NEW 2020 Assistant Principal Officer Competition

Brera · 29-05-2020 9:00am

Caip79 wrote: »

https://www.jobtestprep.co.uk/irish-civil-service-assistant-principal-prep/

Great. Thank you

Anonire · 29-05-2020 9:51am

Done.
Never really know how these things go so the wait is on.
Best of luck to everyone.

My link also would not work but as another poster said edit it to remove the public jobs part.
I was a bit confused as usually when you get a link to aptitude tests it takes you straight in but mine to me to a sign up page.

silverwatch · 29-05-2020 10:35am

WerdnaBe wrote: »

Hi All,

Did the tests yesterday evening and the questionnaire this morning.

Timing was the same as the pre-tests.

The numerical was 6 graphs/tables with 3 questions on each of them. Verbal was also 3 questions per paragraph. I found this an easier layout than the pre-tests as you got to know the info for 3 questions rather than having to decipher new information each time.

There are practise tests before each assessment if you wish to take them. DO NOT BE THROWN IF YOUR NUMERICAL PRACTISE TEST IS HARD... MY PRACTICE TEST WAS SO HARD COMPARED TO MY ACTUAL TEST!

The questionnaire gave a paragraph with 5 possible levels of effectiveness as opposed to the 2 in the pre-test.

Are these a different format so the practice ones? Possibly more like the cut-e ones? Sounds like they’re nicer than the practice ones we got. I was actually considering not doing them at all. Barely scraping 57% in verbal.

Rainbowstar · 29-05-2020 11:40am

WerdnaBe wrote: »

Hi All,

Did the tests yesterday evening and the questionnaire this morning.

Timing was the same as the pre-tests.

The numerical was 6 graphs/tables with 3 questions on each of them. Verbal was also 3 questions per paragraph. I found this an easier layout than the pre-tests as you got to know the info for 3 questions rather than having to decipher new information each time.

There are practise tests before each assessment if you wish to take them. DO NOT BE THROWN IF YOUR NUMERICAL PRACTISE TEST IS HARD... MY PRACTICE TEST WAS SO HARD COMPARED TO MY ACTUAL TEST!

The questionnaire gave a paragraph with 5 possible levels of effectiveness as opposed to the 2 in the pre-test.

When you say you did the questionnaire what do you mean? I'm just wondering can you do a section on different days or are all tests to be done in one sitting? I think they're all in one sitting but time-wise if I could do the situational another day it'd be super.

Rainbowstar · 29-05-2020 11:41am

ammg wrote: »

Is there negative marking?

There's no negative marking you're just scored for the ones you get right!

Kurn · 29-05-2020 12:15pm

Do you need to do them all on the same day?

WerdnaBe · 29-05-2020 12:45pm

silverwatch wrote: »

Are these a different format so the practice ones? Possibly more like the cut-e ones? Sounds like they’re nicer than the practice ones we got. I was actually considering not doing them at all. Barely scraping 57% in verbal.

I'm not familiar with the cut-e but the format was quite different to the practice test supplied last week.

DO THEM! What's the worst that can happen!

WerdnaBe · 29-05-2020 12:46pm

Rainbowstar wrote: »

When you say you did the questionnaire what do you mean? I'm just wondering can you do a section on different days or are all tests to be done in one sitting? I think they're all in one sitting but time-wise if I could do the situational another day it'd be super.

Yes, as advised by PAS, sections can be done on different days.

By questionnaire, I mean the situational judgment questionnaire.

Rainbowstar · 29-05-2020 2:19pm

WerdnaBe wrote: »

Yes, as advised by PAS, sections can be done on different days.

By questionnaire, I mean the situational judgment questionnaire.

That's super - I never knew that. Thank you

dellbell111 · 29-05-2020 4:06pm

Thanks for the update

Rdwrer · 29-05-2020 4:08pm

Rainbowstar wrote: »

There's no negative marking you're just scored for the ones you get right!

How do you know this?

granturismo · 29-05-2020 5:55pm

Does anyone know how many questions are in the Situational exam?

thanks

RedBarchetta · 30-05-2020 8:28am

granturismo wrote: »

Does anyone know how many questions are in the Situational exam?

thanks

16

quad_red · 30-05-2020 11:26am

Rainbowstar wrote: »

There's no negative marking you're just scored for the ones you get right!

PAS have specifically refused to confirm/deny this. How do you know?

