Assessments & Medicals discussion

[Arne]

Just wanted to thank everyone who has contributed to this thread in relation to the psychometric assessments. Passed first time yesterday with Northern.

It was my first ever application, although, I did have a TPE application in at the same time. Before this year I hadn't really considered a railway career at all. I imagine I'm not a normal applicant (early 30s, current academic, work experience mainly in public sector policy work).

Just in terms of my experience, I think you can really only prep/practice for the Group Bourdon test. However, all the other information certainly helps in terms of being familiar with what the process will be.

It's definitely worth having a few scenarios already in mind for the MMI. It's not that you can really practice for it, but you can at least be ready for a few scenarios dependent on the questions.

The other thing I would add is that the day as a whole is mentally gruelling. The thing to take into consideration with the MMI is that (for Northern anyway), you've already done the paper and computer tests on the same day. I started at 930am, and my MMI wasn't completed until past 5pm.

I'd say make sure you're well rested, have eaten well, and accept it's going to be a long day.

 

[jLour]

Hi all
Please help , I have 3 tests to take on Monday with LNER.
Train dispatch concentration test, station ticket verbal test and I have to prepare 3 public announcements (information for this apparently given on the day ) I’m extremely nervous for these tests and would really appreciate any insight if anyone had recently taken these tests? Please help

 

[BigEasy]

Just wanted to thank everyone who has contributed to this thread in relation to the psychometric assessments. Passed first time yesterday with Northern.

It was my first ever application, although, I did have a TPE application in at the same time. Before this year I hadn't really considered a railway career at all. I imagine I'm not a normal applicant (early 30s, current academic, work experience mainly in public sector policy work).

Just in terms of my experience, I think you can really only prep/practice for the Group Bourdon test. However, all the other information certainly helps in terms of being familiar with what the process will be.

It's definitely worth having a few scenarios already in mind for the MMI. It's not that you can really practice for it, but you can at least be ready for a few scenarios dependent on the questions.

The other thing I would add is that the day as a whole is mentally gruelling. The thing to take into consideration with the MMI is that (for Northern anyway), you've already done the paper and computer tests on the same day. I started at 930am, and my MMI wasn't completed until past 5pm.

I'd say make sure you're well rested, have eaten well, and accept it's going to be a long day.

Congratulations on passing! It sounds a pretty intense day. You must have been mentally exhausted by the time you got to the MMI.

 

[Jacko1986]

Probably a dumb question but here goes..

The written test part of the assessment day, do most people just do it in bullet points or is it considered better for point scoring to write in essay form?

Anyone know the best site/provider for written test practice questions? not an issue if I have to pay.

Cheers

 

[jLour]

Hi all
I have a dispatch concentration test on Monday and have been told I will have to prepare 3 public announcements. Has anyone had these tests. I’m wanting to be prepared as I can be but I feel extremely nervous and don’t know what to expect. Any advice would be much appreciated. Thank you

 

[Northrail127]

Probably a dumb question but here goes..

The written test part of the assessment day, do most people just do it in bullet points or is it considered better for point scoring to write in essay form?

Anyone know the best site/provider for written test practice questions? not an issue if I have to pay.

Cheers

Written tests of the psychometric assessment day?

This should be explained on your invite. I’m not sure what you mean by bullet point or essay, non of the tests during psychometrics would require you to do either.

 

[chalkijr]

Written tests of the psychometric assessment day?

This should be explained on your invite. I’m not sure what you mean by bullet point or essay, non of the tests during psychometrics would require you to do either.

Written tests of the psychometric assessment day?

This should be explained on your invite. I’m not sure what you mean by bullet point or essay, non of the tests during psychometrics would require you to do either.

Yeah I second this, all they are looking for on the assessment day is whether you can follow instructions and complete the tests how they want you to do them.

Obviously it's all based on how well you do in the varying tests, but you will be given instructions on exactly how you go about them and complete them.

Best advice I could give having done them all is just don't overthink ANY of it and use the practice material they provide you with.

 

[KEbbs]

Is anyone privy to what the MMI criteria is? Had mine on Friday and not sure if I’ve failed again and wanted to try and find some positives from my interview before finding out the result

 

[Arne]

I'm not sure what the criteria are at all, but what I did was look at the most important non-technical skills required to be a train driver as given by the OPC. These are found here: https://www.theopc.co.uk/psychology...nts-are-most-important-to-safe-train-driving/ . The, I found a document that explained how each individual non-technical skill is explained and illustrated. This document can be found here: https://www.rssb.co.uk/research-catalogue/CatalogueItem/T869 . Then, I just tried to make sure I talked about the relevant non-technical skills when picking my examples for the given questions.
I don't know if that has anything to do with how things were actually assessed, but it gave me a good internal framework to work on

 

[KEbbs]

I'm not sure what the criteria are at all, but what I did was look at the most important non-technical skills required to be a train driver as given by the OPC. These are found here: https://www.theopc.co.uk/psychology...nts-are-most-important-to-safe-train-driving/ . The, I found a document that explained how each individual non-technical skill is explained and illustrated. This document can be found here: https://www.rssb.co.uk/research-catalogue/CatalogueItem/T869 . Then, I just tried to make sure I talked about the relevant non-technical skills when picking my examples for the given questions.
I don't know if that has anything to do with how things were actually assessed, but it gave me a good internal framework to work on

Thanks Arne, I definitely done that and included some for my answers too but just overthinking the interview which is making me nervous

 

[princecessTD]

Can anyone give me some pointers or guidance for the GTR competency based interview please,?
Thanxs

 

[Hazwa89]

Hiya,

Is this for the MMI or the Driver Manager interview?

