NEW 2018 Assistant Principal Officer Competition

FlexBrowne

Did a practice run on the Verbal Reasoning. Scored x. Did it again without looking at questions, just randomly selecting 'yes', 'no' or 'cannot say'. I did better second time round. Weird eh?

FlexBrowne

never_mind wrote: »

This is exactly how I feel about these tests. I also feel that testing like this is literally just a means to an end - get rid of people. By doing this they might be missing out on great candidates.

Hear Hear!!

never_mind

FlexBrowne wrote: »

Did a practice run on the Verbal Reasoning. Scored x. Did it again without looking at questions, just randomly selecting 'yes', 'no' or 'cannot say'. I did better second time round. Weird eh?

I did a test run on verbal and got a really high score by clicking on random boxes... it's a game of chance!

C.O.Y.B.I.B

CavanGilly wrote: »

Was one if the options about sending reports to otger mgrs/depths?? Didnt fit in my view 😟

Yep , that's the one , had no relevance whatsoever . Mailed them yesterday , but I haven't heard back yet .

ParkRunner

never_mind wrote: »

I did a test run on verbal and got a really high score by clicking on random boxes... it's a game of chance!

I was thinking the same, a good few that get through will likely have just had good luck with picking the right answers randomly

The_Conductor

ParkRunner wrote: »

I was thinking the same, a good few that get through will likely have just had good luck with picking the right answers randomly

Honestly- put a little thought into it- if you do get through- and go to the retest- if your scores differ by more than a set percentage- you are assumed to have cheated at this stage- and automatically disqualified. Randomly choosing answers- is not a good idea.

never_mind

The_Conductor wrote: »

Honestly- put a little thought into it- if you do get through- and go to the retest- if your scores differ by more than a set percentage- you are assumed to have cheated at this stage- and automatically disqualified. Randomly choosing answers- is not a good idea.

If you read our back and forth you'll see we did this with the sample tests... Going by the same logic, you could 'randomly' do the same at the retest and get even higher - this is why MCQs are flawed and why we don't have an SAT-like exams at Leaving Cert level...?

ParkRunner

The_Conductor wrote: »

Honestly- put a little thought into it- if you do get through- and go to the retest- if your scores differ by more than a set percentage- you are assumed to have cheated at this stage- and automatically disqualified. Randomly choosing answers- is not a good idea.

Are applicants really disqualified on that basis I wonder? It doesn’t seem to be something that’s really done but is there just in case it’s needed in extreme cases, especially for the maths which doesn’t count towards your OOM once you pass.

I’m not advocating complete random guessing by the way. But a combination of worked out correct answers, plus informed guesses by ruling out completely off the mark answers plus a few lucky random guesses could result in a very good score essentially depending on how lucky you are at the random guesses.

Sir Ophiuchus

ParkRunner wrote: »

Are applicants really disqualified on that basis I wonder? It doesn’t seem to be something that’s really done but is there just in case it’s needed in extreme cases, especially for the maths which doesn’t count towards your OOM once you pass.

I'd say one of the main reasons it exists is to make sure people don't simply pay others to take the tests for them.

Crunchymomma

ParkRunner wrote: »

Are applicants really disqualified on that basis I wonder? It doesn’t seem to be something that’s really done but is there just in case it’s needed in extreme cases, especially for the maths which doesn’t count towards your OOM once you pass.

Someone in 2016 comp was disqualified on this basis and seemingly was allowed retake tests upon involving a solicitor

CavanGilly

C.O.Y.B.I.B wrote: »

Yep , that's the one , had no relevance whatsoever . Mailed them yesterday , but I haven't heard back yet .

Yeah, to me it had no relevance to the scenario. Mind you I can't 'remember if I rated it or not🀣

Thought the numerical was awful. Definitely failed that

gmisk

CavanGilly wrote: »

Yeah, to me it had no relevance to the scenario. Mind you I can't 'remember if I rated it or not🀣

Thought the numerical was awful. Definitely failed that

I feel your pain.
Verbal one was grand... I literally just clicked random answers for last 3...and didn't even get to click a guess on last one.

Addle

Crunchymomma wrote: »

Someone in 2016 comp was disqualified on this basis and seemingly was allowed retake tests upon involving a solicitor

I wonder was it worth that effort for them?!

tea and coffee

That maths definitely seemed more challenging than last time around.
Verbal was fine and the situational judgement was just odd in some cases i.e none of the options appeared particularly desirable... or perhaps that's just me.