Orchid1 · 30-05-2020 3:20pm

SJ Test done. There was technical glitch half way through where it told me my answers couldn’t be saved . Had to ring the helpline but all fine in the end. Just in case anyone has a similar issue

griffid · 30-05-2020 4:09pm

Orchid1 wrote: »

SJ Test done. There was technical glitch half way through where it told me my answers couldn’t be saved . Had to ring the helpline but all fine in the end. Just in case anyone has a similar issue

Oh lord the panic!!!!

Adman13 · 30-05-2020 4:48pm

Are they using only the verbal and situational tests for ranking purposes, do we know?

Hope so as my numerical wouldn't have been top marks for sure!

MrMistoffelees · 30-05-2020 5:36pm

Done & dusted - phew!
Now for a glass of wine

MrMistoffelees · 30-05-2020 5:41pm

Adman13 wrote: »

Are they using only the verbal and situational tests for ranking purposes, do we know?

Hope so as my numerical wouldn't have been top marks for sure!

That’s what they used last time

Cheeseplant · 30-05-2020 5:59pm

quad_red wrote: »

PAS have specifically refused to confirm/deny this. How do you know?

I guess we don't know this for sure but I'd imagine if there was negative marking there would have to be a note in the instructions telling you not to guess. From memory, don't these tests usually say something about not spending too long in a question and make your best guess and move on??

Adman13 · 30-05-2020 6:00pm

MrMistoffelees wrote: »

That’s what they used last time

Thanks, hope so.

Orchid1 · 31-05-2020 1:03pm

Does anyone know how long it generally takes to get the results?

The Student · 31-05-2020 2:05pm

Just completed them. Best of luck to all. Any idea will there still be physical sitting of exams in future phases of this competition with covid etc?

Orchid1 · 31-05-2020 5:16pm

Just finished them too. Found numerical very tough

Pdbtsi · 31-05-2020 5:20pm

Done. Found verbal fine but did struggle with time in the numerical. And the practice question at the beginning totally threw me!

Connected99 · 31-05-2020 6:28pm

I got a 2nd message from PAS Friday saying there was issues with link issued on Thurs 28th and they sent the link again for the actual tests.. ðŸ˜Š

Based on reading the last few posts here...
Are the verbal/numerical layouts different from the practice tests we were sent from PAS?
I've done the cut-E tests before but not SHL tests....

Thanks..

Caip79 · 31-05-2020 7:11pm

completed tests, found numerical extremely difficult, was running out of time and ended up guessing a lot. Verbal and situational I found fine. Does anyone know if we need to get a certain rate on numerical to be considered or is the marking just against situational and verbal?

dellbell111 · 31-05-2020 8:09pm

Caip79 wrote: »

completed tests, found numerical extremely difficult, was running out of time and ended up guessing a lot. Verbal and situational I found fine. Does anyone know if we need to get a certain rate on numerical to be considered or is the marking just against situational and verbal?

How much time was given for the numerical. I am Totally dreading it as it's not my strong point

Caip79 · 31-05-2020 8:47pm

18 mins for 12 q’s

Orchid1 · 31-05-2020 8:53pm

It’s 18 questions in 25 mins. I did it earlier and that was definitely the timing. Not sure about above post?

mariagirl · 31-05-2020 8:53pm

Im just wondering if these tests, especially the numerical are much more difficult to what PAS sent in the pre test material a couple of weeks ago. I found these impossible..are the real tests equally difficult? are there a lot of cslculations in the test one? Thanks

griffid · 31-05-2020 9:08pm

I have been doing practice tests for numerical all week and I have literally gotten no better. Soul destroying. Surely by now I’d have coped on to at least reading the question properly???

Orchid1 · 31-05-2020 9:50pm

I did practice numerical questions all week, was feeling far more confident and getting the majority of practice questions right but I didn’t feel the practice questions reflected the difficulty of the test to be honest. Time was also a big issue for the last few questions. I’m not even sure i managed a pass in the end. The only thing is that a lot of people seem to struggle with the numerical so I guess that’s some consolation

Caip79 · 31-05-2020 10:26pm

sorry typo

Anonire · 31-05-2020 10:31pm

granturismo wrote: »

Does anyone know how many questions are in the Situational exam?

thanks

16 scenarios 100 questions in total..

Anonire · 31-05-2020 10:34pm

Connected99 wrote: »

I got a 2nd message from PAS Friday saying there was issues with link issued on Thurs 28th and they sent the link again for the actual tests.. ��

Based on reading the last few posts here...
Are the verbal/numerical layouts different from the practice tests we were sent from PAS?
I've done the cut-E tests before but not SHL tests....

Thanks..

I've done cut e also.
I found these ones to be alot more generous time wise and also alot less reading. No sifting through tabs.. Wether or not my answers are correct now I don't know.

