Civil Service Faststream

axle77

No, didnt use it myself.. I think its a new website. However, I would have used it; getting in as much practise as possible helps to improve the chances of moving from being in the 15,000 to the 3000 for the next stage. Its so competitive; Take your point about the price though....are they offering 5 full mock exams??

Apparently (which they have designed themselves) but there isn't even a single example question so how close they are to the fast stream ones only someone with £45 will find out (I'm guessing they are going for the too much money than sence oxbridge brigade) :smile:

As I put, for free you can get a bunch of similar verbal/numberical reasoning tests by applying for other jobs and since the apps :tongue:

laces ratio is 30:1 that could be quite a useful thing! :biggrin:

Reply 702

Adarah

Quady

Apparently (which they have designed themselves) but there isn't even a single example question so how close they are to the fast stream ones only someone with £45 will find out (I'm guessing they are going for the too much money than sence oxbridge brigade) :smile:

As I put, for free you can get a bunch of similar verbal/numberical reasoning tests by applying for other jobs and since the apps :tongue:

laces ratio is 30:1 that could be quite a useful thing! :biggrin:

yeah, I'll definitely be applying for other jobs! Am thinking about just going for civil service job and working my way up if I don't get fast stream. Can then still apply internally. Do you apply for such jobs along side fast stream? Hmmm... I reckon you don't need to apply for normal jobs a year in advance, so I can wait a bit and think it all through, haha.

Reply 703

Adarah

yeah, I'll definitely be applying for other jobs! Am thinking about just going for civil service job and working my way up if I don't get fast stream. Can then still apply internally. Do you apply for such jobs along side fast stream? Hmmm... I reckon you don't need to apply for normal jobs a year in advance, so I can wait a bit and think it all through, haha.

Theres an in service scheme that by passes the online tests and puts you at etray. The success rate from there is about 50%.
BUT very few people get put forward by their manager to give it a go and many (most perhaps) in the civil service still use the external route to try and get on the fast stream.

Reply 704

axle77

Quady

Apparently (which they have designed themselves) but there isn't even a single example question so how close they are to the fast stream ones only someone with £45 will find out (I'm guessing they are going for the too much money than sence oxbridge brigade) :smile:

As I put, for free you can get a bunch of similar verbal/numberical reasoning tests by applying for other jobs and since the apps :tongue:

laces ratio is 30:1 that could be quite a useful thing! :biggrin:

Yeah, I agree, the only thing that struck me about the site is that they have been through the exams and they say that they are fast stream focussed....we'll have to see whether they are worth 45 quid...if anyone signs up (oxbridge or not!!) let us know. They did well with the name though www.faststreamprep.co.uk lol (not very original!!) :smile:

Reply 705

Adarah

Quady

Theres an in service scheme that by passes the online tests and puts you at etray. The success rate from there is about 50%.
BUT very few people get put forward by their manager to give it a go and many (most perhaps) in the civil service still use the external route to try and get on the fast stream.

yeah, I saw there was a high sucess rate for internal applicants, yet there were so few of them I guessed there had to be some kind of catch.
My aunt and uncle both work for the civil service, but aunt went through fast track, but my uncle got promoted above her very quickly and he just worked his way up from a lower job. But that was quite a few years ago of course!

Reply 706

Jigglypuff

Quady

Apparently (which they have designed themselves) but there isn't even a single example question so how close they are to the fast stream ones only someone with £45 will find out (I'm guessing they are going for the too much money than sence oxbridge brigade) :smile:

As I put, for free you can get a bunch of similar verbal/numberical reasoning tests by applying for other jobs and since the apps :tongue:

laces ratio is 30:1 that could be quite a useful thing! :biggrin:

Less of the Oxbridge bashing...

Anyway, I did the self-assessment tests today and they were similar to ones I've done recently for other civil service type jobs. I agree with the person who said it's often hard to know whether something is in the text or not. I think sometimes I think too hard about it. The maths ones are pretty hard too. They said my results made me eligible to apply (top 45%) but tbh I doubt I will do particularly well at them and I don't have relevant work experience so I'm doubtful that I will get very far in the whole application process!

I'm applying for the diplomatic service.

Reply 707

username48778

axle77

Yeah, I agree, the only thing that struck me about the site is that they have been through the exams and they say that they are fast stream focussed....we'll have to see whether they are worth 45 quid...if anyone signs up (oxbridge or not!!) let us know. They did well with the name though www.faststreamprep.co.uk lol (not very original!!) :smile:

That site is a phenomenal rip-off, when you can do almost identical tests elsewhere for free. You could buy 7 or 8 test books for that price.

Reply 708

axle77

Jigglypuff

Less of the Oxbridge bashing...

Anyway, I did the self-assessment tests today and they were similar to ones I've done recently for other civil service type jobs. I agree with the person who said it's often hard to know whether something is in the text or not. I think sometimes I think too hard about it. The maths ones are pretty hard too. They said my results made me eligible to apply (top 45%) but tbh I doubt I will do particularly well at them and I don't have relevant work experience so I'm doubtful that I will get very far in the whole application process!

