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NEW 2018 Assistant Principal Officer Competition

bobbysands81

Good luck everyone!

https://www.publicjobs.ie/en/?option=com_jobsearch&view=jobdetails&cid=94163

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sillysocks

dee75 wrote: »

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

Interesting info! Thanks for that.
So the actual test scores didn’t impact the order on the panel? Only the interview results?

PhoenixParker

We're the 205 from stage two invited to interview everyone who qualified of the original 1047, or were they just batch 1?

Was there a cv shortlisting at stage 1/2 or was that not used?

dee75

Addle wrote: »

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?

That was Batch 1 from the 1047

dee75

PhoenixParker wrote: »

We're the 205 from stage two invited to interview everyone who qualified of the original 1047, or were they just batch 1?

Was there a cv shortlisting at stage 1/2 or was that not used?

The 205 were just Batch 1 from the 1047

I don't think there was a shortlisting of cv's in the last competition.

dee75

sillysocks wrote: »

Interesting info! Thanks for that.
So the actual test scores didn’t impact the order on the panel? Only the interview results?

As far as I can remember only your interview score affected your final Order of Merit. But to get that far you had to score highly after Stage 1 and 2 tests but then slate wiped clean again each time.

Megidje

lapua20grain wrote: »

Did one of the SHL tests 2 weeks ago for a job flew through all and then had a major brain fart in the middle of the maths one couldn't get my head around 4 questions and ended up not answering 4. It can be a bit off putting that it can go pear shaped so easily.

Don’t suppose it was the currency qs that you had an issue with?

lapua20grain

Megidje wrote:

Donâ€™t suppose it was the currency qs that you had an issue with?

It wasn't it was the ratio ones just a major brain fart couldn't figure it out in my head. This time I had 3 mins left at the end of the maths questions, that's not to say I got a high score

Anakha

Megidje wrote: »

Don’t suppose it was the currency qs that you had an issue with?

It was the currency ones I totally messed up on and they were fairly early on so then I spent the rest of the time panicked and looking at the clock

CZ 453

Anyone having issues accessing the assessment? I have the latest adobe and it is still saying I don't or it's not enabled. I have it enabled also. Any ideas? Thanks

Megidje

Anakha wrote: »

It was the currency ones I totally messed up on and they were fairly early on so then I spent the rest of the time panicked and looking at the clock

Yeah I got completely stuck on currency ones (don’t even remember ratio qs !) Ah well unless I got the last 4 qs that I guessed right, I’m goosed.

never_mind

Well that was a load of balls.

Numerical questions were very difficult - hadn’t w breeze tbh. I hate that kind of maths - give me algebra any day!

Other components were ok. I’d say I did well on the management scenario one but probably won’t get on to next stage cause of numerical. Oh well!!

gmisk

I did practice for verbal reasoning and that was alright.... The numerical one wasn't so good... I really need more time and I would be fine..

Anakha

CZ 453 wrote: »

Anyone having issues accessing the assessment? I have the latest adobe and it is still saying I don't or it's not enabled. I have it enabled also. Any ideas? Thanks

I think people have been having problems with Chrome. I tried using Chrome and it didnt work, ended up using Mozilla.
There is a tech queries email though, so they can probably shed more light on it

C.O.Y.B.I.B

Megidje wrote: »

Yeah I got completely stuck on currency ones (don’t even remember ratio qs !) Ah well unless I got the last 4 qs that I guessed right, I’m goosed.

+1 on those poxy currency questions.....
Other then that , think it went alright , though in situation judgement one of the "situations" didn't match the questions so I screenshot it and sent it to the support address. Any idea how that'll play out ? thanks

delricyo

C.O.Y.B.I.B wrote: »

+1 on those poxy currency questions.....
Other then that , think it went alright , though in situation judgement one of the "situations" didn't match the questions so I screenshot it and sent it to the support address. Any idea how that'll play out ? thanks

I can't recall any of the situational questions being irrelevant to the scenario. But I'm sure that if it is incorrect, we will be marked out of 99 questions instead?

Sir Ophiuchus

I got caught on time as well on the numerical: only got 15 answered. I'm reassuring myself with the thought that the important thing with that one is just to make the pass mark.

