NEW 2018 Assistant Principal Officer Competition

Crunchymomma

SFC1895 wrote: »

Is the test window closed now?

No but I'm home with the kids all weekend and I am at a training course Monday and tuesday. Test window closes at 12pm Tuesday I think

SFC1895

Crunchymomma wrote: »

No but I'm home with the kids all weekend and I am at a training course Monday and tuesday. Test window closes at 12pm Tuesday I think

Ah ok! Best of luck to all on here

anthrogal

Throwing the hat in the ring for this one also, almost had a nervy b doing the tests last night as I'm away the weekend.
Know I have a lot to give, and already operating at this level a grade below but those tests .......errghhhh!
How and ever! Best of luck to all.

angel eyes 2012

Asking for a relative.

Previously I recall there was negative marking in the verbal but not in the maths, which was a godsend for those of us with weaker maths. Does anyone know if this is still the case for the current competition.

Best of luck to all participants by the way!

jones

Anyone having any issues running this in chrome? mine was working for the practice but since then chrome updated to version 69 and now its saying flash is not enable or out of date (its not). I have tried manually enabling flash on the site but still getting the same error message.

ThumbTaxed

Is there any practice sites that actually tell you what you have got right and got wrong.

What's the point in doing a test without getting the individual answers?

Addle

You can either do those tests or you can't.
Knowing exactly which questions you got wrong isn't going to help you improve your result.

PhoenixParker

ThumbTaxed wrote: »

Is there any practice sites that actually tell you what you have got right and got wrong.

What's the point in doing a test without getting the individual answers?

The practice tests before you sit the actual tests (when you log in with your username and password) give you which questions you got wrong and you can note your answers/re-sit them. There's only three options for each answer.

Least the verbal did, haven't done the numerical yet. I'm assuming the SA doesn't give you similar.

ThumbTaxed

Addle wrote: »

You can either do those tests or you can't.
Knowing exactly which questions you got wrong isn't going to help you improve your result.

Ah, of course it is

lapua20grain

Just completed all 3 the verbal and situational were exactly the same as I had done last week the maths one there were several questions that were the same, found it a lot easier than the last set I did so fingers crossed.

franklyon

lapua20grain wrote: »

Just completed all 3 the verbal and situational were exactly the same as I had done last week the maths one there were several questions that were the same, found it a lot easier than the last set I did so fingers crossed.

Same as which test?

NewAladwantime

Hi Folks,

Does anyone have an estimate of when we might see the results from phase one?
Anyone done other open competitions remember how long it usually takes?

Sir Ophiuchus

Just finished the stage 1 tests now. Bloody hell, that was grueling!

I feel good about having gotten them done. Think I did okay, but I always find the situational judgement one hard to say how I did on.

At least I know I gave them my best attempt, and we'll see how it goes! Feel good about putting the work in.

Sir Ophiuchus

NewAladwantime wrote: »

Hi Folks,

Does anyone have an estimate of when we might see the results from phase one?
Anyone done other open competitions remember how long it usually takes?

In my AO competition we got the results a little over two weeks after the close of tests.

Max Mustermann

NewAladwantime wrote: »

Hi Folks,

Does anyone have an estimate of when we might see the results from phase one?
Anyone done other open competitions remember how long it usually takes?

I had a look back at my Message Board from the 2016 competition. The test window closed on 20th Decamber and I got the result on 12th January. That was 23 days including Christmas holidays so it could be quicker this time.

Anakha

I just finished up there. Feeling absolutely drained, I know I messed up on the numerical, normally I do quite well in that but one of the sets threw me and then I was totally in a state
anyways, nothing for it now but wait. I might have preferred a slightly longer wait than 2 weeks (you know delay the pain, haha)
Anyways, nevermind, better to have tried my best than not tried at all
Best of luck everyone!!

Crunchymomma

Max Mustermann wrote: »

I had a look back at my Message Board from the 2016 competition. The test window closed on 20th Decamber and I got the result on 12th January. That was 23 days including Christmas holidays so it could be quicker this time.

I'm going to try out it out of my head til November but god it would be great to be put out of our misery sooner than that

lapua20grain

franklyon wrote:

Same as which test?

