NEW 2016 Open and Interdepartmental Assistant Principal in Civil Service competition.

ATTY · 18-12-2016 8:22pm

tigger123 wrote: »

Anyone else find the numerical test hard to read? The typeface used and the graphs/tables I found difficult to make out.

I found it terrible for both verbal and numerical. It looked like when you take a screen shot of something and then try to enlarge it. Any time I have done this before the quality was far better. I also think the wording of some of the numerical test questions were poor.

boysmomma · 19-12-2016 2:07am

Hi guys, I'm thinking of applying for the EO exam, but I'm so bad at these types of tests! Are the numerical ones mainly testing reading of graphs/charts etc or are they more percentage and currency calculation type questions? I'm hearing that the application itself is quite detailed so I don't want to put loads of time into that if the numerical reasoning is going to be impossible

keepkeyyellow · 19-12-2016 12:04pm

Is it just me or is anyone finding this easier than the AO exam?

gazzer · 19-12-2016 2:05pm

keepkeyyellow wrote: »

Is it just me or is anyone finding this easier than the AO exam?

I found the Verbal and Aptitude Tests MUCH easier than the HEO ones from earlier in the year. I think the fact you didnt have to use tabs and go back and forth helped a great deal. I finished both of those sections this time around with time to spare.

I always fall down on the Job situation section. Hopefully this time I have answered them in the 'correct' way

franklyon · 19-12-2016 2:12pm

Deadline for completed tests is now 9pm on Tuesday 20th December.

Aglomerado · 19-12-2016 2:15pm

gazzer wrote: »

I found the Verbal and Aptitude Tests MUCH easier than the HEO ones from earlier in the year. I think the fact you didnt have to use tabs and go back and forth helped a great deal. I finished both of those sections this time around with time to spare.

I always fall down on the Job situation section. Hopefully this time I have answered them in the 'correct' way

Found myself running out of time for Numerical so just guessed the answers to the last two. I preferred the format of the Situational test for AP. For HEO you had to allocate 6 points across a number of possible actions; AP was much more straightforward.

I haven't a notion about how I will do, my first time trying for AP seeing as I know of some other EOs who made the jump in the last competition.
It's good experience whatever the outcome!

prettyboy81 · 19-12-2016 4:00pm

System seems to be acting up in publicjobs.ie not recognising my log in details. Typical them time I give myself to do the test.

Cupra280 · 19-12-2016 5:57pm

Just completed the three.

Good luck to everyone else.

dee75 · 19-12-2016 6:21pm

Does anyone know, if you are one of the lucky ones to get offered an AP role, how long will an external candidate be given to finish up his/her existing employment?

I am employed in the legal sector and it would take a bit of time to disengage from my current job. Would it be a major problem if you needed 3 months before you could start?

Thanks!

prettyboy81 · 19-12-2016 8:17pm

Just done & dusted. Best of luck everyone n Merry Crimbo.

tea and coffee · 19-12-2016 10:02pm

dee75 wrote: »

Does anyone know, if you are one of the lucky ones to get offered an AP role, how long will an external candidate be given to finish up his/her existing employment?

I am employed in the legal sector and it would take a bit of time to disengage from my current job. Would it be a major problem if you needed 3 months before you could start?

Thanks!

you'd more than likely be on a panel for several months so you'd have time to give notice. being on the panel is no guarantee of being placed though esp if further down the panel

DeirdreDee · 20-12-2016 2:10am

I agree that the typeface or whatever you call it was dreadful. For the numerical, it was quite disgraceful.

The verbal test was the same old rubbish, as was the job situational malarkey. The numerical this time was much more difficult than previous exams. I guessed a few at the end when I ran out of time. I suspect the pass mark will be lower than usual for the numerical. And remember, you only have to pass the numerical. You could get them all right but you get no extra marks.

Ridiculous of PAS to rush this test through in the week before Christmas; for their systems to down in the middle of it; and for much of the test to be barely readable.

dee75 · 20-12-2016 11:49am

tea and coffee wrote: »

you'd more than likely be on a panel for several months so you'd have time to give notice. being on the panel is no guarantee of being placed though esp if further down the panel

Thanks tea and coffee

I definitely wouldn't be handing in my notice if I was just on the panel.

What I was wondering more is once you are offered an assignment to a Department, and you accept it, how long would they give you to work out your notice elsewhere? If you told them your notice period was 3 to 4 months, is there any possibility they would decide to offer it to someone who was available sooner?

Dodge · 20-12-2016 11:53am

3 months is fairly long. The average waiting time for civil servants (i.e. Not outsiders coming in) would be 2/3 weeks from official offer. Now there may be a preliminary offer and that could give you some wiggle room but PAS are the people to speak to here (as soon as an offer is made)

mortimer33 · 20-12-2016 11:56am

I would have thought that 3 months notice is standard for upper management in most organisations - which is who this role is aimed at?

hardybuck · 20-12-2016 12:23pm

A minority of organisations need a quite rigorous Garda clearance process for obvious reasons. That can take in the region of 10 weeks to get over.

