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Third Secretary & Development Specialist Campaign 2020

exitstageleft

New campaign opened yesterday:

publicjobs
.ie/en/graduate-opportunities/graduate-third-secretary

Maybe we could use this new thread to share information and keep track of the campaign's progress.

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completedit

Yeah, just got the email.

Need to focus now over the weekend. Best of luck to everyone. Tests will be tough I'd imagine.

timmy99

Hi, does anyone know of any good websites or free apps to practice for these tests. Cheers.

completedit

timmy99 wrote: »

Hi, does anyone know of any good websites or free apps to practice for these tests. Cheers.

Man, I can link you. I got some nice info from the dfa for the Commission Epso exams back in March. Similar structure of questions. The situational questions will be interesting to say the least.

onthemaas

timmy99 wrote: »

Hi, does anyone know of any good websites or free apps to practice for these tests. Cheers.

I would also be interested in knowing this as I have little to no idea of what to expect.

PurpleRainx

Hi All, does anybody know where/if we can practice the messaging situational judgement test?

In the booklet they say:

"Two practice items are included in the link below:

Situational Judgement Practice Information"

But I can't for the life of me find these practice items! Can anybody point me in the right direction?

Also-has anybody experience of these aon tests? are they as tough as they seem? Any advice on where to access extra practice tests etc.?

Good luck everybody, let's hope this is one of the few good things to come out of 2020!

5p9arw38djv2b4

completedit wrote: »

Man, I can link you. I got some nice info from the dfa for the Commission Epso exams back in March. Similar structure of questions. The situational questions will be interesting to say the least.

If you could link these I would be so grateful also. The tests sound very different to the EO if the math answers are true/ false. And the test times are very short.

blithe

LadyLabyrinth wrote: »

If you could link these I would be so grateful also. The tests sound very different to the EO if the math answers are true/ false. And the test times are very short.

I'd also appreciate a link to this, thanks very much @completedit!

Good luck with the study everyone

completedit

Hey guys,

I'll just leave it here for people to click on it. I have no idea which are more damanding but the questions at least provide a guide that we can use to help ourselves prep. Abstract, Verbal and Numerical sample questions provided as you scroll down the page.

https://www.dfa.ie/eujobs/eu-concours-prep/

completedit

PurpleRainx wrote: »

Hi All, does anybody know where/if we can practice the messaging situational judgement test?

In the booklet they say:

"Two practice items are included in the link below:

Situational Judgement Practice Information"

But I can't for the life of me find these practice items! Can anybody point me in the right direction?

Also-has anybody experience of these aon tests? are they as tough as they seem? Any advice on where to access extra practice tests etc.?

Good luck everybody, let's hope this is one of the few good things to come out of 2020!

They just provide two sample questions that lays out the simulated scenario you may encounter in the test. A manager messages you about two issues and you have to pick the best response. One involves you having to attend a conference "in Europe" in place of your manager. And you have to pick the most appropriate e-mail response. The second question follows on from that and again, you pick the most appropriate response. I am being vague but I am shattered haha.
What stood out for me is that none of the responses are woefully inappropriate like you sometimes get on things like this.
As far as I can see, they don't give the correct answer.

5p9arw38djv2b4

completedit wrote: »

Hey guys,

I'll just leave it here for people to click on it. I have no idea which are more damanding but the questions at least provide a guide that we can use to help ourselves prep. Abstract, Verbal and Numerical sample questions provided as you scroll down the page.

https://www.dfa.ie/eujobs/eu-concours-prep/

Really nice of you, thanks very much.

PurpleRainx

Has anybody else noticed they have not advised in the booklet how many deductive logical thinking qs there will be in 6mins? Strange I find. Wishfully hoping this means very few

Also I cannot find the 3 minute practice tests with 6 questions on the AON website they refer to in the booklet. Am I just being silly?

Good luck with the prep everybody!

ticklemonster

PurpleRainx wrote: »

Has anybody else noticed they have not advised in the booklet how many deductive logical thinking qs there will be in 6mins? Strange I find. Wishfully hoping this means very few

Also I cannot find the 3 minute practice tests with 6 questions on the AON website they refer to in the booklet. Am I just being silly?

Good luck with the prep everybody!

I think these practice questions are available before the actual test online as a warm up. Could be wrong though...

exitstageleft

PurpleRainx wrote: »

Has anybody else noticed they have not advised in the booklet how many deductive logical thinking qs there will be in 6mins? Strange I find. Wishfully hoping this means very few

Also I cannot find the 3 minute practice tests with 6 questions on the AON website they refer to in the booklet. Am I just being silly?

I'd have to double check to be sure but I thought the practise questions would arrive in the next email with the link to the actual test.
I did scan over the videos on the AON site but asides from explaining the format they're not a huge pile of help.

completedit

I'm loving getting to grips with the deductive reasoning ones. Gets so addictive.

Numerical reasoning up next.

5p9arw38djv2b4

completedit wrote: »

I'm loving getting to grips with the deductive reasoning ones. Gets so addictive.

Numerical reasoning up next.

