Higher Executive Officer 2024

Possibly stupid question but it says we can use paper and a calculator but not to have them on the desk. But I assume I can't go off camera to get them either, can I just leave them on the chair/floor, visible to the camera so I can grab them? (I did say it was stupid 🤣)

Great thank you. I agree it's stupid, I would have thought having them on the desk made it more transparent and accessible. Thanks though, I will do them this evening

Hi all, and hope you're getting through your assessment tests okay. I did find them tough, in particular the numerical, because I couldn't see a full chart at any point only different quadrants at a time. I was constantly scrolling back and forth, up and down to check on correct column/row or confirm list of numbers. Zooming in and out didn't help as only impacted text size. Tests displayed totally differently to the practice Sova tests and made things very difficult. The final chart showed in full as it was a different chart type, but on that it was difficult to identify exact numbers even when zoomed, but I think I found that previously. Interested to know if anyone else had similar issues.

On tech side, I used Google Chrome, as Edge wasn't mentioned in the familiarisation info' but then noticed Edge mentioned when starting verification. It was too late at that stage to change, but wondering whether this issue was Chrome specific or if everyone found the same.

I may not have passed anyway, but felt this really impacted my time, and accuracy at choosing the correct numbers in a row or column to include in calculations. It did seem to be caused by having the right hand side of the screen reserved for video/proctoring. I didn't have this issue with previous assessments when recording throughout. I think now, I would far prefer to do these tests on site.

When I did it I didn't have to scroll up at all!

Neither did I!!

Did anyone find there was more "cannot say" than expected in the verbal one.

I used laptop and Google Chrome and had no issues, didn't have to scroll up or zoom in or out. Everything was visible on the same screen (16")

Thanks for the advice gestappo, will do

It took me around 23 mins to complete the Numerical one, and 14 mins for the Verbal. No much hope here :'(

I also had difficulties with the tables and charts, but more around format, had to scroll left and right or up and down to see different quadrants of the tables. I did also think charts could be labelled more clearly and exact numbers difficult to work out in some cases. I have been emailing the LCV5sovasupport@publicjobs.ie email, but they're just indicating a 'local device issue' though haven't been able to indicate in anything more specific. My laptop and browser meet the specs and I've never found any similar issues previously. Perhaps if you email them, they might start realising that some people did have issues with the platform/format. Same laptop had no issues on previous PAS assessments or in SOVA practice tests.

Time wise that doesn't sound bad, Id be ok with it if those were my times, average verbal times on most practice tests seem to be 15m and for numerical its 30m, even if numerical isn't that generous you still came in under 25m and close to 20m.

I wonder what the pass mark is for questions, 60%-70% maybe?

Are you allowed have a monitor on the desk with a hdmi cable lose to connect the laptop to? once I do the room check Ill sit the laptop down on the desk and connect it to second screen, my monitor is on a desk arm stand, I can clear everything off and remove pc from under the desk so everything looks above board.

I used an external monitor

Oh my goodness, I found that very tough indeed. I normally sail through these tests but that was HARD.

I think I rushed through the verbal as I was worrying about the numerical and definitely got one very obvious one wrong and that's only the mistake I noticed! I'm sure there were more.

The numerical, never my strong point but as it used be that you only had to pass I never worried before. I took way way longer than projected 15 mins and will be very lucky if I got half of them right.

No offence but I hope you all did crap. That might give me a fighting chance 😆😆 Seriously though, I think they were very tough and hopefully the powers that be will go a bit easy on us.....

I lost connection too! Only for about 5 minutes but I nearly had a kiniption fit. Disaster all round for all it seems.

2 of my numerical questions were guessed, I spent a few minutes on the 1st one and didn't want to waste time on the 2nd same type of question, I couldn't figure them out at all. Not saying I got the rest of them right but definitely not those 2

I found the numerical one extremely difficult, the graphs were shockingly hard to read and a couple of the questions I just had to guess, 25% chance of getting them right I suppose, definitely failed it.

The verbal was fine but definitely a lot more cannot says than expected.