Principal Officer competition 2022

Curranjo

Just did the tests now. Critical Analysis was good and feel confident i passed. Job simulation was tough. Seems like each option could have been appropriate or inappropriate so not sure how i do on that

NEWBIEGRL8

To answer posters, i have done the AP numerical tests for the latest competition and they were easier to understand than the the examples for the PO critical analysis tests.

I would say they are going to be more difficult than the AP tests from looking at the samples but I could be wrong and stand corrected.

Has anyone on here completed both the AP and PO numerical tests and advise if the PO ones are indeed harder??

I had started doing the jobtestprep samples (bought the pack) but they don't seem to be anything like the PO tests samples at all.

May Day

May I ask on a broad sense what areas of numerical reasoning I should focus on. From past exp it was almost always ratios percentages projected percentage increases of decreases.

zeus

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118860311#Comment_118860311

Was it strange doing the video of your room? Don't know why, but feel like I could mess that up 🤣

Peeling1979

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118860946#Comment_118860946

I did these yesterday. Pretty ok with how I felt afterwards, the main thing is that I managed to complete it, time wasn’t an issue with the 35 min test, a bit of pressure for the second one.

As a current public servant I think experience of the public service did help for the first exercise.

That’s pretty much it for the second exercise May Day, calculator beside you is key. That section of the test has both verbal and numerical examples, personally I found the verbal easier, less time consuming, it could be just that they suit me better.

The format is good / user friendly. The camera test felt a bit funny.

Hopefully we get results within a month.

May Day

Thanks Peeling1979. That is great to know.

Hope they won't mind my kitchen but it is both the quietest place and the best for signal! It will make me tidy up anyway. Appreciate the feedback though, and the best of luck to you with the results. Thanks a million.

Curranjo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118862450#Comment_118862450

it actually was a bit, i was working off a laptop so hopefully scanned all the areas they requested

APparently

I found the room scan a bit awkward as I used a laptop so I couldn't really see where the camera was pointing. I wonder what happens if you didn't scan the room properly but there wasn't anything nefarious going on?? Anyway, I did the situational judgement ones yesterday and found them pretty ok, which concerns me actually that I may have given the complete wrong answers! I am going to do the critical analysis ones today, as I couldn't find a calculator in the house yesterday.

May Day

actually- are we supposed to re-scan afterwards or take a screen shot of our rough work sheet- I looked at the 2019 thread - it seemed it was different for different people.

APparently

Not as far as I know. I didn't have any roughwork sheet as I thought we might not be allowed any paper. I could have done with it for some of the numerical ones instead of trying to keep numbers in my head.

APparently

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118865328#Comment_118865328

Also, after I did the live tests all four tests and room scans were greyed out so I would not have been able to do the room scan again. I'm a bit stressed about the procturing element of these tests because what is stopping PAS telling me in a few weeks time that my room scan was not complete or the room was too dark or I didn't spend a full 15 seconds on each part and therefore they are eliminating me from the comp? I would prefer the live person at the other end of the screen watching us that has been used in previous competitions.

NEWBIEGRL8

Has anyone had difficulty submitting the room scan? My screen kept hanging and i ended up having to send emails to the service providers tech support team. They told me to change to Microsoft edge which i did and that worked. However when i was in the live test for the job simulation the screen was hanging and wouldnt go to the next questions, i ended up having to go to the tool bar at the top and press return to force it to the next page.

Has anyone had any issues with this?

Also does anyone know if the critical analysis test is one where you have to answer as many questions as you can in a short time frame?

If that is the case and my screen keeps hanging like it has now for this test i am in trouble. Would it be worth my while flagging this with PAS?

tea and coffee

Do you get an email telling you that your identity had been verified? I haven't got anything 😕

May Day

Tea and coffee.. you should have got an automated message from assessment intelligence.com within one day. Mine came through a few hours after submitting it. Just make sure to email them as I emailed re chrome version and they responded by saying I hadn't verified my ID not looked at the familiarisation material. I sent in the verification email and they simply responded by " you did in fact verify your id" !! So make sure to email them

Msrule

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118865373#Comment_118865373

Hi everyone.... I've just done these tests, first time trying so curious to see how it goes.

The information booklet states your desk has to be clear apart from paper, calculator, pen and reading glasses! I'd say you definitely need the paper, pen and calculator.

Feel sorry for the poor moderator examining the footage of the dust under my desk.

Trickedout

Just completed the tests. Found the Critical Analysis test much harder than previous ones. not very hopeful of getting through to be honest.

champs19

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118820779#Comment_118820779

I know that PAS for the 2019 competition called up to 796 on stage 1 of the order of merit to stage 2 (video interviews) and were not going beyond that.

A months ago at a union AGM there was a high level update provided on the 2019 Competition indicating a breakdown of 75% of successful assignments were existing Civil Servants and 25% from Public side. There was approx 78 assignments (may stand corrected) with a further cohort ready for appointment but there was no guarantee of assignments if the new '22 panel was ready.

78Ned

Thank you Champs. 78 assignments seems low. I also recollect booklet said first assignments from this competition would not be until next year 2023 at the earliest.

78Ned

Just did critical analysis test. Found it very difficult. Don’t think I passed.

Trickedout

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118877491#Comment_118877491

Same here. Its really odd that the language in the verbal analysis was so incomprehensible. I'm a serving civil servant and anything I've ever received from assistant secretaries or external consultants has been extremely easy to read. I don't understand why they made the verbal reasoning so difficult.

78Ned

I am glad I am not the only one who found the verbal resonating part of the test practically incomprehensible. I guess it’s a case of wait and see how the tests are scored and the pass mark required.

78Ned

Reasoning not resonating !

flended12

Done. Lets wait and see

zeus

I'm not too confident at all. Let's see what happens.

eoinola

Such a strange experience! So much second guessing. Agreed that the verbal was all over the place and whomever wrote it would not get the role!! Given that the scoring we get is based on how the group as a whole taking the test scores makes it hard to gauge the outcome.

Ahell

First time to do this exam and found it really strange. No real idea how it went.. Could have passed could have failed. Won't hold out for a call up though 😂😂

powpowa22

Done , the room scan was weird don’t know if I held camera in place long enough. I overall thought it was easier than AP exam but I could be proved wrong, i thought critical analysis had a good balance of numerical and verbal

dotski_w_

Re the text being hard to navigate, while I'd agree it was more so than most material you would receive in the CS, the reality is that occasionally you get very poorly drafted material that has been given to a Minister or advisor who will want you to look at it, and so it makes sense to measure how well you analyse that, rather than something that everyone will understand anyway, it's the other stuff that's more likely to trip you up in real life anyway. None of it was beyond understanding I felt (unless I completely misunderstood it of course...), and we had plenty of time (I was finished 10 minutes early on the first test and 7 minutes on the second one).

No idea of course whether my measure of what was "appropriate" was the same as what they were looking at, but I could generally give an answer (sometimes there was an "it depends" in my head, but you answer what you can!). Maths/analysis part was very easy IMO, anyone struggling with that would really struggle in a lot of PO jobs (as in, not be suitable for them).

Anyone know when they will contact us and invite people to the stage 2 (self recorded video of yourself on 2-3 competencies, isn't it)?

dotski_w_

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118808813#Comment_118808813

Revised for the dates of the online test which was earlier, we might expect results about 24th April, if they turn them around as quickly as the last time.

Wolverinex

I found parts of the critical analysis very difficult and other parts worryingly easy! Made me wonder if I was missing something! Job simulation was very subjective and as others have said it just depends on what they are looking for.

Best of luck anyway to everyone.