Any ideas where to find practice ones for 5x5 grids? I can find loads of 4x4 but not the others, have Google everything I can think of!

ticklemonster

Just curious if anyone has any idea how having a health condition might affect an application? I have type 1 diabetes so need to manage that and unsure how it would be affected by placement in a developing country

Brusselswizard

Hi all, my first post here but really wanted to know how people outside of Dublin or even Ireland for that matter feel about moving to Dublin? As far as I know, it is a minimum of 6 months??

Rent prices are just ridiculous - 1,000 euro for a single bed in a studio flat!

newbie18892

Brusselswizard wrote: »

Hi all, my first post here but really wanted to know how people outside of Dublin or even Ireland for that matter feel about moving to Dublin? As far as I know, it is a minimum of 6 months??

Rent prices are just ridiculous - 1,000 euro for a single bed in a studio flat!

I thought the booklet said 1-2 years in HQ in Dublin. I do feel bad for anyone moving here to rent. It's woeful.

HayleyOD95

Hey, New to the thread but I have applied for the DSO, wondering If anyone else has applied for this in Limerick? I have advanced to the test phase which is going to be released on Tuesday, Bit nervous about the numerical but does anyone else think that its odd that we have 12 minutes to do over 30 questions or is this normal for these positions ?

blithe

HayleyOD95 wrote: »

Hey, New to the thread but I have applied for the DSO, wondering If anyone else has applied for this in Limerick? I have advanced to the test phase which is going to be released on Tuesday, Bit nervous about the numerical but does anyone else think that its odd that we have 12 minutes to do over 30 questions or is this normal for these positions ?

Hey, welcome to the thread

I didn't apply to that position but it sounds super interesting, best of luck with it!
I'm a bit nervous of the numerical reasoning too but I'm going to practice as much as I can and just give it my best shot.

Regarding the number of questions, I've just been reading through the document they sent/watching the videos and they make it clear that most people do not complete all questions in that time. This applies to the other reasoning tests too. All you can do is work as quickly as you can manage while ensuring you are giving the best possible answer. Trying to get them all done in a rush will just lower the quality of your answers, so just try to do as many as you can.

Hope your study goes well

Brusselswizard

Thanks - it is a nightmare but I wonder if the situation of working from Dublin has changed during covid?

exitstageleft

HayleyOD95 wrote: »

Hey, New to the thread but I have applied for the DSO, wondering If anyone else has applied for this in Limerick? I have advanced to the test phase which is going to be released on Tuesday, Bit nervous about the numerical but does anyone else think that its odd that we have 12 minutes to do over 30 questions or is this normal for these positions ?

Whatever about the numerical questions I'm finding the 12 minutes to answer 49 questions in the verbal reasoning just ridiculous. It'd take me longer than that just to read the 6 passages and all the questions; nevermind actually finding the right answers!

I think this format is way harder than the old, one new paragraph for every 3 or 4 questions.

Paladin_

Brusselswizard wrote: »

Thanks - it is a nightmare but I wonder if the situation of working from Dublin has changed during covid?

I know some friends in the department were able to give up their apartments in Dublin and move home working remotely for the time being, but that situation will probably change by the time the competition closes and new TS are being onboarded idk.

exitstageleft

So the test links are out - who's gonna bite the bullet first and tell us all how easy / difficult they are this year?

KRedzer

exitstageleft wrote: »

So the test links are out - who's gonna bite the bullet first and tell us all how easy / difficult they are this year?

They’re the same tests as the Administrative Officer 2020 competition, and people are discussing their experiences with the tests in the associated thread for that, if you want to check that out.

ddpas

Hey does anyone know for the verbal reasoning test - is there just one data table (with tabbed sheets) for all 49 questions? Or will there be a new data table every couple of questions?

also, anyone hear if there's negative marking or if guesses are worth it near the end haha

blithe

ddpas wrote: »

Hey does anyone know for the verbal reasoning test - is there just one data table (with tabbed sheets) for all 49 questions? Or will there be a new data table every couple of questions? also, anyone hear if there's negative marking or if guesses are worth it near the end haha

Hey, I just completed the tests and there is just one data table (with tabbed sheets) for all of the questions in verbal reasoning.

As far as I'm aware there are negative marks for wrong answers....so don't do what I did and panic on the deductive logic test hahaha

ddpas

blithe wrote: »

Hey, I just completed the tests and there is just one data table (with tabbed sheets) for all of the questions in verbal reasoning.

As far as I'm aware there are negative marks for wrong answers....so don't do what I did and panic on the deductive logic test hahaha

Ok cool thanks a mil for that, was the numerical just one table too?!

Aw that's the worst haha I hope the others went well!

blithe

ddpas wrote: »

Ok cool thanks a mil for that! Aw that's the worst, hopefully the others went well!

No problem

The others were fine actually...or I think they went fine hahaha

Best of luck!

blithe

blithe wrote: »

No problem

The others were fine actually...or I think they went fine hahaha

Best of luck!

Edited: sorry, forgot to say that yes, numerical is just one table too (with tabbed sheets)