Clerical Positions in the Civil and Public Service

shalalala

Is it casual or interview attire to the tests?

nukie1978

The_Conductor wrote: »

Any staff member is entitled to apply for special unpaid leave to attend interviews. TCOs are not excluded from applying for special unpaid leave. There is no entitlement to paid leave to attend interviews.

Ahem. There is no entitlement as such to paid leave AFAIK, but as CBGirl correctly mentions, on the PeoplePoint website it "encourages" the granting of special paid leave for tests and interviews for the civil service. I've availed of this paid leave.

Assuming you apply for your leave on Clockwise, when you're selecting the type of leave you pick "Competition Leave" (I think), and your line manager approves it the same way they approve flexi or any other leave which isn't done through PeoplePoint.

So basically, as long as your line manager isn't a complete dick, you'll be able to get the half day paid leave you need to complete the tests. If your line manager is a complete dick, just take a half day annual or flexi leave. But there's no harm looking for competition leave first, and referring your manager to the page on PeoplePoint's website.

Starry12

Occono wrote: »

Thinking back on the personality test, I swear I did put deferring to the Boss as the top priority in the questions.

Can anyone who got a high score out of 160 out of that tell me how they remember answering the questions? I don't want to lose chances because of a test like that again.

I don't think we have to do this part again. In the email from them it says
"As previously outlined in the Information Booklet, Stage 2 will comprise supervised tests, i.e. a Verbal Interpretation test, Numerical Interpretation test and a Checking Information test."
Nothing about the online assessment that was part of stage 1

CBGirl

nukie1978 wrote: »

Ahem. There is no entitlement as such to paid leave AFAIK, but as CBGirl correctly mentions, on the PeoplePoint website it "encourages" the granting of special paid leave for tests and interviews for the civil service. I've availed of this paid leave.

Assuming you apply for your leave on Clockwise, when you're selecting the type of leave you pick "Competition Leave" (I think), and your line manager approves it the same way they approve flexi or any other leave which isn't done through PeoplePoint.

So basically, as long as your line manager isn't a complete dick, you'll be able to get the half day paid leave you need to complete the tests. If your line manager is a complete dick, just take a half day annual or flexi leave. But there's no harm looking for competition leave first, and referring your manager to the page on PeoplePoint's website.

I've been given paid leave also.

The_Conductor

Nikki2302 wrote: »

I don't think we have to do this part again. In the email from them it says
"As previously outlined in the Information Booklet, Stage 2 will comprise supervised tests, i.e. a Verbal Interpretation test, Numerical Interpretation test and a Checking Information test."
Nothing about the online assessment that was part of stage 1

For the HEO- after you completed the computer based tests in the computer room in the Public Appointment Service- they had a hall laid out which seated about a hundred- and you did a role competency based written paper (it was like a paper based version of the online exam- only specifically tailored for the Irish civil service). Don't know if they're planning something similar for the CO exams- but it is what they have been doing (most recently in April)

Occono

Nikki2302 wrote: »

I don't think we have to do this part again. In the email from them it says
"As previously outlined in the Information Booklet, Stage 2 will comprise supervised tests, i.e. a Verbal Interpretation test, Numerical Interpretation test and a Checking Information test."
Nothing about the online assessment that was part of stage 1

I was asking for future job opportunities, actually. There's no hope of me getting this now.

Starry12

Occono wrote: »

I was asking for future job opportunities, actually. There's no hope of me getting this now.

Oh, didn't realise. Sorry!

Thinkingaboutit

sickle wrote: »

Friday 12th at 8.45, nice early start for me so!:D

ditto

Does anyone know of any place that has good examples for error or clerical checking? I'm frankly surprised I got a good score in that. I really need practice on it. There are the Saville tests and the Public Jobs examples. Most psychometric test books have little or nothing on that test.

butterly.john

Did anyone do the supervised test yet ?.

paddycakes

Just reading the FAQs there again...so they're whittled the numbers down from 28,500 to 11,000 who passed stage one...my 53rd placing in Cork now seems so irrelevent cos there are still so many people in the mix up!

crsmith

I feel similarly. It's just a waiting game for now, really! It will be interesting to see how this plays out in the next few months. It would be nice to know when/if other regions are reaching stage 2.

butterly.john

paddycakes wrote: »

Just reading the FAQs there again...so they're whittled the numbers down from 28,500 to 11,000 who passed stage one...my 53rd placing in Cork now seems so irrelevent cos there are still so many people in the mix up!

