NEW 2020 Assistant Principal Officer Competition

urgelgru

Cheeseplant wrote: »

maybe for AP? the last AO and HEO I did were the nightmare tabbed tests and Evergreen!

Aww man, I did so many tests over a period of time a while back that I felt like an employee of Evergreen

Ravelleman

totlee wrote: »

hi. results are out for AP Interdepartmental today. Was their a shortlisting at this stage or did everyone that applied get to assessment stage

Shortlisting has not taken place yet.

Cheeseplant

Ravelleman wrote: »

Shortlisting has not taken place yet.

are we sure about this? have heard that some people have not got assessment link message as yet.

griffid

totlee wrote: »

hi. results are out for AP Interdepartmental today. Was their a shortlisting at this stage or did everyone that applied get to assessment stage

Just wondering how you got results? I applied for Inter-D too but only have invitation to stage 1 of tests, no results.

AbbieMarley

Cheeseplant wrote: »

maybe for AP? the last AO and HEO I did were the nightmare tabbed tests and Evergreen!

Same here! I have never done any shl ones, judging by the comments they must be a lot nicer than the cut-e ones.

urgelgru

I like the tabbed ones better. I like having the same set of information to work on through the exam. And the numerical tests aren't so much maths, as "find the correct number on the graph". Just a personal preference.

Ravelleman

Cheeseplant wrote: »

are we sure about this? have heard that some people have not got assessment link message as yet.

In 2018, shortlisting took place after the initial, unsupervised tests. Once shortlisting was complete, an explicit message outlining the results of this process (pass/fail) was sent to candidates that had passed the unsupervised tests. Those that were successful in both the unsupervised tests and shortlisting then proceeded to supervised tests and e-tray in various batches. Following this, successful candidates were then taken through to interview in batches, from which the panel was formed.

In general, PAS tends to signpost these things quite clearly, as unsuccessful candidates may wish to request a review of their results.

Milenauno

I am EO and I applied for this competition

AbbieMarley

Milenauno wrote: »

I am EO and I applied for this competition

Me too...sure why not!

Anonire

i just checked out the practice test for shl verbal 30 questions in 19 minutes is that the same in the real assessment does anyone know? Would be great if it is, still no guarantee that i have the correct answers but at least it gives a bit of time to digest the info.

The revenue ones were 12 minutes and 47 questions. :eek:

griffid

Anonire wrote: »

i just checked out the practice test for shl verbal 30 questions in 19 minutes is that the same in the real assessment does anyone know? Would be great if it is, still no guarantee that i have the correct answers but at least it gives a bit of time to digest the info.

The revenue ones were 12 minutes and 47 questions. :eek:

The booklet tells you how many questions and what amount of time you have for completing them.

Anonire

griffid wrote: »

The booklet tells you how many questions and what amount of time you have for completing them.

Thank you but the booklet I have been provided with indicates the length of time I have for the test not the amount of questions I will be presented with.

derailed

Has anyone got a link to something close to the situational judgement questionnaire for this competition? There never seems to be any direct examples on the given website and the whole approach seems to be purely subjective with no right or wrong answers. Have no issues with preparing for the verbal and numerical reasoning but always seem to stumble on the scenario part..

griffid

Anonire wrote: »

Thank you but the booklet I have been provided with indicates the length of time I have for the test not the amount of questions I will be presented with.

Oh doesn't it? I haven't read it properly yet.

NinjaTurtle

derailed wrote: »

Has anyone got a link to something close to the situational judgement questionnaire for this competition? There never seems to be any direct examples on the given website and the whole approach seems to be purely subjective with no right or wrong answers. Have no issues with preparing for the verbal and numerical reasoning but always seem to stumble on the scenario part..

Great Question yes if anyone has any tips for situational judgment it would be great. Last time I based my answers on what I would do in reality but didn't score great yet I know on a daily basis i'm good at my job so it's confusing....

iuil1999

derailed wrote: »

Has anyone got a link to something close to the situational judgement questionnaire for this competition? There never seems to be any direct examples on the given website and the whole approach seems to be purely subjective with no right or wrong answers. Have no issues with preparing for the verbal and numerical reasoning but always seem to stumble on the scenario part..

You're just supposed to answer as accurately as to what you would do in a real life situation.

Cheeseplant

AbbieMarley wrote: »

Same here! I have never done any shl ones, judging by the comments they must be a lot nicer than the cut-e ones.

I take this back! I've just done the practice tests and there is no way I'll be getting on the OOM unless i imprve drastically!