I did one of these tests last week for a job in a pharma company prior to getting an interview

C.O.Y.B.I.B

Anakha wrote: »

I just finished up there. Feeling absolutely drained, I know I messed up on the numerical, normally I do quite well in that but one of the sets threw me and then I was totally in a state
anyways, nothing for it now but wait. I might have preferred a slightly longer wait than 2 weeks (you know delay the pain, haha)
Anyways, nevermind, better to have tried my best than not tried at all
Best of luck everyone!!

Anyone know if there's a penalty for skipping a difficult question . Given that people seem to struggle , particularly in numerical to complete them all.
In practice i got all the verbal.done , but only 11 of the 18 numerical . First two though took me 7 minutes which threw me right off .

delricyo

jones wrote: »

Anyone having any issues running this in chrome? mine was working for the practice but since then chrome updated to version 69 and now its saying flash is not enable or out of date (its not). I have tried manually enabling flash on the site but still getting the same error message.

Yeah, I couldn't run it in Chrome either. Even after updating flash and restarting the PC. Had to run it in internet explorer in the end

delricyo

I'm predicting that we should have the results by the bank holiday. The sooner the better...

Anakha

C.O.Y.B.I.B wrote: »

Anyone know if there's a penalty for skipping a difficult question . Given that people seem to struggle , particularly in numerical to complete them all.
In practice i got all the verbal.done , but only 11 of the 18 numerical . First two though took me 7 minutes which threw me right off .

There was no mention of penalties for skipping or negative marking for wrong answers or anything like that, but they don't tell you how it is marked at all. I assumed that answering wrong wouldnt be any worse than not answering at all and with 4 or 5 possible answers you had a 20 - 25% change of guessing the right one

RunRoryRun

Tests completed - numerical tougher than I expected!

Luckyduck78

i thought the numerical were very difficult. very disappointed. going to try to forget all about it. have a great Sunday everyone :-/

lucat

What would happen if everyone in Ireland just refused to do them, considering they have no relevance to the actual job?

Addle

lucat wrote: »

What would happen if everyone in Ireland just refused to do them, considering they have no relevance to the actual job?

It's a shortlisting exercise.
They have relevance to your general mental ability.

lucat

Addle wrote: »

It's a shortlisting exercise.
They have relevance to your general mental ability.

They have relevance to a particular mental ability I would say. Don't know about general mental ability.

Just did them there- I only got 14/18 questions done in the numerical and even then I guessed a few.

Is it just me, or did a lot of the most logical responses in the verbal seem to be 'cannot say'?

youngbird

Just completed the verbal & numerical. The time allowance for numerical is the main issue in my experience - the questions would be manageable if there was more time to consider the answers.

Hard to strike the balance of a thorough review of the data and accuracy in answering the question vs. the speed required to complete the test.

If it's any reassurance, the Civil Service rarely produce information or policy decisions without a timely and thorough analysis of the data to hand - or so I'm told...;)

dee75

Just some dates and notes from the 2016 Competition - not that it's a definite indication of what way it will go this time around.

STAGE 1
Test window closed on 19 December
Results out 12 January

Qualifying scores:
Verbal - 42 out of 80
Numerical - 40 out of 80
Situational - 40 out of 80

1,047 from Stage 1 were invited to Stage 2 - verification of Stage 1 Verbal & Numerical Tests plus Etray and Job Simulation

STAGE 2
Invitation received 13 January
Tests held end January and early February
Results out 22 February

Qualifying scores:
Verbal - 42 out of 80
Numerical - 40 out of 80
Job Simulation - 41 out of 80
Etray - 40 out of 80

Note - Order of Merit was determined by Job Simulation & Etray scores.
Average score was apparently 50 for each

205 from Stage 2 were invited to Stage 3 - Interview

STAGE 3
Interviews held mid March
Results out 23 March
Score given for each competency (5 competencies scored)
Order of Merit only gave your overall country-wide ranking, not your county rankings
From recollection, you had to ring after a few days to get your county rankings

Good luck to you all this time around! :D

Addle

Just 205 candidates made the final interview? Is that altogether or in a first batch? I find that a surprisingly low number.

Anyone know how many applied for this competition?