The_Conductor

CZ 453 wrote: »

Anyone having issues accessing the assessment? I have the latest adobe and it is still saying I don't or it's not enabled. I have it enabled also. Any ideas? Thanks

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

never_mind

I applied to another specialist AP role outside of this competition with PAS as well - would the exact same process be involved would anyone know?

TaurenDruid

never_mind wrote: »

I applied to another specialist AP role outside of this competition with PAS as well - would the exact same process be involved would anyone know?

It depends on how specialist it is and how many jobs there are. If they're establishing a panel and/or expecting a large number of applicants then they'd use a similar process, but I've applied for some specialist roles that just shortlisted for interview based on CV.

delricyo

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..........

That's good to know. They should really issue a message to all who applied to clarify this. Would have saved me some stress on Sat:)

never_mind

delricyo wrote: »

That's good to know. They should really issue a message to all who applied to clarify this. Would have saved me some stress on Sat:)

The same thing happened to me. I downloaded the newest Flash and it worked perfectly after that. Download the package and then restart Chrome/FF and it should work.

Kilometres na gcopaleen

I kept getting a Flash error in Chrome, even when I updated Flash, until I changed the settings by clicking on the lock to the left of the URL bar and changed Flash to "Always allow on this site". The tests worked fine thereafter.

I found the tests really challenging and to my mind kind of unfair. Some of the questions in the numerical and verbal seemed worded in a deliberately misleading fashion and I only realised after the fact that there were a couple I had misinterpreted and likely selected the wrong answer.

Anyone else have trouble reading grey text on a white background? I increased the Zoom which helped a bit. I completed both the Verbal and Numerical, but my final answer in the latter was just a guess based on time running out. I would not be confident that I'll proceed to the following stage.

never_mind

Kilometres na gcopaleen wrote: »

I kept getting a Flash error in Chrome, even when I updated Flash, until I changed the settings by clicking on the lock to the left of the URL bar and changed Flash to "Always allow on this site". The tests worked fine thereafter.

I found the tests really challenging and to my mind kind of unfair. Some of the questions in the numerical and verbal seemed worded in a deliberately misleading fashion and I only realised after the fact that there were a couple I had misinterpreted and likely selected the wrong answer.

Anyone else have trouble reading grey text on a white background? I increased the Zoom which helped a bit. I completed both the Verbal and Numerical, but my final answer in the latter was just a guess based on time running out. I would not be confident that I'll proceed to the following stage.

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.

:Keith:

Finished the tests this morning. Verbal and management scenarios seemed OK to me. Numerical was more mixed. Trying to put it out of my mind now until the next text from Public Jobs!

CavanGilly

C.O.Y.B.I.B wrote: »

+1 on those poxy currency questions.....
Other then that , think it went alright , though in situation judgement one of the "situations" didn't match the questions so I screenshot it and sent it to the support address. Any idea how that'll play out ? thanks

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

quad_red

:Keith: wrote: »

Finished the tests this morning. Verbal and management scenarios seemed OK to me. Numerical was more mixed. Trying to put it out of my mind now until the next text from Public Jobs!

I *detest* those texts. Hate them. Why can't they just put the content of the goddamn message into a message. Or an email. So you just know immediately.

Anyway - tests done.

I did my first PAS tests maybe 7 years ago? Initially I nailed verbal and badly struggled at numerical. Now I kinda feel stronger at numerical than verbal.

One or two of those verbal ones - it's ambiguous as hell what the answer is.

Ravelleman

quad_red wrote: »

I *detest* those texts. Hate them. Why can't they just put the content of the goddamn message into a message. Or an email. So you just know immediately.

Between this and updating the form, it would probably turn out to be the single largest technological investment in the history of the State.

quad_red

Ravelleman wrote: »

Between this and updating the form, it would probably turn out to be the single largest technological investment in the history of the State.

Paypars: Nothing will ever match me in terms of IT project failures.

Upgraded PAS notification system: Hold my beer...

The_Conductor

quad_red wrote: »

Paypars: Nothing will ever match me in terms of IT project failures.

Upgraded PAS notification system: Hold my beer...

There are plenty of other dubious IT developments out there too- just because the media never got hold of them, doesn't mean they don't exist........

quad_red

The_Conductor wrote: »

There are plenty of other dubious IT developments out there too- just because the media never got hold of them, doesn't mean they don't exist........

Ah, I know. I was only joking. Gallows humour!