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Civil service fast stream 2014/2015

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My FSAC on the 25th November - not long! Anyone else coming on that date?

Train tickets and hotel booked. My remaining half a day's holiday has been booked for the morning, so just to work out how to get out to work for the afternoon :s-smilie:
Original post by bertiev2
See you there then :smile: Its only just occurred to me that especially as a new stream there probably won't be that many spaces on it but ah well!


Yeah I'm thinking about that actually, because the smaller schemes seem to be 'beefed up' by allowing you to choose the generalist as a second option. So I'm wondering why we can choose this scheme and only this scheme.
Reply 982
Are there different assessment centres for different streams? Mine isnt until the 2nd Feb! (Generalist)
Original post by E.Marie
Are there different assessment centres for different streams? Mine isnt until the 2nd Feb! (Generalist)


I think there might be. Mine is 25th November and I'm on the Analytical stream (Social Research) which has a second round of applications that opens in February. I would guess they need to get all of the round 1 Analytical applicants through the whole process so that they know what they still need to recruit in round 2, hence earlier FSAC's? I am purely guessing though
Original post by E.Marie
Are there different assessment centres for different streams? Mine isnt until the 2nd Feb! (Generalist)


Yes. If it's like previous years the analytical ones are before Christmas (and the communication scheme as well, by the looks of it?), then the generalist ones are from January onwards. Also, within the generalist schedule I think they usually invite people who've applied for DS/HoP first, so that if they pass there's time to schedule their Final Selection Board.
Reply 985
Original post by ManifoldManifest
Yes. If it's like previous years the analytical ones are before Christmas (and the communication scheme as well, by the looks of it?), then the generalist ones are from January onwards. Also, within the generalist schedule I think they usually invite people who've applied for DS/HoP first, so that if they pass there's time to schedule their Final Selection Board.


Yeah I think that sounds about right - but there's definitely a mix of streams in each FSAC (GFS, EFS, DS, NI etc.)
Original post by ManifoldManifest
Yes. If it's like previous years the analytical ones are before Christmas (and the communication scheme as well, by the looks of it?), then the generalist ones are from January onwards. Also, within the generalist schedule I think they usually invite people who've applied for DS/HoP first, so that if they pass there's time to schedule their Final Selection Board.


My communications FSAC is on the 15th Jan so not sure about that one?
Reply 987
Got a successful on the e-tray for Generalist (second choice though) and still waiting for EFS answer... My FSAC for Generalist is quite early though on the 9th of January!!
Any idea when FSBs take place? I will be in China for the whole of March..
Is it right to assume that if you havent heard back from parity from the etray exercise after three days you havent got through to the FSAC?
Hey, congrats on getting through.

When did you take your etray?


Original post by S/J
Got a successful on the e-tray for Generalist (second choice though) and still waiting for EFS answer... My FSAC for Generalist is quite early though on the 9th of January!!
Original post by leicester52
Is it right to assume that if you havent heard back from parity from the etray exercise after three days you havent got through to the FSAC?


It just means that you haven't achieved a high enough score to be immediately successful, they will release more e-tray results up until December so you still have a chance to get through!
I've applied for the Communications Fast Stream, still waiting for my online test results. Pretty sure my numerical test went terribly, so my hopes are not too high...
Reply 993
Original post by leicester52
Hey, congrats on getting through.

When did you take your etray?


I think on the 26th of October...
Hi everyone, I have just done the dummy run for the e-tray and found it harder than expected. I also thought there may have been a pass/fail message like in the numerical and verbal tests...did I miss it or are you just supposed to remember your responses? I'm hoping to do the real one over the weekend and really hope I make it through. It's stressful thinking all the places might be filling up!
So I got a message saying that I failed the online selection tests. I thought that it was weird as I got in the top 35% for both of the practice tests. I asked them for a breakdown and they said I got as follows:
Verbal - better than 41% of respondents
Numeracy - better than 98% of respondents
Competences test - better than 26% of respondents

I didn't even know that that was something you could fail. Any advice what this means that I did wrong?
Original post by WArch1992
So I got a message saying that I failed the online selection tests. I thought that it was weird as I got in the top 35% for both of the practice tests. I asked them for a breakdown and they said I got as follows:
Verbal - better than 41% of respondents
Numeracy - better than 98% of respondents
Competences test - better than 26% of respondents

I didn't even know that that was something you could fail. Any advice what this means that I did wrong?


You were in the bottom 50% for Verbal.
Original post by Tomato_Soup1992
You were in the bottom 50% for Verbal.

So did it not matter that I was only above 26% of people in the competences one? Would the fact that I'm dyslexic have affected my score on the verbal test?
(edited 9 years ago)
Original post by WArch1992
So I got a message saying that I failed the online selection tests. I thought that it was weird as I got in the top 35% for both of the practice tests. I asked them for a breakdown and they said I got as follows:
Verbal - better than 41% of respondents
Numeracy - better than 98% of respondents
Competences test - better than 26% of respondents

I didn't even know that that was something you could fail. Any advice what this means that I did wrong?


Hi WArch.

Sorry to hear that. Which scheme was this for and when did you find out?

The verbal and numeracy tests are marked first, and if you pass those, you're assessed on your performance on the competency test; so yes, unfortunately, you can fail on the competency.

This is super-brief summary of advice on the competency test from previous years' forum threads:

(1) Don't be modest

(2) Be consistent

(3) Be honest

Despite the above, I really found the competency a pain too tbh.
Thanks LucyJane:smile:


Original post by LucyJane
It just means that you haven't achieved a high enough score to be immediately successful, they will release more e-tray results up until December so you still have a chance to get through!

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