I'm not sure where you are getting the 11000 people, I passed in Dublin and wasplaced 330th, they said somthing like 7-800 would be called for the supervised tests,

paddycakes

butterly.john wrote: »

I'm not sure where you are getting the 11000 people, I passed in Dublin and wasplaced 330th, they said somthing like 7-800 would be called for the supervised tests,

From the FAQs

Q. How many people passed the Stage 1 tests?

Stage 1 of the selection process comprised Part A (Assessment Questionnaire) and Part B (online aptitude tests). Candidates were required to reach the qualifying standard on each of these elements to pass Stage 1. Over 11,500 candidates reached the qualifying standard at Stage 1

butterly.john

paddycakes wrote: »

From the FAQs

Q. How many people passed the Stage 1 tests?

Stage 1 of the selection process comprised Part A (Assessment Questionnaire) and Part B (online aptitude tests). Candidates were required to reach the qualifying standard on each of these elements to pass Stage 1. Over 11,500 candidates reached the qualifying standard at Stage 1

Yes but only a small number of those are getting called for stage 3, the qualifying standard doesn't really mean anything at all, not sure what part of the country you are in but stage 3 has started in Dublin with only the top 7-800 called for stage 3

doc11

paddycakes wrote: »

Just reading the FAQs there again...so they're whittled the numbers down from 28,500 to 11,000 who passed stage one...my 53rd placing in Cork now seems so irrelevent cos there are still so many people in the mix up!

Funny from reading boards you'd never get the impression that over half failed the aptitude tests. Most here seem to be in the top 5%.

eroc79

paddycakes wrote: »

Just reading the FAQs there again...so they're whittled the numbers down from 28,500 to 11,000 who passed stage one...my 53rd placing in Cork now seems so irrelevent cos there are still so many people in the mix up!

That's the pass for the whole country. There's probably only a few hundred in the cork region you have to worry about. I'm one of them.

paddycakes

eroc79 wrote: »

That's the pass for the whole country. There's probably only a few hundred in the cork region you have to worry about. I'm one of them.

I'd love to know how many applied for each region!

Starry12

11,000 passed stage 1 but not that many have been invited to stage 2. The pass mark at stage one was relatively low compared to the points achieved by the top scorers. Hence only 887 being called in Dublin.
I'm sure it will be the same everywhere else too, so that'll mean that the stage 1 tests have whittled it down from 28,500 to probably about 2000 in one go

Meathlass

Have to say I find it fairly shocking that 17,500 people failed the Stage 1 tests.

Starry12

I'd say a lot of that number didn't sit the test

Meathlass

Nikki2302 wrote: »

I'd say a lot of that number didn't sit the test

Yes, hadn't thought of that. I'm hoping a similar % won't turn up for the supervised tests in Dublin

ems_mol

Has anyone done stage 2 yet im in on Thursday!! It would be great to have a heads up on what to expect. What do you wear to this?

Meathlass

ems_mol wrote: »

Has anyone done stage 2 yet im in on Thursday!! It would be great to have a heads up on what to expect. What do you wear to this?

I'm on Thursday too at 11am. I'm going to wear comfortable clothes - probably black trousers and layered tops as we'll be sitting for a long time and could get too hot/cold. I'm not dressing as if for an interview. I've done these supervised tests before for another public jobs campaign and everyone dressed casual for this stage. Perhaps someone could advise if I'm wrong?

Beginner to this

Wish I had found this forum weeks ago. Like most people on here spent ages checking e-mails and messages for a response. Applied for the Limerick/Tipp area and got my reply on the 29th of Aug, came 44th. Still haven't heard about a stage 2, just got the same clincal reply of "should your place be reached.

Would love to know when others in this area start to hear back or anywhere outside Dublin really.

eroc79

Beginner to this wrote: »

Wish I had found this forum weeks ago. Like most people on here spent ages checking e-mails and messages for a response. Applied for the Limerick/Tipp area and got my reply on the 29th of Aug, came 44th. Still haven't heard about a stage 2, just got the same clincal reply of "should your place be reached.

Would love to know when others in this area start to hear back or anywhere outside Dublin really.

Limerick/Tipp is one of my regions too. Think we'll be waiting a bit yet.

butterly.john

I'm in Dublin on Thursday morning, has anyone done the test yet or is Thursday the start of it in Dublin ?.

ems_mol

So far I haven't hear of anyone having theirs before Thursday I got 57 for dublin and im in at 1:15 in the afternoon I wonder are they calling people by their placement in stage 1!!

butterly.john

ems_mol wrote: »

So far I haven't hear of anyone having theirs before Thursday I got 57 for dublin and im in at 1:15 in the afternoon I wonder are they calling people by their placement in stage 1!!

I don't think there is an order to it as I was 330 something and I am in for 11 am.

The_Conductor

Meathlass wrote: »

Have to say I find it fairly shocking that 17,500 people failed the Stage 1 tests.

Not really- its pretty standard for at least 2/3 of candidates to fail the first stage (depends on how many candidates there are and how many they hope to bring through to the second stage).

The pass mark is set in such a way that they end up with their desired number of candidates in stage 2- and is not a reflection on the abilities of the candidates, other than those who didn't make it through scored more lowly than those who did.

They do not have the facilities and the capacity to bring everyone through to Stage 2- so they eliminate ruthlessly.

It is unfair- and they will loose perfectly good people through the blunt exercise that the process entails- but there isn't any ideal tool they can use- they are always going to have to come up with some manner of narrowing the field down- and this is just the route they have chosen.

The person who got no. 1 in the test- could still flunk the interview (it has happened before, and it most certainly will happen again).

Meathlass

butterly.john wrote: »

I don't think there is an order to it as I was 330 something and I am in for 11 am.

I'm in at 11am too. I'll be the one in the corner eyeing up the competition!! Good luck