2020 Executive Officer Civil Service

MuchZeus

just finished mine there. i think it was unnecessarily tedious. having sat the hpat before, some of those questions (particularly numerical) felt akin to those i encountered when doing hpat.

i don’t feel too great now after it tbh. time will tell how we do...

job seeker

I was as well to be shoveling daylight into a dark corner with them tests...

Jassgal

I completed mine on Saturday I found the verbal ok but the numerical difficult, I took about an hour to complete the full test even though it said it should take 40mins, just wondering how long it took some of you lot to complete it as I'm starting to worry I may have been too slow

Dublintigger

Jassgal wrote: »

I completed mine on Saturday I found the verbal ok but the numerical difficult, I took about an hour to complete the full test even though it said it should take 40mins, just wondering how long it took some of you lot to complete it as I'm starting to worry I may have been too slow

Hi - i took me about 10-15 for the verbal and about 30 for numerical......

Furious-Red

Meant to do mine yesterday but was too busy so gonna do it today. Cant wait to finally get it done so i can relax even though these tests are not my strong point.

Tiafleur

Dublintigger wrote: »

Hi - i took me about 10-15 for the verbal and about 30 for numerical......

Mine took pretty much the same. I found the last 3 questions in numerical extremely tough!

newbraces

Verbal took me 10 mins and the numerical took me 30mins

RandomUser17

Found it way harder than previous competitions!

divine13

Just finished the test. Found that it was very very slow trying to connect to the site and it crashed on me when I was trying to answer questions about myself but I got back in quickly. Luckily this was before I started the actual tests themselves.

Verbal was ambiguous but that's usual and took about 15 minutes. Numerical was slow and took me about 30 mins as otherwise you would be just guessing though the last few questions I did guess. Numerical is mainly data interpretation from graphs, spreadsheets. You'd need a calculator and rough paper to work things out.

At the beginning I had to show my passport and scan the room and between each test, the camera came on and recorded that it was me and at the end as well so basically 3 times in total.

Username265

Colleague of mine took the test yesterday and said it was way worse than any other civil service or other aptitude test she's ever done. She's a serving EO from last year's comp and she's hoping for a move.

She said verbal was a lot more vague than usual where a lot of the time one of the choices is heavily implied but they probably want you to pick cannot say instead. Said if you could explain why you were picking your answers then you could realistically make a solid case for 2 of the choices in some of the questions.

Numerical was horrible (she has a background in statistics). Said graphs were horribly laid out with a lot of the points on the graph being between the lines so you have to approximate what number it actually represents but its not entirely clear if the spacing is even consistent. Said guessing those numbers then threw off her avergages etc when calculating so she had to redo them. Genuinely couldnt figure out one of the questions with all four choices a good bit off from hers even with rounding up. Thinks the questions started off easy but seem to be harder from then on even though she believes she got a few wrong.

So seems most people are having a bad time with it. Might be a case where the required scores to pass get lowered. She had a bad time with it too so if you feel bad about your own performance you might not have actually done too bad.

boyinterrupted

Just did it there a moment ago. I agree that the verbal was quite ambigious and the numerical was a lot tougher than I thought it would be. I had been doing practise numerical tests for the last 2 weeks online and was doing fine but that numerical test knocked me sideways. Not feeling good about it at all.

I'm currently a CO in the civil service & have worked very hard the last 3 years and have gotten really posotive feedback from management about my performance. I just think it's a shame that I have to do a test to prove my worth even when my colleagues & managment have said I have been doing EO level work since I started. If I fail it's like saying "all that work you've done for the last 3 years means nothing because you didn't pass a test" >_<

tom_thumbs84

Does anyone know if you are allowed to use your phone as a calculator?
I know you are meant to have your phone off, but yet also you are allowed to take the test(s) on your phone....

It's either my phone or an abacus unless I run out to the pound shop to get a calculator!
Based on the posts above, and being a functioning innumerate, I probably would be just as well off with my fingers for as good as the calculator will do me....

newbie18892

tom_thumbs84 wrote: »

Does anyone know if you are allowed to use your phone as a calculator?
I know you are meant to have your phone off, but yet also you are allowed to take the test(s) on your phone....

It's either my phone or an abacus unless I run out to the pound shop to get a calculator!
Based on the posts above, and being a functioning innumerate, I probably would be just as well off with my fingers for as good as the calculator will do me....

You're not allowed to use your phone. No electronic devices besides the one you're taking the test on.

lolo3103

boyinterrupted wrote: »

Just did it there a moment ago. I agree that the verbal was quite ambigious and the numerical was a lot tougher than I thought it would be. I had been doing practise numerical tests for the last 2 weeks online and was doing fine but that numerical test knocked me sideways. Not feeling good about it at all.

I'm currently a CO in the civil service & have worked very hard the last 3 years and have gotten really posotive feedback from management about my performance. I just think it's a shame that I have to do a test to prove my worth even when my colleagues & managment have said I have been doing EO level work since I started. If I fail it's like saying "all that work you've done for the last 3 years means nothing because you didn't pass a test" >_<

Totally agree! I’m 5 years as a CO, I’ve worked above my grade, have been told by management I’m well able for EO etc but I can just never get over the end line with these assessments. Maths has never been my strong point and I just find the whole timer business ridiculous, so unrealistic, at least the e-tray somewhat makes sense. They really need to start looking at a persons experience and management references. I’ve seen too many college graduates come in as EO’s and never working a day in their life and they can’t even pick up a telephone but they sail through these assessments because they’ve just come from a classroom/test environment so it’s a breeze for a lot of them. I don’t begrudge new graduates at all but it seems that an awful lot of clerical officers get looked over because they don’t have a degree and don’t perform well in a testing environment but they could perform their EO role with their eyes closed! Rant over

