Administrative Officer 2015 open competition

Halpenny

Why would there be an ABORT button for these tests? In the Information Booklet they warn against using it then within a few sentences it states you must press it in another situation. The same word but with wildly contrasting outcomes depending on when you press it!

"Do not click ‘Abort’ during the test as this will end your test session."

"you must select the ‘Abort’ button on your screen – failure to do so will lock you out of the system."

Good thing it's not a shiny red button ...

minalaury

Can anyone tell me if it's possible to complete each of the three tests in separate sessions?

Armaghmagic

Is there a point having a calculator for the numerical tests? As in will there be time to use it or is it possible to guess them?

Halpenny

minalaury wrote: »

Can anyone tell me if it's possible to complete each of the three tests in separate sessions?

Yes you can complete the Questionnaire completely separate and then when you login into Saville for Numeric and Verbal tests you can do one now for example and the other tomorrow. Good luck!

The_Conductor

Armaghmagic wrote: »

Is there a point having a calculator for the numerical tests? As in will there be time to use it or is it possible to guess them?

Honestly- if you start using a calculator- you're going to get screwed for time. By all means do a little elementary calculations- however, if you sit down to work things out- you're going to be in trouble.

Normally- touching the surface of the question with a simple calculation- even in your head- will get you a sufficiently close ball-park answer that you can correlate with the choice of answers available to you.

Personally I found the numeracy easier than the verbal- even timewise- I found myself guessing on the verbal a hell of a lot more than on the numerical.

Sisyphus Mark II

The_Conductor wrote: »

Honestly- if you start using a calculator- you're going to get screwed for time. By all means do a little elementary calculations- however, if you sit down to work things out- you're going to be in trouble.

Normally- touching the surface of the question with a simple calculation- even in your head- will get you a sufficiently close ball-park answer that you can correlate with the choice of answers available to you.

Personally I found the numeracy easier than the verbal- even timewise- I found myself guessing on the verbal a hell of a lot more than on the numerical.

I think you'd be nuts to attempt it without a calculator, unless you're amazing at working things out in your head. People are just conditioned into using a calculator these days from years in the educational system.

The_Conductor

Sisyphus Mark II wrote: »

I think you'd be nuts to attempt it without a calculator, unless you're amazing at working things out in your head. People are just conditioned into using a calculator these days from years in the educational system.

Different people have different aptitudes- what I was suggesting is do elemental calculations- to get you a ballpark answer- don't sit down and try to work out the answer- just get a ballpark answer- and run with it.

octo

Armaghmagic wrote: »

Is there a point having a calculator for the numerical tests? As in will there be time to use it or is it possible to guess them?

I just did it and I used a calculator - there were a lot of questions I couldn't have done without it. But maybe others are really good at mental arithmetic.

DoctorDre

Couldn't see any of the graphs in the numerical test. Had to guess blindly. That's me out!

noodler

Bring and use a calculator.

I was successful in this twice and did both times.

Sometimes, judging by the different choices of answer, you won't need to do the final calculations as you can tell the ballpark figure 75% of the way through the answer.

However, not bringing and using a calculator would be suicide in my opinion.

You need to get a good amount correct. You don't need to do them all.

Slydice

I always have a calculator.

Always!

The_Conductor

40 Minutes- for the 3rd section?
It took me well over an hour- 40 minutes, as a suggestion, was so far out.
Also- it crashed twice while doing it- but allowed me to go back and it had kept my answers- because I hadn't submitted them...........

If they want to do a psychometric profile- and are going to this extent- they may as well go whole hog and do a proper profile........ Its far more detailed than any recent ones I've done for PAS.

Piglet85

The_Conductor wrote: »

40 Minutes- for the 3rd section?
It took me well over an hour- 40 minutes, as a suggestion, was so far out.

God, I was going to say the opposite! I spent between 20-25 mins on it. I didn't feel there was much point in thinking about any of it for long, thought it best to go with my gut instead. I might regret that...

octo

DoctorDre wrote: »

Couldn't see any of the graphs in the numerical test. Had to guess blindly. That's me out!

No way! Why was that? Maybe your flash wasn't up to date or something. Could you see the graphs on the examples?

LostArt

The_Conductor wrote: »

Personally I found the numeracy easier than the verbal- even timewise- I found myself guessing on the verbal a hell of a lot more than on the numerical.

Agree, there was quite a bit of thinking required in the verbal.

An Ri rua

Just for anyone wondering about system requirements, I use Linux (Ubuntu) and the testing worked for me on Chromium. Not on Midori strangely, which I usually have to use for Youtube these days.

I, too, found I needed a calculator occasionally. One or two of the scenarios were rea time-drainers. Guessing would be impossible. As another poster said, accuracy over quantity could be key.

On the 3rd part, I took the advice of PAS and went fairly quickly through it. The 10 scenarios were close, if not not 100% identical, to last year's AO test.

Best wishes to everyone.

Sisyphus Mark II

I think that a few of the questions need to be skipped in numerical, and it is vital to get it completed.

