[Sam_Roach]

Hello everyone

I couldn't find this anywhere but if I am being stupid I apologize.

I recently failed my AST's for the RAF as my F score was on 66, when it needed to be a 70 for the career I want to join in. I now have 5 more months to prepare for the retakes and I don't want to mess up again. My main weakness was my spatial awareness.

Does anyone know of any links to websites which provide a bank of spatial awareness questions, primarily 3D mental object rotation and "jigsaw" style problems? As with everything I would prefer if it was a free site (who wouldn't) but any advice would be great. In addition, if they had extra numerical and verbal reasoning questions that would be an added bonus.

I have found a bunch of sites so far offering practice tests, but only the 1, or maybe 3 at most. The RAF website only has 1 practice test itself, which is obviously not enough preparation for 5 months. I can trawl through each website and make my own bank of practice questions, but I was hoping there would be a better way than that.

Any help would be great

Thanks

Sam

[Miza]

Spatial awareness can be hit and miss to be honest, there's a book on amazon with reasonable amount of examples on offer.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Armed-Forces...0&sr=8-1-spell

I have seen it, and even tho questions on there not identical to ones on the actual test it gives you some practice at the very least.

You can work out a strategy on how to approach pretty much every section of the test, apart from the spatial awareness, I wouldn't say (it's either you have it or you don't) but more like it's either you get lucky on the day or not.

[jcd1993]

I used to have absolutely terrible trouble with spatial awareness!

I found that the best way to get past my difficulties was to actively practice it using your hands and those little cubes that you can combine together and make shapes with (their name escapes me). It may sound a little childish but you'd be surprised at how much it affects your ability to predict/interpret 3d movement.

The group results of my AST 1 were:

A 98
B 97
C 99
D 92
E 99
F 99

I guess I was doing something right . PM me if you would like me to go through my prep and what not.

[Sam_Roach]

@ Miza

Thanks for the link, I have a couple of books like that, so that one will soon be added to the collection. On a side note, I did feel very hard done by due to how small the margin was, and very much felt that if I got another go at it I would have passed. To be philosophical about it though, I suppose I'd rather wait the extra 6 months now and sail through it next time, rather than scrape it this time.


@jcd1993

Those certainly are some impressive scores, so congratulations. I can see how that can help, so will see what I can rustle together. I've got my plans and program's all set up that have seen me well in the past, it's just I need the questions now to start it all off! Thanks for the offer anyway, out of interest, where are you in the stages now?

[mrprosser]

Sam

Google has a number of links to different online spatial awareness tests. Although a score of 66 sounds like it is a very small way from the required 70, the way it is worked out can mean you were further away than you think. You also need to check your stanine scores for each section, as those are quite high for your chosen trade (or branch)

(the score of F70 is the giveaway) Don't forget that both controller branches have extremely intensive phase 2 training courses, and both only have pass rates of about 50%

If it is the way you want to go, keep practising, but at the end of the day they are aptitude tests. You can't necessarily develop an aptitude for something, you either have it or you don't

[jcd1993]

(Original post by Sam_Roach)
@jcd1993

Those certainly are some impressive scores, so congratulations. I can see how that can help, so will see what I can rustle together. I've got my plans and program's all set up that have seen me well in the past, it's just I need the questions now to start it all off! Thanks for the offer anyway, out of interest, where are you in the stages now?

I had my filter interview yesterday. Annoying result! My RAF knowledge was 'outstanding' (well, except for mixing up typhoon/tornado when talking about the aircraft currently deployed in Afghanistan, doh! I'm still not sure how I managed that). Unfortunately I have been told to come back in 6 months once I've gained a little more life experience, which is fair enough I guess as I'm still pretty young to be applying for a SNCO role and it'll be better for me in the long run if I get more experience of working with a larger variety of people beforehand.

One thing I will say though is once you get to the interview stage do not whatever you do underestimate how difficult it is to talk about yourself for a prolonged period of time, it took me completely by surprise and I lost more than a few good opportunities for things to say.

I can safely assume you're going for ATC/ABM (?), if so we may well end up on the same OASC!

[Sam_Roach]

Yep, I'm going for ABM, hard luck on your filter, but I'm sure you'll blast it next time. Glad "perfect" people like yourself are in the same boat as me

[tegwin]

I went through OASC last year.

Still have a couple of books if anyone wants them to help their training.

Succeed at Psychometric testing by bernice walmsley
Military flight aptitude tests by fred N. Grayson
Jennifer medcalf, beginners guide to NATO
The Falklands conflict twenty years on (lessons for the future)... a bloody good book.

Any use to any of you drop me an email.
tegwin at msn dot com

[fizzo12]

(Original post by jcd1993)
I used to have absolutely terrible trouble with spatial awareness!

I found that the best way to get past my difficulties was to actively practice it using your hands and those little cubes that you can combine together and make shapes with (their name escapes me). It may sound a little childish but you'd be surprised at how much it affects your ability to predict/interpret 3d movement.

The group results of my AST 1 were:

A 98
B 97
C 99
D 92
E 99
F 99

I guess I was doing something right . PM me if you would like me to go through my prep and what not.

Very impressive grades PM'ed!! (Could Do With The Help)

Fizzo12