I'm applying for the diplomatic service.

best of luck- I dont see why you are getting doubtful at this stage!! My strategy for the verbal questions was to not think too much- you end up losing time. I found the numerical questions more difficult- it just comes down to speed. just do as many practice questions as you possibly can.

Reply 709

Adarah

Jigglypuff

Less of the Oxbridge bashing...

Anyway, I did the self-assessment tests today and they were similar to ones I've done recently for other civil service type jobs. I agree with the person who said it's often hard to know whether something is in the text or not. I think sometimes I think too hard about it. The maths ones are pretty hard too. They said my results made me eligible to apply (top 45%) but tbh I doubt I will do particularly well at them and I don't have relevant work experience so I'm doubtful that I will get very far in the whole application process!

I'm applying for the diplomatic service.

Good luck! And if you found out already that you've passed that's a really good sign, it means you're definitely able to do well in those tests!
I'm too scared to do mine yet, at least you have the confidence to dive straight in!
In all the practice tests I google I get about 99% in numerical, but I do abysmally in verbal, I'm not joking.

Reply 710

Jigglypuff

Adarah

Good luck! And if you found out already that you've passed that's a really good sign, it means you're definitely able to do well in those tests!
I'm too scared to do mine yet, at least you have the confidence to dive straight in!
In all the practice tests I google I get about 99% in numerical, but I do abysmally in verbal, I'm not joking.

Thanks, good luck to you too!

I'm the complete opposite-- I find the verbal quite easy but the numerical really hard. I'm just not mathematically minded at all. That said, I managed to get quite a few of the practice ones right just by skipping over the ones I couldn't do and spending lots of time on the easier ones. There's no point sitting there trying to do a question when you know you probably won't get it right-- with such a strict time limit you might as well move onto some easier ones.

I only wish I'd applied for this before the other jobs I've been applying to in the last couple of months. In the past two weeks I've had two 'assessment days' for similar jobs to this, which have involved doing these tests in person without practice. Obviously I google'd some but in retrospect I should have got used to the timing etc.

I'm going to do the next lot today...I think they're the 'proper' practice ones. :s-smilie:

Reply 711

S

13

I think the main difficulty is the time constraint. Has anybody here been able answer all 32 verbal reasoning questions in only 15 minutes? I just got 18 correct out of 24 in the practice test. A lot of room for improvement, I think I need to stop myself from re-reading the text too many times, it's a bad habit.

Reply 712

username48778

With the verbal, I read the questions first and then tried to find the answers by reading the text; I found reading the paragraph first to be a waste of time.

^^^ what moley said

Jigglypuff

Less of the Oxbridge bashing...

I'm applying for the diplomatic service.

That was only an oxbridge bash if these two statements are incorrect:

1) Fast stream attracts a higher proportion of applicants from Oxbridge (around 10% of the total I believe) than is typical for universities of their size.

2) The mean/median/modal afluence of the oxbridge applicants is higher than that of applicants from other universities.

No, no data supporting the last one. It was more a bash at their business model.

Anyway good luck with the diplomatic option just bare in mind its a 100-1 shot (well 98 to 1 ish).

Reply 715

Jigglypuff

Quady

That was only an oxbridge bash if these two statements are incorrect:

1) Fast stream attracts a higher proportion of applicants from Oxbridge (around 10% of the total I believe) than is typical for universities of their size.

2) The mean/median/modal afluence of the oxbridge applicants is higher than that of applicants from other universities.

No, no data supporting the last one. It was more a bash at their business model.

Anyway good luck with the diplomatic option just bare in mind its a 100-1 shot (well 98 to 1 ish).

Well I don't want to get into a big debate over Oxbridge, but whilst I agree that those two statements are probably true, having lots of money does not equate to having more money than sense. Yes, lots of Oxbridge applicants are well-off, but I doubt many of them would pay for a service which you can get for free online.

I just thought it was a bit of a generalization about Oxbridge students. Maybe I'm just a tad touchy as I go to Cambridge but am by no means rich :p:

I didn't know the odds were like that. That's pretty scary. Thanks for the luck--judging by the odds, I'll be needing a lot of it!

Reply 716

Jigglypuff

I didn't know the odds were like that. That's pretty scary. Thanks for the luck--judging by the odds, I'll be needing a lot of it!

For some reason diplomatic immunity brings in the punters!

Reply 717

Prince Rhyus

15

axle77

There is a website which looks fairly good and they state that it is fast stream focussed called www.faststreamprep.co.uk.

:laughing:

Looks like it's been put together by the same sort of people who put together these "Oxbridge" preparation courses and charge an arm and a leg for it.

There are enough general purpose books out there that can take you through the sort of psychometric tests that the major graduate recruiters are likely to put you through. You don't need to pay stupid amounts of money to get hold of this stuff. I got hold of such books from charity shops (and subsequently gave them back after succeeding.)

There are also enough free online psychometric tests available - why pay £45 for something that you can get for free? The online tests for the fast stream are not civil service specific - they are generic.

In anycase, it only covers part of the assessment. The hardcore stuff is done at the assessment centre. And for that, no expensive course is going to get you through it.

Reply 718