Armaghmagic

Whatever the result well done for all who did it. I thought it was a lot less pressurised than the Garda ones last year.

When should we expect to hear our results?

Sisyphus Mark II

Just did the numerical reasoning test there, ran out of time on three questions, guessed at least four, thought it was tough. Was particularly sickened as I knew the answer to one question just ran out of time before I clicked it.

Did the verbal there, was a lot more difficult than other ones I had done, think I had the wrong approach, was reading the questions before the passage.

Doubt I'll get this to be honest, will concentrate on the EO audit and compliance competition. Fair play anyone who found them easy.

An Ri rua

Sisyphus Mark II wrote: »

Just did the numerical reasoning test there, ran out of time on three questions, guessed at least four, thought it was tough. Was particularly sickened as I knew the answer to one question just ran out of time before I clicked it.

Did the verbal there, was a lot more difficult than other ones I had done, think I had the wrong approach, was reading the questions before the passage.

Doubt I'll get this to be honest, will concentrate on the EO audit and compliance competition. Fair play anyone who found them easy.

Best of luck with both competitions. In fairness to you, I always scan questions firstly and believe it to be the superior way. Your brain is already hunting for answers/keywords as you then scan the piece(s). Its what all speed-readers would do.

Jessibelle

I had issues with the graphs in the second half of the numerical test, I took a screen grab of each testlet it happened with and emailed them immediately after the test completion. It means essentially I'm down ten questions (2 full testlets and 2 questions mid question 3), so hopefully they can reset it and allow me to redo. I checked all my computer specs before hand and had everything closed as requested so it wasn't (that I can see) anything on this end. Bit annoyed to be honest but sure we'll see what saville say when they get back. The verbal went off without a hitch.

fiachr_a

Some easy and some tough ones in both verbal and maths. Not as demanding/exhausting as expected though.

DoctorDre

Jessibelle wrote: »

I had issues with the graphs in the second half of the numerical test, I took a screen grab of each testlet it happened with and emailed them immediately after the test completion. It means essentially I'm down ten questions (2 full testlets and 2 questions mid question 3), so hopefully they can reset it and allow me to redo. I checked all my computer specs before hand and had everything closed as requested so it wasn't (that I can see) anything on this end. Bit annoyed to be honest but sure we'll see what saville say when they get back. The verbal went off without a hitch.

Exact same happened to me. They've re-set it but I've not tried it again yet.

Jessibelle

D'ya mind me asking if you still have to have it completed by 12 tomorrow? I'm in work from 8, which means it'll be impossible to do before 4 (firewalls in work mean we can't access a lot of external sites).

DoctorDre

Jessibelle wrote: »

D'ya mind me asking if you still have to have it completed by 12 tomorrow? I'm in work from 8, which means it'll be impossible to do before 4 (firewalls in work mean we can't access a lot of external sites).

There was nothing said about extending my time so I assume it stays the same. Hope you can get it sorted, best of luck.

Jessibelle

DoctorDre wrote: »

There was nothing said about extending my time so I assume it stays the same. Hope you can get it sorted, best of luck.

Thanks! Pas emailed me back about ten minutes after I emailed them and reset it. Just finished it there, felt it was a little more difficult than the previous one, but I suspect that was just nerves . credit where it's due, they got it sorted asap! Delighted it's done now, all that's left is the wait.....:eek:

keepkeyyellow

Have we been ask what area we want to be placed in during this application? I don't seem to remember...

heathledgerlove

Found the verbal grand, no problem at all, but the numerical left me gibbering... they might even out! As to the Assessment, sure just put down 'Very Confident' or w/e it was for everything!

ColcloughP

Sisyphus Mark II wrote: »

Did the verbal there, was a lot more difficult than other ones I had done, think I had the wrong approach, was reading the questions before the passage.

I did the opposite and had problems. I was so flustered that I kept on rereading the text and completely glossing over the relevant parts again and again. I would read a paragraph and realise that I hadn't a clue what it said because the whole time I was distracted by how ****ed I was.

I ended up using ctrl+f to find key words from the questions in the texts. It worked sometimes, especially for the "which one of these wasn't mentioned in the text", but other times it didn't work. I also kept on making typos in the search bar and lost a lot of time trying to retype them. I had to guess at least one of the 4 from each segment and even with the 2 or 3 I was able to answer, I wasn't able give a confident answer. I'm positive that some of them were wrong but if I had just another 10 seconds per question I could have made sure.

Overall, it was just too quick. None of the other 30 or so online tests gave such a small amount of time. I was routinely getting in the top 10% of those because I given about a minute for each question. I knew it'd be fast from the examples but the examples were all so easy that I was hoping that they'd be prioritising speed over difficulty in the real test.

Luckily the numerical test was grand, practice did me well there. Still won't be enough though I reckon .

Best of luck to everyone else.

Elliot192

Ah lads! That was a disaster. Messed up on the numerical big time. Any idea when we'll get the results?