The_Conductor

ParkRunner wrote: »

Are applicants really disqualified on that basis I wonder? It doesn’t seem to be something that’s really done but is there just in case it’s needed in extreme cases, especially for the maths which doesn’t count towards your OOM once you pass.

I’m not advocating complete random guessing by the way. But a combination of worked out correct answers, plus informed guesses by ruling out completely off the mark answers plus a few lucky random guesses could result in a very good score essentially depending on how lucky you are at the random guesses.

It could be a bogeyman type story- to keep people on the straight and narrow- and ensure people don't simply wildly guess (or if they do- they'll have to wildly guess in a similar manner when they resit the tests)......... One way or the other- if you wildly guess and do very well- its a pure game of chance- and honestly- I simply don't like leaving things to chance.

C.O.Y.B.I.B

CavanGilly wrote: »

Yeah, to me it had no relevance to the scenario. Mind you I can't 'remember if I rated it or not🀣

Thought the numerical was awful. Definitely failed that

Heard back and they said it was correct and should be viewed as you giving advice to a junior member of staff . Thought it was way off , not sure if allowed to post the screenshot here

delricyo

C.O.Y.B.I.B wrote: »

Heard back and they said it was correct and should be viewed as you giving advice to a junior member of staff . Thought it was way off , not sure if allowed to post the screenshot here

I wouldn't risk posting the screenshot here - although I am very curious of the question:)
PAS do monitor these boards and could get you in trouble for discussing the tests publicly

Addle

I can't believe they gave out that kind of info.

TaurenDruid

Addle wrote: »

I wonder was it worth that effort for them?!

Well, they've been promoted since.

So - yes.

brownbinman

done, now in the hand of the old gods...and the new

TaurenDruid

The_Conductor wrote: »

I was just onto them- apparently they only support Internet Explorer on PCs- if you're using Chrome or Firefox- don't..........

Funny that. Cos the familiarisation material specifically lists Chrome as a supported browser...

bobbysands81

C.O.Y.B.I.B wrote: »

Heard back and they said it was correct and should be viewed as you giving advice to a junior member of staff . Thought it was way off , not sure if allowed to post the screenshot here

Definitely do not print the screenshot. You will be immediately disqualified as per the rules.

PAS keep an eye on these threads... a few posters on here have been discussed “allegedly”.

SFC1895

Just completed them this evening. Very fair I thought for this level. Struggled a bit with the numerical and ran out of time on that too, but overall quite satisfied.


Best of luck to all on here over the next 24 months!

APcomp

Does anyone know for definite if the numerical does not count towards the ranking, and that you just have to pass it? I understand this was the case for other competitions, but I can't find anything on this in the material we received for this campaign...?

irumudikkilli

I finished it this morning. Did ok in the verbal and numerical, but took way longer than 40 minutes to do the situational (struggled to remember some of the details of the six competencies to match with the responses, but in the end went with common sense to let the chips fall where they may). I have been in the private industry all my life, trying to enter the civil service for the first time ever, and all these are new to me (including the conversion of the correct responses to something out of this number 80, wonder what math formula they use to arrive at this 80 figure?)!

midfield dynamo

Did the test this evening. Verbal seemed ok, but you never know. Was flying through the maths and got distracted by one of the kids and my head was gone. Last 5 or 6 answers were pure guesses.

Hopefully, I've passed the maths and done enough in the verbal and situation parts.

Subutai

This is probably a stupid question, but paranoia is sinking in. Once we complete all the tests we just log out right? There isn't some submit button I've missed or anything.

SFC1895

Subutai wrote: »

This is probably a stupid question, but paranoia is sinking in. Once we complete all the tests we just log out right? There isn't some submit button I've missed or anything.

No, that’s all I did too. When I had completed all the tests, I checked the message from public jobs on another browser and all it said was to log out

TaxidermyFox

I think I may have overthought on the Numerical one, stayed waaaay to long on specific questions, ended up missing 3 or so questions. Silly. Verbal and Situational seemed okay though. Here's to hoping.


Best of luck folks. And remember it's a crude way of selecting. Or a least that's what I am telling myself.

duffman13

Agree with others about that weird question in the situational analysis. It was very strangely worded.

I finished verbal and numerical with a couple of mins to spare. I'm very confident on numerical not so much on verbal at all but i think situational will kill me!

Best of luck all, I'll keep an eye on the thread over the coming weeks. It's my first involvement in a competition in PAS so not expecting miracles anyway