Anonire

Cheeseplant wrote: »

I take this back! I've just done the practice tests and there is no way I'll be getting on the OOM unless i imprve drastically!

I have mixed feelings too.. I like that the verbal is confined to a much smaller amount of text.
The numerical there appears to be alot more working out involved.

I looked at the situational judgement on shl link provided and was disappointed that after completing the whole exercise it gave no feedback of any kind. No need for a full length exercise if its just to get a feel for the layout.

RedBarchetta

Cheeseplant wrote: »

I take this back! I've just done the practice tests and there is no way I'll be getting on the OOM unless i imprve drastically!

Same, only scored 43.3 (13/30). Although I noticed the average score is 45.5. Need to improve to get past this stage :mad:

Forthebuzz

Just did the practice ones there and scored similarly to the real ones last time. Only wish that Numerical was counted or that my verbal score was as high!!

Will take a few more cracks at it in advance to get a feel for what I'm missing in the ones which were incorrect

Happy4

just tried the numerical.. found them very hard.. took a lot longer to do than the allocated time

mariagirl

Hi there am finding SHL numerical very difficult. Prefer Cut-e! Does anyone know if OOM is determined by performance in Numerical or Verbal Reasoning. Cannot find this info on the booklet or pre test material. Thanks

Cheeseplant

mariagirl wrote: »

Hi there am finding SHL numerical very difficult. Prefer Cut-e! Does anyone know if OOM is determined by performance in Numerical or Verbal Reasoning. Cannot find this info on the booklet or pre test material. Thanks

Yes found them really hard myself!
Usually OOM is based on verbal and situational judgement. Presume it will be the same.. I've never seen that written anywhere though !

Cheeseplant

Happy4 wrote: »

just tried the numerical.. found them very hard.. took a lot longer to do than the allocated time

Same! Got about 11 or 13 done and about 1/3 right!

griffid

I just did the verbal but it didn't give me my score at the end? Window just disappeared when the circle started turning after I completed the final question.

Forthebuzz

griffid wrote: »

I just did the verbal but it didn't give me my score at the end? Window just disappeared when the circle started turning after I completed the final question.

You have to do the second assessment which is 2 questions and then it will let you complete assessment and get score

griffid

Forthebuzz wrote: »

You have to do the second assessment which is 2 questions and then it will let you complete assessment and get score

Thanks. What second assessment?!!! 2 questions?

griffid

griffid wrote: »

Thanks. What second assessment?!!! 2 questions?

Ohhhhh now I see it.

Nicole2020

Received the email re. the online exam. Can someone please explain all this SHL and OOM stuff you're all talking about?

I've completed the practice quizzes for the EO that were on publicjobs.ie because I didn't think the others were relevant. I scored 17 on the numerical, 45 on verbal and in the upper band on situational... I know they say this is above the recommendation but would this be the same story for AP?

Is this the same practice quizzes you're all talking about here?

Thanks in advance!

Cheeseplant

Nicole2020 wrote: »

Received the email re. the online exam. Can someone please explain all this SHL and OOM stuff you're all talking about?

I've completed the practice quizzes for the EO that were on publicjobs.ie because I didn't think the others were relevant. I scored 17 on the numerical, 45 on verbal and in the upper band on situational... I know they say this is above the recommendation but would this be the same story for AP?

Is this the same practice quizzes you're all talking about here?

Thanks in advance!

SHL are the assessment provider. There is a link in the test info booklet we received yesterday.
Hard to know how difficult the realtesrs will be compared to the SHL practice tests or the practice tests on PublicJobs.
The OOM is order of merit. The order in which you are placed by score on these tests. Usually the top X number of candidates are brought forward to the next stage so you want to come as high up on the OOm as possible, where position 1 is the best.

Nicole2020

Cheeseplant wrote: »

SHL are the assessment provider. There is a link in the test info booklet we received yesterday.
Hard to know how difficult the realtesrs will be compared to the SHL practice tests or the practice tests on PublicJobs.
The OOM is order of merit. The order in which you are placed by score on these tests. Usually the top X number of candidates are brought forward to the next stage so you want to come as high up on the OOm as possible, where position 1 is the best.

Thank you so much, that all makes a lot more sense now! Would you believe I didn’t even notice the link to the booklet when reading the message, I thought I had to wait until the 28th for that. Delighted I asked now!

Cheeseplant

No problem Nicole, good luck with the tests!