Madelyn

lolo3103 wrote: »

Totally agree! I’m 5 years as a CO, I’ve worked above my grade, have been told by management I’m well able for EO etc but I can just never get over the end line with these assessments. Maths has never been my strong point and I just find the whole timer business ridiculous, so unrealistic, at least the e-tray somewhat makes sense. They really need to start looking at a persons experience and management references. I’ve seen too many college graduates come in as EO’s and never working a day in their life and they can’t even pick up a telephone but they sail through these assessments because they’ve just come from a classroom/test environment so it’s a breeze for a lot of them. I don’t begrudge new graduates at all but it seems that an awful lot of clerical officers get looked over because they don’t have a degree and don’t perform well in a testing environment but they could perform their EO role with their eyes closed! Rant over

Totally agree with you.. The civil /public service want graduates and are making it harder for other people to pass the tests to get to interview.

It is the same with interviews some people can talk and talk and say nothing!! Often the best people fail because of nerves, no matter how hard you practice one question can throw the whole interview.

loose2020

Hi all,
I am away from home. Realised I haven't got Id with me, however have a scan of my passport. Sent an email to both customersupportsova and Largevolumerecruitment5publicjobs explaining situation. Auto response from the sovas one, none from the PAS one. Do people reckon they will accept a scan instead of me holding up ID? I only realised and sent email today.
Worried

AvaSatiVaLomu

Hiya, quick question for those who've already taken the test. In the Verbal section, as in the practice examples, are there 15 separate passages with 3/4 questions to answer?

I've done a fair few practice questions and I find reading and responding accurately to multiple questions inside a minute for each to be extremely difficult.

It occurs to me that it's possible that the actual test might only have 5 or so textual passages with 15 questions to respond to overall. That would be way less hectic but maybe the point is that it's supposed to push you extremely hard.

Birneybau

lolo3103 wrote: »

Totally agree! I’m 5 years as a CO, I’ve worked above my grade, have been told by management I’m well able for EO etc but I can just never get over the end line with these assessments. Maths has never been my strong point and I just find the whole timer business ridiculous, so unrealistic, at least the e-tray somewhat makes sense. They really need to start looking at a persons experience and management references. I’ve seen too many college graduates come in as EO’s and never working a day in their life and they can’t even pick up a telephone but they sail through these assessments because they’ve just come from a classroom/test environment so it’s a breeze for a lot of them. I don’t begrudge new graduates at all but it seems that an awful lot of clerical officers get looked over because they don’t have a degree and don’t perform well in a testing environment but they could perform their EO role with their eyes closed! Rant over

13 years myself and know the work inside out. Got a few interviews but to no avail.

BuzzMcdonnell

Planning on completing the test tonight myself. I’m only 21 and I’m currently completing a degree in business so I’ll see where this takes me if anywhere.

Madelyn

BuzzMcdonnell wrote: »

Planning on completing the test tonight myself. I’m only 21 and I’m currently completing a degree in business so I’ll see where this takes me if anywhere.

It will be interesting to see what you make of the numerical.

November Golf

loose2020 wrote: »

Hi all,
I am away from home. Realised I haven't got Id with me, however have a scan of my passport. Sent an email to both customersupportsova and Largevolumerecruitment5publicjobs explaining situation. Auto response from the sovas one, none from the PAS one. Do people reckon they will accept a scan instead of me holding up ID? I only realised and sent email today.
Worried

The purpose of the photo ID is to confirm on the video that its you sitting at the computer.

Given the deadline is tomorrow, I'd go with holding up the photocopy of your ID and get the tests done! if they say No afterward there is nothing you can do about it.

BuzzMcdonnell

Madelyn wrote: »

It will be interesting to see what you make of the numerical.

I’ll let you know once I have it done.

Aceandstuff

I just got through the assessments today. There were some mad questions altogether, but *most* of my calculations matched one of the answers in the numerical assessment. I found the wording more ambiguous in the numerical than in the verbal assessment, that was my only issue.

Now I have to clean my makeup off and stop jittering, that's the hard part...


*resumes jittering*

Rikand

Did it this morning.. hardest civil service exams I've ever done.

Oh well. Next year

job seeker

BuzzMcdonnell wrote: »

Planning on completing the test tonight myself. I’m only 21 and I’m currently completing a degree in business so I’ll see where this takes me if anywhere.

It's good to be applying for other things too, to have options!

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

Just sat it there myself and have to agree about the numerical one, I found it much harder than any I've sat before. I studied maths up until second year in college, so I'd be fairly confident with numbers. I think I probably still did okay but it took me about 35 minutes and some of them my brain was just overthinking and I couldn't get anything near the possible answers for ages.

newbie18892

I'm a recent graduate myself but studying history gave me no advantage with the numerical lol. Verbal yeah maybe. Fingers crossed I got enough to get through to interviews. Will be happy just to get my foot in the door in the civil service. I've never done any of these campaigns before this year.

Madelyn

newbie18892 wrote: »

I'm a recent graduate myself but studying history gave me no advantage with the numerical lol. Verbal yeah maybe. Fingers crossed I got enough to get through to interviews. Will be happy just to get my foot in the door in the civil service. I've never done any of these campaigns before this year.

The Etray is next on the agenda. Start practicing now. That is another head wreck.

Connacht15

Surely, if the numerical test is next to impossible, other factors have to be taken into account in forming a panel!

Connacht15

Madelyn wrote: »

The Etray is next on the agenda. Start practicing now. That is another head wreck.

How can you practice for that?