But the level of notice that's required is normally set out in your employment contract, and is underpinned by legislation in terms of minimum notice periods? Everything above that is agreed locally.

franklyon · 20-12-2016 9:57pm

Just finished it there, what a ***** of a test.
The numerical was impossible within the time limit, seriously calculate line by line how many fecking trousers were sold over a 5 year period, ratio blah and comission this.
Yeah easy to do if you had 10 minutes per questions but to do all that in the time allowed you would have to be superman.:mad:

The verbal one was tough too, yes the answers seemed obvious but they had inserted a word here and there and double negatives to trick one.

I suppose though whoever gets through will deserve it, certainly won't be me.

The_Conductor · 21-12-2016 8:09pm

Frankly- I'm relieved to read that I wasn't the only one who had severe difficulty even reading the numerical test. I did think the verbal and the situational/work skills test were fine- though the situational was very damn wishy washy- it didn't really assess you sufficiently I felt.

Anyhow- if we all felt the numerical was appalling- perhaps I'm not out of the competition- I had felt when I finished the test that I was 100% definitely out.........

Beebie · 21-12-2016 9:39pm

+1...totally agree Franklyon / The Conductor

Verbal / Maths brutal........much harder than last AP Test.
Maths is my weakest subject, I didn't need to worry about the graphs, I couldn't even understand the questions!!
In end, it was just tick something to get through it........soul destroying really but take some comfort that others felt the same.
...no way did I get through it...roll on next competition!

prettyboy81 · 22-12-2016 8:29am

I would imagine it will be January 2017 when we get the good/bad news on our results.

Wing Back · 22-12-2016 11:33am

Thought the verbal test was OK.

I know I messed up at least 2 questions in the numerical as read the graph wrong. That's just 2 I know are wrong....I'm not including the guesses there.

I think it's harsh that you can't go back. As I realised when I was on the 3rd question about that particular graph.

Thought the judgemental was a bit wishy washy in parts aswell to be honest.

Hopefully will get the results in a timely fashion.

It's a pity they can't tell you how you got on straight away once the test is done.

Dublinboard · 22-12-2016 12:06pm

Just wondering what preparation people do for these tests?

The_Conductor · 22-12-2016 1:11pm

Dublinboard wrote: »

Just wondering what preparation people do for these tests?

There isn't an awful lot of preparation you can do- other than get a good nights sleep and ensure you're not disturbed while doing the tests. It is a good idea to do the samples- and then redo them and keep redoing them- until you get them all correct- and are in a frame of mind to answer the test- but that said- the examples are on a whole scale easier than the real test questions.

Macy0161 · 22-12-2016 2:04pm

The_Conductor wrote: »

but that said- the examples are on a whole scale easier than the real test questions.

Maybe the results will show different, but I thought the actual Maths test was easier than both the practice ones, especially compared to the one's given at the time of pre test info.

dee75 · 22-12-2016 4:07pm

+ 1 on the numerical test too. Knew it was going to be tough as it's not my strongest point, but found several of the questions extremely difficult. Had to guess a couple as I was just taking too long to work out the calculations and even then my calculations were clearly wrong as my answer didn't tally with any of the options. And those bloody trousers/suits/shoes questions were terrible!

Also, I ran out of time at the end and stupidly didn't just abandon question 16 and at least put in a guess for 17 and 18.

In the situational test, for one question I ticked all six answers/suggestions as being undesirable/highly undesirable. Anyone else remember anything like that?

Flinchwhip · 22-12-2016 5:34pm

dee75 wrote: »

+ 1 on the numerical test too. Knew it was going to be tough as it's not my strongest point, but found several of the questions extremely difficult. Had to guess a couple as I was just taking too long to work out the calculations and even then my calculations were clearly wrong as my answer didn't tally with any of the options. And those bloody trousers/suits/shoes questions were terrible!

Also, I ran out of time at the end and stupidly didn't just abandon question 16 and at least put in a guess for 17 and 18.

In the situational test, for one question I ticked all six answers/suggestions as being undesirable/highly undesirable. Anyone else remember anything like that?

Yeah I had one or two a bit like that, certainly one.

franklyon · 23-12-2016 2:42pm

dee75 wrote: »

In the situational test, for one question I ticked all six answers/suggestions as being undesirable/highly undesirable. Anyone else remember anything like that?

Yeah I remember one part like that,where none of the solutions seemed to fit.

Tedda2016 · 01-01-2017 9:01pm

Hi guys, maybe this question is for another thread but just wondering if HEO competitions are ever open competitions, or is it just AO or EO that are open?

Working in the private sector!

dee75 · 01-01-2017 9:14pm

Tedda2016 wrote: »

Hi guys, maybe this question is for another thread but just wondering if HEO competitions are ever open competitions, or is it just AO or EO that are open?

Working in the private sector!

I'm private sector too, but I think HEO will be offered by open competition at some stage in the future. I know the most recent one was not an open competition.

There are already specialised HEO jobs advertised on publicjobs.ie that are open to all suitable applicants, such as roles within the National Transport Authority (closing date for applications is 9th January!).

Dodge · 01-01-2017 9:29pm

There was an open competition before the freeze. The latest interdepartmental was the first in nearly a decade so there's no pattern but I'd be astonished if there wasn't open competitions for HEO in the near future

NEW 2016 Open and Interdepartmental Assistant Principal in Civil Service competition.

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