Anonire

Nicole2020 wrote: »

Received the email re. the online exam. Can someone please explain all this SHL and OOM stuff you're all talking about?

I've completed the practice quizzes for the EO that were on publicjobs.ie because I didn't think the others were relevant. I scored 17 on the numerical, 45 on verbal and in the upper band on situational... I know they say this is above the recommendation but would this be the same story for AP?

Is this the same practice quizzes you're all talking about here?

Thanks in advance!

I didn't know about these quizzes thank you. AO is a higher grade than EO so they might be better ones to complete.

kilburn

Any thoughts on how many would have applied and how many will get through first round

Nicole2020

Thanks Cheeseplant, you too!

Anonire wrote: »

I didn't know about these quizzes thank you. AO is a higher grade than EO so they might be better ones to complete.

Is AO not administrative officer?

griffid

Nicole2020 wrote: »

Thanks Cheeseplant, you too!



Is AO not administrative officer?

Yup. Need higher again for AP.

Nicole2020

griffid wrote: »

Yup. Need higher again for AP.

Just found the structure there, always assumed AO was lower grade!

griffid

Nicole2020 wrote: »

Just found the structure there, always assumed AO was lower grade!

Yes indeed AO is lower than AP. AO is roughly equivalent to HEO.

Anonire

Ao is the highest those tests go to on publicjobs. The tests in the shl link appear to be of a much higher level than the one on publicjobs. I don't know which ones are more likely to be what we will be face with.

I completed the numerical on publicjobs and in the feedback section scored well in excess of what they said the pass mark likely was but the wording made me think that it is possibly marked to a curve.

Pdbtsi

Agree with those saying the numerical practice ones are tough! Verbal seems fine but numerical......going to take some intensive practice for me to scrape a pass I'd say. Does anyone know if we choose in what order we do the tests?

Orchid1

on the topic of numerical reasoning (definitely finding this the most challenging), in the practice tests it is 18 questions in 25 minutes but the guidance doc sent out says that the real test will have more questions?! does anybody know how many questions are in the actual test? It seems next to impossible to me to answer more than 18 maths questions in 25 mins.

Landslide79

Hi folks, hope all is good with everyone.

I've spent a few hours today focusing on the numerical tests as this would be my weakest point...to echo some of the other comments, I'd say I'll be doing well to just get the requisite pass mark, based on my results so far.

There are a lot of components required to answer some of the questions....even though I am going quickly, it's taking me the guts of 4 mins for a few of them r.e. doing all of my calculations to get the final answer - just wondering how other people have handled this? Any hacks that help speed up answering? I know how to figure out most of the problems - just feels like it's taking me far too much time going through the motions. Cheers in advance for any advice!

griffid

Just tried the numeric in SHL. My first attempt was woeful. My second attempt was slightly less than woeful.

Rainbowstar

Hi all.
Well how the hell are people supposed to practice for these tests while working full-time from home with two small kids I do not know.
Definitely won't be progressing this time around I fear.

For some asking, the numerical and verbal samples on SHL are very similar to the AP actual tests.
I too find the numerical very tough but have passed it online and supervised. (just)
My advice is practice them over and focus on getting the ones you understand right and move on if you don't think you'll get it. You only need a minimum to pass so if a question takes lots of calculations, but you understand how to do it, then complete it - as every correct answer is one more towards passing.
If you don't know how to work it out move on quickly.

I hate that there are no decent situational analysis sample tests. I did well on these last time both online and supervised but it would be great to prepare better.
This is the most important score in terms of your placement on the order of merit (OOM).
Best of luck everyone.
If anyone knows a Mary Poppins please send them my way!!!!!

Orchid1

Is 40% a pass mark or 50?

Rainbowstar

Closer to 40.

smeefi

Hi All,

I applied for the AP tax specialist position and got an email to say that I'm through to the next stage.

I'm currently in the private sector so just wondering if anyone could shed any light on what to expect next?

Thanks!

Milenauno

Rainbowstar wrote: »

Closer to 40.

When you say 40% do you mean numerical and verbal? Thanks

Orchid1

As far as I’m aware you have to at least pass each test? I.e. if you fail one you’re out? But I could be wrong

quad_red

Orchid1 wrote: »

Is 40% a pass mark or 50?

A friend mailed PAS asking what the pass mark was and was it correct that once the pass mark was achieved in all 3 segments (verbal, maths and situational), only the verbal score affected the OOM (as some have claimed on here).

They were told that PAS would not provide any information in how testing is scored to candidates.