »

I thought that was a bit odd, yer man going on about being non race, gender, religion etc oriented..but would you mind filling out a survey that, well, asks you what your race, gender, religion etc is!!

From what I've heard this information goes into a seperate system to that of the results.

When they finally employ people, they put their candidate numbers into the computer to see what kind of demograph they are employing. It's agragate data, not specific to individuals.

EG: they hire 100 people and of that 100, 70 are hetro, 20 are bisexual and 10 are gay, but they won't know who are what.

It's quite a common thingy in NI once a company is over a certain size, to ask about religious background by law, as there was such problems with religious dicrimination. But the people doing the assessing don't see the information, just the general stats.

AlexBM

Hmmm, I did mine this morning, and am pretty unsure about the numerical part. I don't think I prepared enough for it, and I didn't have enough time. They guy beside me was flying through it, although I did think there were a few groans alright. Fingers crossed, anyway.

Anyone else think we could have done with a bit more time on any of the sections? I managed to get one and two done in time, but without much time to spare. There's a lot of reading involved, especially in the job simulation, and I'd like to have had more time. Just to double check them, even briefly.

I filled out the questionnaire yoke at the end, I don't really mind. I thought it was a bit odd, although I can see why they're doing it. I was asked at a job interview a few weeks ago whether or not I was married. I'm pretty sure they're not allowed to ask that, but it's all moot now anyway, as I didn't get the job. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for this one though.

K_P

I did mine Saturday morning and I think it went ok, although it's kinda hard to know. I could very easily have come up with a predictably wrong answer in the numerical section and just cause it was listed as one of the options doesn't make it right.

I had a few minutes to spare with the verbal and job simulation sections but ran out of time for the very last question of the numerical so I scribbled in one of the boxes. There's a one in seven chance I was right!

Results in mid-May is much sooner than I expected. Good luck to everyone here!

funky_monkey

had my aptitute test on friday afternoon. The numerical reasoning was pretty tough although I was glad I had revised fractions,percentages etc because I had forgotten them all. Was sitting beside either a complete genius or a complete nimrod because he had no calculator and was flying through the questions!

Did anyone else think the man reading out the instructions sounded like Fr. Purcell from Father Ted?

Best of luck to everyone!!!

AlexBM

funky_monkey wrote: »

Did anyone else think the man reading out the instructions sounded like Fr. Purcell from Father Ted?

Best of luck to everyone!!!

Ha, now that you mention it, he did, a bit. Good luck to all, and keep us posted here as to how you got on please. I'll stick a message up here once I get my results.

Strawberry 04

Has anyone heard anything yet about the results?

K_P

Heard nothing yet. Who knows what "mid-May" could actually turn out to be!

AlexBM

Nope, not yet. When I got a notification that someone had replied to this thread, I was afraid someone else did though! Anyway, hopefully it'll be within the next week or so. Then the waiting will be over. Kind of.

aguaclara

i thought he said results would be out in early june? or did i dream that? it seems to be a slow process, this whole civil service business.

gary the great

aguaclara wrote: »

i thought he said results would be out in early june? or did i dream that? it seems to be a slow process, this whole civil service business.

Wait till you work in it, then you'll know all about slow.

hawker

gary the great wrote: »

Wait till you work in it, then you'll know all about slow.

I'm sure if you use that line in your interview, you'll be sorted.:D

As far as I can recall they said 'by the end of May'. They didn't say which May though.;)

Supercell

Lol, I'd forgotten all about the results, had already filed it away in my mind to check up on some time in autumn!

Supercell

Just got a whole bunch of emails from publicjobs.ie, I finished in the top ten in a good few counties and top 30 in a couple here's the email:-

Dear Supercell

I am pleased to inform you that you have been successful at the selection tests for the position of Executive Officer in the Civil Service.

Your result for the region(s) you chose is as follows:

Executive Officer - A County : Place X

The Public Appointments Service will shortly commence Stage 2 of the Selection Process. This Stage will consist of a written junior management exercise and a competitive interview which shall be conducted on an on-going basis throughout the lifetime of this competition. The numbers to be invited to Stage 2 will depend on the vacancies arising in each regional location.

We will contact you regarding details of Stage 2 should your place on the Order(s) of Merit be reached.

Candidates will be provided with information, outlining the format of Stage 2 of the selection process, before attending for interview. Instructions on how to prepare for both the interview and the junior management exercise will also be provided.

In line with best practice, this office provides candidates with a feedback report on each of the tests they have taken. This report will give an analysis of your results and will issue in the coming weeks.

Information on our review process may be found on our website: www.publicjobs.ie.

Thank you
EO & Graduate Recruitment Unit

Cadet?

Hey Supercell,

You wouldn't be so kind as to tell me if any of those counties you got placed in was Dublin?!

I only applied for Limerick and Dublin and I've gotten a reply with my placing in Limerick. I'm just wondering if other people have gotten Dublin yet so I work out whether I've made the cut!

Thanks.