Administrative Officers 2018 in the Civil Service

LordBasil

Just did mine;

Questionaire was fine - Did Previously in another campaign and scored quite well so decided this time to be more definitive in my answers so, for example, instead of saying 'Weak Response' I said 'Bad Response'.....
Verbal was OK
Numerical was very tough but hopefully I passed - some of it is just guesswork

Oh well, just glad it's done

November Golf

"There will be no emailed confirmation of submission as your submission is already confirmed.

You should expect to hear from the Public Appointments Service via Messageboard by the end of November to tell you whether or not you have been successful at this stage of the application process."

only 5 weeks to wait :-)

engiweirdo

Mike Foxtrot wrote: »

"There will be no emailed confirmation of submission as your submission is already confirmed.

You should expect to hear from the Public Appointments Service via Messageboard by the end of November to tell you whether or not you have been successful at this stage of the application process."

only 5 weeks to wait :-)

That's a mad wait in fairness. Are there a mental amount of applicants?

SFC1895

engiweirdo wrote: »

That's a mad wait in fairness. Are there a mental amount of applicants?

Probably. In 2016, there were 8,000 applications

tgdaly

LordBasil wrote: »

Just did mine;

Questionaire was fine - Did Previously in another campaign and scored quite well so decided this time to be more definitive in my answers so, for example, instead of saying 'Weak Response' I said 'Bad Response'.....
Verbal was OK
Numerical was very tough but hopefully I passed - some of it is just guesswork

Oh well, just glad it's done

Did mine earlier, and that would echo my sentiment exactly. I don't think the questions on the numerical were actually that hard but the time alloted is ridiculous for some of the calculations that are involved, I ended up just guessing a few because time was gone

CZ 453

Very hard going tbh. I don't know are those tests strictly to frustrate people and see will they keep the head. The time limit is awful for the latter ones but it looks like its the same for everyone else so the marking curve might be kind. The timing is similar to that of the time given to an astronaut to do calculations as his spacecraft plummets to earth :pac:

Sir Ophiuchus

It's definitely intended that most people can't finish all the questions in the available time. But that does make sense - it makes it easier to get an idea of people's spread of ability. If I can do 10 questions correctly in that time and you can do 12, it makes a difference compared to if there was no time pressure, where we both might be able to get them all eventually.

hardybuck

SFC1895 wrote: »

Probably. In 2016, there were 8,000 applications

Where did you see that?

Aisling(",)

So tests are done.

Maths I was a bit time pressured, definitely missed an answer or two.
Verbal wasn't the worst and the questionaire I just went with my gut.

Hopefully it works out, if not then ah well.

SFC1895

hardybuck wrote: »

Where did you see that?

From someone in PAS at the time

hardybuck

SFC1895 wrote: »

From someone in PAS at the time

Perhaps if you added applications for AO, IGEES and Third Sec.

questions5000

Does anybody know if negative marking is applicable in these tests?

The_Conductor

questions5000 wrote: »

Does anybody know if negative marking is applicable in these tests?

I suspect not- however, many of us have asked PAS- and no-one has gotten a straight answer from them. They do emphasise not guessing answers- however, they're not willing to state whether this means you'll be penalised if you get them wrong- or not..........

nesthead

questions5000 wrote: »

Does anybody know if negative marking is applicable in these tests?

AFAIK none of the civil service tests have negative marking, please dont quote me on this though!

engiweirdo

Perhaps not negatively marked but a higher weighting attached to accuracy than speed, so first seperate by percentage of correct answers then by who got through more of test with that percentage and rank accordingly. Just a guess.

kittycati

Do you actually need calculator? Or would calculator on phone do ?

FenFlynn

Got questionnaire and verbal done yesterday. Just too afraid to attempt the numerical. I thought the verbal was quite difficult towards the end. I was deliberating the articles for too long before getting to the questions, definitely quite a few not sure of. Will try the numerical tomorrow after work and see how that goes.

FenFlynn

kittycati wrote: »

Do you actually need calculator? Or would calculator on phone do ?

No, you could use both forms of calculation, it's just easier for me on the calculator as it's easy to mess up on the phone with figures

Some Random Username

Friend of mine says she just messed up the maths test badly. Got way behind on time and had to make a load of guesses. She was using the practice tests all weekend but the maths kept throwing her off. Said she failed the first maths practice test she took too. Shame because she was brilliant in university. Never seen someone think and type so fast while maintaining high standards.

Quick calculations are just really good at throwing some people off. Kudos if you can get through it. I wouldn't stand a chance.

Joem123556

I actually thought the maths was ok but the verbal horrendous. That said the revenue AO ones were much worse!

bettyl

Off to a great start. The link above username/ password for maths and verbal only brought me to publicjobs.ie homepage. Used the other link in latest message and was asked to change my password. Did anyone else get this? I put in new password but didnt save but also wont let me use old password. Have expired my login attempts and have asked for a new password. At least I've other bit done. Hopefully I'll get password sorted tomorrow.

kriordan22

Does anybody know if both the verbal and numerical are counted towards your panel placing or is it just the verbal coupled with the questionnaire and just pass the numerical? The verbal was very difficult.

Sir Ophiuchus

kriordan22 wrote: »

is it just the verbal coupled with the questionnaire and just pass the numerical?

It's this one.

Dalio

Wow I found the verbal awful, so Im going to take a break before the Maths (Normally my worse bit). Well I suppose its fairer in the long run if the verbal is harder than normal as its more central to the role. But I really didn't expect that.

LordBasil

If people lie on the questionnaire and give answers that they think are what will score higher, rather than what they actually think/feel, will they ever be pulled up/questioned about some of their answers at the later stages?

If not, it just seems unfair that the questionnaire can decide if you make the next stage but the answers given are not checked.

Subutai

SFC1895 wrote: »

Probably. In 2016, there were 8,000 applications

According to the 2016 annual report there were 4,916 applications (a further 104 for AO IGEES) with 151 getting to the panel (further 22 for AO IGEES).

tgdaly

Subutai wrote: »

According to the 2016 annual report there were 4,916 applications (a further 104 for AO IGEES) with 151 getting to the panel (further 22 for AO IGEES).

Shows how competitive these AO competitions are. I only came in around 400 odd in the order of merit for this last year so didn't even get called for 2nd round of tests. Was really disappointed considering I was successful in 2 other comps, but if there was nearly 5000 odd applicants I guess I was still well inside the top 10%, still miles off a position though!

WAW

LordBasil wrote: »

If people lie on the questionnaire and give answers that they think are what will score higher, rather than what they actually think/feel, will they ever be pulled up/questioned about some of their answers at the later stages?

If not, it just seems unfair that the questionnaire can decide if you make the next stage but the answers given are not checked.

I think those questionnaires are very well designed so they can see from all of the responses whether they are genuine and stack up or whether someone was answering how they thought they ought to rather than what they really felt. The questions aren't individually isolated. If you think back to some of them, you can see that they are linked in terms of a psychometric profile.

Dalio

WAW wrote: »

I think those questionnaires are very well designed so they can see from all of the responses whether they are genuine and stack up or whether someone was answering how they thought they ought to rather than what they really felt. The questions aren't individually isolated. If you think back to some of them, you can see that they are linked in terms of a psychometric profile.

I agree with WAW, hard to lie, you just need to be honest. I suppose though the interview revisits these areas again asking for people to demonstrate the competency later.

LordBasil

Dalio wrote: »

I agree with WAW, hard to lie, you just need to be honest. I suppose though the interview revisits these areas again asking for people to demonstrate the competency later.

Yeah, I suppose people can be caught out at interview if the right questions are asked of them.