2020 Executive Officer Civil Service

Birneybau

Eod100 wrote: »

Reckon with having to do that this will be the virtual and supervised one that used be in PAS so with covid?

Yeah

shaka

Oh my sweet baby jebus .

Verbal was fine . Maths was difficult

Flying Spaghetti Monster

Is it just me or was there loads of 'Cannot say' answers on the verbal? I seriously answered about 3 or 4 in a row of cannot say.

Numerical was definitely hard to say the least. One or two of the questions were ludicrous and would have taken a solid 5 minutes each to calculate properly despite the test saying you should aim to have everything done in 15 min! I went ten minutes overboard. I think I couldn't afford anymore time because they are probably docking you per minute you spent over 15.

Not feeling horrible about my performance tbh

Birneybau

MFPM wrote: »

I was thinking the same thing.

Still exams. I missed numerical by 3 points in the last few months.

job seeker

Eod100 wrote: »

Reckon with having to do that this will be the virtual and supervised one that used be in PAS so with covid?

Yeah, so this 1b is essentially stage 2 in PAS in old money..

EDIT:Birney beat me too it..

Mikefitzs

blank paper, calculator, and pens maybe used so please ensure they are also to hand
for the assessment should you require them;

Eod100

Birneybau wrote: »

Still exams. I missed numerical by 3 points in the last few months.

Is it still same process for PAS for internal promotion then? How does anyone apply internally then, do they get a special link to apply or something?

Mikefitzs

newbie18892 wrote: »

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

blank paper, calculator, and pens maybe used so please ensure they are also to hand
for the assessment should you require them;

Aleece2020

I'd like to think that, given the consensus seems to be that the numerical test was very difficult, they will lower the number of correct answers you need to pass the exam. If the majority are struggling with it and the overall grades are lower than last time, it's very likely they will have to adjust to keep an acceptable pool of candidates.

Birneybau

Eod100 wrote: »

Is it still same process for PAS for internal promotion then? How does anyone apply internally then, do they get a special link to apply or something?

Not PAS. For me, it was ran by my Dept. The assessments, through AON, were a pain as well.

MFPM

Birneybau wrote: »

Still exams. I missed numerical by 3 points in the last few months.

Aren't there internal competitions for CO to EO without exams? Pretty sure there are though perhaps it's department specific?

Edit: Jobseeker, am I wrong?

Birneybau

MFPM wrote: »

Aren't there internal competitions for CO to EO without exams? Pretty sure there are though perhaps it's department specific?

Edit: Jobseeker, am I wrong?

Not in Justice, for at least 11 years, in my experience. I've been there 14 years...

Why you asking Jobseeker when I'm telling you my experience?

MFPM

Birneybau wrote: »

Not in Justice, for at least 11 years, in my experience. I've been there 14 years...

Ah, I see you're being specific to one department, there are promotional opportunities without exam in many departments, clearly Justice is not one of them. That's a tough situation, given your experience.

job seeker

MFPM wrote: »

Aren't there internal competitions for CO to EO without exams? Pretty sure there are though perhaps it's department specific?

Edit: Jobseeker, am I wrong?

Internally, I am not sure. I'm not working in the Civil Service.

MFPM

Birneybau wrote: »

Not in Justice, for at least 11 years, in my experience. I've been there 14 years...

Why you asking Jobseeker when I'm telling you my experience?

I was asking Jobseeker because they followed up your post, I'm not doubting your experience, I was just confused as there are non exam promotions in many departments.

Augme

For internal EO comps big departments with lots of COs will have tests to eliminate numbers, smaller departments will just have an interview, possibly shortlisting.

Just finished it there and I agree with others in saying that the maths was hard enough. Even though there is no timer counting down they are still timing how quickly you answer each question. I found the questions got tougher as I progressed. Hard to know how to feel about it all to be honest.

Alonso77

Those maths questions were bizarre to be honest. The wording of the questions barely made sense let alone the layout of the graphs.

I dunno what they were playing at this time around but that was just .... daft

Samsgirl

Glad it's over now but am confident that I'm out at this stage. Numerical very hard. Didn't find the verbal too easy either.

yenom

I'm out over the maths. Best of luck to everyone.

Birneybau

MFPM wrote: »

Aren't there internal competitions for CO to EO without exams? Pretty sure there are though perhaps it's department specific?

Edit: Jobseeker, am I wrong?

I didn't mean to be aggro in my response. In my opinion, before they made people go through exams, they were nearly handed out like cereal box toys to COs that had been part of the furniture for years. Some are still around...and bafflingly woeful!

MFPM

Birneybau wrote: »

I didn't mean to be aggro in my response. In my opinion, before they made people go through exams, they were nearly handed out like cereal box toys to COs that had been part of the furniture for years. Some are still around...and bafflingly woeful!

I'm 100% sympathetic to you and I agree that the process in your dept. is wrong, I assumed there were non exam competitions in all depts.

Green farmer

Have we any idea of the volume of people that have applied for the competition this time around or statistically what percentage of people end up with job offers in the end ?

Nekarsulm

Just finished it. Hard to know with the situational questions, but the first half dozen maths ones were tough, or perhaps my head doesn't work the same way the question setters does..
Probably got the first couple of sets wrong, as I started to get easier ones.....
A set of questions on car insurance costs, and on real estate costs were better.
I even came up with answers that were on the list of choices...

Jovetic

That was tough. Answered cannot say to a lot of verbal. Will no doubt fail the personality test anyway fml

Birneybau

Jovetic wrote: »

That was tough. Answered cannot say to a lot of verbal. Will no doubt fail the personality test anyway fml

I'm not joking, I talked with a friend before, how can they discriminate against personality types?

November Golf

Birneybau wrote: »

I'm not joking, I talked with a friend before, how can they discriminate against personality types?

They can, and they [well I'm just going to stop here].

There are plenty of questions on that questionnaire that test your verbal reasoning skills rather than your personality and, if truth was known, they are open to interpretation. I find some questions, especially without context, to be very badly worded.

I still laugh at the question - "Prepared to do things others will criticise you for"

#Golfgate

KilkennyCat77

The most bizarre test experience I've encountered in a long time. Answered the verbal questions in about 15 mins but not confident afterwards. Realised I erred on one question but couldn't correct it. Felt like there were too many 'Cannot Say' answers. Numerical test took me 40 mins but probably docked points for being too slow. Pleased I had matching answers but I could have miscalculated as maths not my strong point. Miracle if I get to eTray stage which sounds like another nightmare. Best of luck everyone!

Alroh20

I done the exam today and found the maths tough totally different format from previous years..i got what I call high enough for interview in last year's and have heard nothing..disheartening exam and I'm in the service nearly 20 years

Daz_

What do people feel is a good time to finish both numerical and verbal in ? Provided answers correct etc