Aglomerado · 31-05-2020 11:02pm

I did it this afternoon, found it very difficult, even though I remember some of the questions from previous years (work uniforms costings have come up many times!)
Didn't like not being able to revisit a question if I skipped it.
Oh well.

Pdbtsi · 01-06-2020 7:08am

I like that the numerical test had several questions on one graph / table, as opposed to the practice in which you had one question per graph/table and therefore had to absorb new information each time. Not that it helped me much, mind!

Audreyly · 01-06-2020 9:23am

Did the exams yesterday evening, found the numerical very tough, 18 questions in 25 minutes. didn’t complete all the questions so guessed the last few, let’s hope no negative marking lol, Practice test was different to the real test. Had a glitch in the situational section, one of my scenarios didn’t match the questions I was being asked, Q’s 61-67, have email the help line about it, waiting on a reply, there are 16 scenarios in this section but 100 questions overall

Audreyly · 01-06-2020 9:28am

Did the exams yesterday evening, found the numerical very tough, 18 questions in 25 minutes. didn’t complete all the questions so guessed the last few, let’s hope no negative marking lol, Practice test was different to the real test. Had a glitch in the situational section, one of my scenarios didn’t match the questions I was being asked, Q’s 61-67, have email the help line about it, waiting on a reply, there are 16 scenarios in this section but 100 questions overall

Maximus_1 · 01-06-2020 9:43am

Some weekend of weather to be thinking about these tests! Wish I did them Friday instead of waiting as if I'll magically get smarter over the weekend!

griffid · 01-06-2020 10:45am

Maximus_1 wrote: »

Some weekend of weather to be thinking about these tests! Wish I did them Friday instead of waiting as if I'll magically get smarter over the weekend!

Here’s your sister. It’s worse I’m getting and better the weather is getting.

Vologda69 · 01-06-2020 10:56am

Do you have to do numerical and verbal before you do the situational judgrment?

Conqueror · 01-06-2020 11:04am

Vologda69 wrote: »

Do you have to do numerical and verbal before you do the situational judgrment?

No. You can do the tests in any order, and you don't have to do them all in one sitting.

jones · 01-06-2020 1:02pm

Was it just me or is the practice numerical test unbelievably hard? So many inter related calculations needed for each one. I only got 5 right in my first go OUCH!

More practice needed before the real thing. Maybe its just me but these seem a lot harder than the Cut-e ones i'd previously successfully completed or maybe i'm just out of practice :-).

MrMistoffelees · 01-06-2020 1:55pm

Orchid1 wrote: »

Does anyone know how long it generally takes to get the results?

Took 3 weeks last time

jaja321 · 01-06-2020 2:16pm

Just completed there. Found numerical really difficult..But it's not my strong point at all. Really struggled and I did lots of practice..it would be a miracle if i passed it! Verbal was fine and sit jud was also ok but just took a lot of time.

Pinkmouse2020 · 01-06-2020 2:40pm

jaja321 wrote: »

Just completed there. Found numerical really difficult..But it's not my strong point at all. Really struggled and I did lots of practice..it would be a miracle if i passed it! Verbal was fine and sit jud was also ok but just took a lot of time.

Same as that found numerical so hard.... Despite hours of practice... Hoping overall for a good score... First time applying so not 100% on how it all works...

Cheeseplant · 01-06-2020 5:32pm

Audreyly wrote: »

Did the exams yesterday evening, found the numerical very tough, 18 questions in 25 minutes. didn’t complete all the questions so guessed the last few, let’s hope no negative marking lol, Practice test was different to the real test. Had a glitch in the situational section, one of my scenarios didn’t match the questions I was being asked, Q’s 61-67, have email the help line about it, waiting on a reply, there are 16 scenarios in this section but 100 questions overall

Same here- emailed them and waiting on reply. Did you get one?
Siutational was complete pain in the bum.. not like previous IMO. Not even geared towards CS!
Maths and verbal fun to look forward to tomorrow.

Landslide79 · 01-06-2020 6:16pm

Just did the numerical there - would definitely agree that the actual test is easier than the practice tests...however I let the change in structure overwhelm me and my gut tells me that I didn't do enough to pass. A lot of educated guesses were made and I didn't actually do that many calculations! I'll tackle the verbal and the questionnaire tomorrow on a fresh head.

Best of luck to ye all, it's definitely worth taking a minute at the beginning of the test to collect yourself and then I'm sure you will fly through it . Ye all deserve to go through so fingers crossed.

NEW 2020 Assistant Principal Officer Competition

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