NEW 2020 Assistant Principal Officer Competition

Anonire

I wonder if more than one person has the same score do they get the same oom but then the next oom is not +1 it's +however many people got the last oom. If that makes sense.

Goodluck to the Dublin batch 1 can't wait to hear how ye get on. I'm in for a long wait but thats OK. I've my hat in the ring for other comps too.

Irishder

my OOM is 462 and i picked Waterford and Kilkenny. Whats are my chances of being called to stage 2

dee75

Anonire wrote: »

I wonder if more than one person has the same score do they get the same oom but then the next oom is not +1 it's +however many people got the last oom. If that makes sense.

Goodluck to the Dublin batch 1 can't wait to hear how ye get on. I'm in for a long wait but thats OK. I've my hat in the ring for other comps too.

I think you've got it exactly right.

Say the highest score was 140 points and 5 people got exactly that, they all get OOM 1.

Then if the next 10 people got 139 points, they would all have OOM of 6.

The next bunch would have OOM of 16 and so on.

dee75

Irishder wrote: »

my OOM is 462 and i picked Waterford and Kilkenny. Whats are my chances of being called to stage 2

I don't know about Waterford, but I know there have been no vacancies filled in Kilkenny from the 2018 panel (yet...). I.E. no jobs in Kilkenny in 2019 or 2020, unless it was filled from an internal panel.

Awkwardstroke

billyhead wrote: »

Do you think you will get called to the next stage?

No likely, I think...

dee75

granturismo wrote: »

I also scored 117 with an OOM of 729.

Does this mean there could be tens of applicants on each OOM value?

The highest scores (verbal and situational) are likely to have few candidates.

But as the score drops the number of candidates with that score could be quite high.

For example, someone with 128 points posted above that their OOM is 160, and someone with 127 points said their OOM is 203.

From that, we can say that 43 people (203 less 160) got a score of 127 points!!

well_en

I'm delighted, OOM 20 on the interdepartmental and 27 on the open. Does anyone have any tips for video shortlisting or know of any online practice to do?

red1329

Originally Posted by 2not4get View Post
I did the video interview for the AO competition in May, for that interview they gave the 4 questions you would need to answer in advance. They send you the link for the interview and you record each question individually. You get a couple of attempts at answering the question and when happy you press upload. You can then take time before answering the next question but they do advise to answer all questions in one sitting.

Just practise as much as possible with phone once you have prepared your answers so you are comfortable with hearing and pretty much looking at yourself....and it will be ok.

I used my phone to record the interview and had my notes beside me also. It is hard to inject personality into it but guess that is not the point of it.

Best of luck to all moving forward in the competition.






Where the questions for the shortlisting video generic questions on the AP role or specific to your application form? Can you post the questions you were given as an example?

Kanovara

Interdepartmental

Kanovara

Wing Back wrote: »

Hi Kanovara,

Just wondering about your post. Is your OOM position for the Open or Interdepartmental comp?

Interdepartmental

InsideEdge

dee75 wrote: »

The highest scores (verbal and situational) are likely to have few candidates.

But as the score drops the number of candidates with that score could be quite high.

For example, someone with 128 points posted above that their OOM is 160, and someone with 127 points said their OOM is 203.

From that, we can say that 43 people (203 less 160) got a score of 127 points!!

And I got a total of 130 with an OOM also of 130 for Open and OOM of 82 for Interdepartmental...

quad_red

red1329 wrote: »

Originally Posted by 2not4get View Post
I did the video interview for the AO competition in May, for that interview they gave the 4 questions you would need to answer in advance. They send you the link for the interview and you record each question individually. You get a couple of attempts at answering the question and when happy you press upload. You can then take time before answering the next question but they do advise to answer all questions in one sitting.

Just practise as much as possible with phone once you have prepared your answers so you are comfortable with hearing and pretty much looking at yourself....and it will be ok.

I used my phone to record the interview and had my notes beside me also. It is hard to inject personality into it but guess that is not the point of it.

Best of luck to all moving forward in the competition.






Where the questions for the shortlisting video generic questions on the AP role or specific to your application form? Can you post the questions you were given as an example?

Can I ask - how much notice did you have on the questions? Ie. How long was the window between getting the questions and having to record the answers?

2not4get

quad_red wrote: »

Can I ask - how much notice did you have on the questions? Ie. How long was the window between getting the questions and having to record the answers?

Received email with questions and instructions on Friday 15th of May and videos had to be submitted by Monday 25th May @ 1pm. So a good week to prepare and submit.

Kanovara

Wing Back wrote: »

Hi Kanovara,

Just wondering about your post. Is your OOM position for the Open or Interdepartmental comp?

Interdepartmental

Cheeseplant

2not4get wrote: »

Received email with questions and instructions on Friday 15th of May and videos had to be submitted by Monday 25th May @ 1pm. So a good week to prepare and submit.

I think I would need longer than that!
Were the questions based on the competencies on the form? E.g a general example of team leadership or were they more specific?

2not4get

Cheeseplant wrote: »

I think I would need longer than that!
Were the questions based on the competencies on the form? E.g a general example of team leadership or were they more specific?

The questions were directly related to the AO Competencies, not complicated pretty straightforward.

I see in the AP booklet that they have said that online video interview will have 3 set questions. The application form had 3 questions..so hard to know if they will relate them directly back to that.

moneymaid

Has anyone used an interview prep company for previous AO competitions?
Can anyone recommend a company?

Asking for a friend that scored highly.
Thank you

Tr1ckieD1ckie

moneymaid wrote: »

Has anyone used an interview prep company for previous AO competitions?
Can anyone recommend a company?

Asking for a friend that scored highly.
Thank you

I used Carr Communications for a recent PO competition and it certainly helped me. Not cheap but worth the investment

MrsBean

Very surprised to get the stage 2 email today. It gives from Friday 10th to Thursday 16th to complete the video interview.

DFA123

Yeah, just got it as well. Surprisingly quick turnaround.

quad_red

PAS wouldn’t give any timeline for stage 2 yesterday (We have no confirmed dates for stage 2, any information regarding this will be sent to your message board in due course) and today they’re saying stage 2 is tomorrow.

Glad and all that it’s moving quickly but would it kill them to offer people some transparency on timelines?

Ravelleman

MrsBean wrote: »

Very surprised to get the stage 2 email today. It gives from Friday 10th to Thursday 16th to complete the video interview.

That's an unusually short turn-around time by PAS standards. Those of us in the next batch may get the nod fairly soon so.

Addle

quad_red wrote: »

Glad and all that it’s moving quickly but would it kill them to offer people some transparency on timelines?

Applicants are all informed at the same time, as they should be.

Rainbowstar

dee75 wrote: »

You know, I am always worried about numerical as it's my weakest from previous competitions so I concentrated on practising it to the total exclusion of the other two.

And I got 71 in numerical!!! Couldn't believe it. But regretting giving it so much attention now, because I went down on the other two! Ah well, I still passed so I can't really be too upset.

Overall I found numerical significantly easier this time than before. I got all 18 questions done, which I never achieved before. The practice must have done wonders for me.

By way of comparison, here are my scores from stage 1 from 2016, 2018 and 2020.

Verbal - 66 73 59

Numerical - 48 54 71

Sit Judgment - 62 56 54

In 2018, the second batch called was for regional candidates with score of 106 and over, and we were called to Stage 2 about 4.5 months after Stage 1 results.

It looks like there have been some really good results. So fair play to those who have ranked highly and best of luck in stage 2.

71 in numerical!!!! Oh my God well done you that's amazing! Can I ask what practice material did you use? Any of the online test companies?
I'm going to need to scrub up for future campaigns although I am happy I passed. That's all I ever want for numerical!

That's interesting re the SA and VA - I went down on these too and therefore down on the OOM/ score significantly. Although I didn't practice much due to Covid/ kids/ no time etc - I still don't think I usually give them too much time, focus on numerical more too - yet do much better in the SA and VA.
It's so bloody subjective!
Thanks for the info re second batch - hard to think they'll get to 106 and above this time by looking at people's scores.
The very best of luck to you!

dee75

Rainbowstar wrote: »

71 in numerical!!!! Oh my God well done you that's amazing! Can I ask what practice material did you use? Any of the online test companies?
I'm going to need to scrub up for future campaigns although I am happy I passed. That's all I ever want for numerical!

That's interesting re the SA and VA - I went down on these too and therefore down on the OOM/ score significantly. Although I didn't practice much due to Covid/ kids/ no time etc - I still don't think I usually give them too much time, focus on numerical more too - yet do much better in the SA and VA.
It's so bloody subjective!
Thanks for the info re second batch - hard to think they'll get to 106 and above this time by looking at people's scores.
The very best of luck to you!

Thanks Rainbowstar! I signed up for a one month subscription with Jobs Test Prep UK. Like you, between working from home and juggling kids, I had little practice time and figured it was best to concentrate on the numerical!

Rainbowstar

dee75 wrote: »

Thanks Rainbowstar! I signed up for a one month subscription with Jobs Test Prep UK. Like you, between working from home and juggling kids, I had little practice time and figured it was best to concentrate on the numerical!

I had considered signing up but knew I couldn't give it the time this round. Will next time. Will also give VA a better practice too.
Hope you get through this time.

griffid

dee75 wrote: »

You know, I am always worried about numerical as it's my weakest from previous competitions so I concentrated on practising it to the total exclusion of the other two.

And I got 71 in numerical!!! Couldn't believe it. But regretting giving it so much attention now, because I went down on the other two! Ah well, I still passed so I can't really be too upset.

Overall I found numerical significantly easier this time than before. I got all 18 questions done, which I never achieved before. The practice must have done wonders for me.

By way of comparison, here are my scores from stage 1 from 2016, 2018 and 2020.

Verbal - 66 73 59

Numerical - 48 54 71

Sit Judgment - 62 56 54

In 2018, the second batch called was for regional candidates with score of 106 and over, and we were called to Stage 2 about 4.5 months after Stage 1 results.

It looks like there have been some really good results. So fair play to those who have ranked highly and best of luck in stage 2.

Congratulations on your score, you did really well! I’m hoping to be in batch 2 but with some of what’s been said on here, my confidence is dwindling and I’m rating my chances as more likely to be batch 3 or 4 if they go that far. I picked Dublin and a region though so maybe I’ll be high enough on the regional to be called.

This might have been answered already but what was the cut-off for batch 1 in 2018 if batch 2 was 106?

moc101

griffid wrote: »

Congratulations on your score, you did really well! I’m hoping to be in batch 2 but with some of what’s been said on here, my confidence is dwindling and I’m rating my chances as more likely to be batch 3 or 4 if they go that far. I picked Dublin and a region though so maybe I’ll be high enough on the regional to be called.

This might have been answered already but what was the cut-off for batch 1 in 2018 if batch 2 was 106?

Hi I think it was 114

poundhound

Has anyone successful in reaching Stage 2 received their link for the video interview yet?

quad_red

poundhound wrote: »

Has anyone successful in reaching Stage 2 received their link for the video interview yet?

Yeah - you should have gotten it on Friday. The message from PAS said if you hadn’t gotten it by 3pm Friday to contact them.