 

[Joshapple23]

Hi there,

I have just got a job as a station manager, I also have Chronic Myeloid Leukemia so every 3 months I have to go and have a blood test to see how my condition is getting on, would this be a problem ? There's no chemo just a tablet a day

 

[dwainedl]

Struggling to find a medical company that is rail sentinel registered and offers CAD test any help

 

[SuperHeavy]

Hello everyone.
Greetings from deepest Essex.

Unfortunately I failed the WAFV 'black box' test yesterday. Passed all other tests with good results according to OPC.

OPC offered me feedback there and then, took me to a side room, sat me down then said they couldn't/wouldn't tell me how I failed the WAFV test.

I left feeling disappointed and confused.

I'm certain I clicked when the black square appeared. Quite frustrating that OPC will not comment on how I failed.

They said I should have been sent test material but nothing in the test pack remotely comes close to the test. I was told to pass this back via email - which I did as soon as I got home.

Is there a test pack available that gives feedback on accuracy, reaction times etc?

The cynical side of me thinks I've been filtered out due to my age.... mid 50s. I hope I'm wrong though.

Thanks in advance and good luck to the two candidates who got through to the structured interview stage yesterday.

(Apologies if I posted in wrong thread/group)

 

[Pintman]

Sorry to hear that you didn't get through. Assessment centres don't tell anyone specifics of why they failed any tests, if they did it could compromise the integrity of them. Do you have any lives left? If so you might as well come back next year, hopefully you'll only have to redo WAFV

 

[SuperHeavy]

Sorry to hear that you didn't get through. Assessment centres don't tell anyone specifics of why they failed any tests, if they did it could compromise the integrity of them. Do you have any lives left? If so you might as well come back next year, hopefully you'll only have to redo WAFV

Was my first 'life' so 12 month wait.
They did say I might have to re-do the initial online tests at home, then only the WAFV test.

I'd like to know if its an accuracy issue and or reaction issue.

I think I read there's a good quality demo pack available but I cant find the link again‍.

 

[Carrot12345]

Was my first 'life' so 12 month wait.
They did say I might have to re-do the initial online tests at home, then only the WAFV test.

I'd like to know if its an accuracy issue and or reaction issue.

I think I read there's a good quality demo pack available but I can find the link again‍.

Hi mate. sorry to hear about that. Rail prep have something very similar apparently that you could buy and download to help maybe. I think it was £4.99 or something along them lines. I have been using it myself, hopefully helps. I have 3 computer tests coming up and also MMI. Was you down for the MMI also when receiving the invite? Wondering if i don't pass one I will get pulled from the MMI.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 6 Aug 2025 ==

Any tips for the other computer tests you scored well in? thanks

 

[Pcoftw]

Hi all,

Anyone know if it’s generally good news or bad that I haven’t heard back from my DMI for over 2 weeks?

 

[SuperHeavy]

Hi mate. sorry to hear about that. Rail prep have something very similar apparently that you could buy and download to help maybe. I think it was £4.99 or something along them lines. I have been using it myself, hopefully helps. I have 3 computer tests coming up and also MMI. Was you down for the MMI also when receiving the invite? Wondering if i don't pass one I will get pulled from the MMI.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 6 Aug 2025 ==

Any tips for the other computer tests you scored well in? thanks

MMI was scheduled to follow after the 3 computer/joystick tests.
I didn't get to have MMI due to not passing all the tests, but the other two candidates did.

On YouTube there's at least one demo of the street scene photos and questions to check what you saw.

You get a tone played through the headphones/headset to let you know the photos is about to appear. You get a whole second. You know prior to seeing the photos what to look for.
Practice, practice and more practice.

The joysticks, moving a dot/ball along a path/circuit, I found easy.
You get some practice sessions before the tests. If you use an xbox or PlayStation you'll be ok. The joysticks are quite sensitive but you do get practice sessions to suss it out.

Good luck.

 

[Mr Francis]

Hi all,

Anyone know if it’s generally good news or bad that I haven’t heard back from my DMI for over 2 weeks?

Did they give you a timeframe?

 

[Pcoftw]

Did they give you a timeframe?

10 days, ended up contacting them on the tenth day as the waiting was killing me… constant email refreshing and making sure volume was on full started to make me go insane.

 

[Mr Francis]

10 days, ended up contacting them on the tenth day as the waiting was killing me… constant email refreshing and making sure volume was on full started to make me go insane.

Hopefully you got good news..

 

[Pcoftw]

Hopefully you got good news..

Yep, somehow passed.

 

[Mr Francis]

Yep, somehow passed.

Congratulations

 

[BigEasy]

Hi all, with the MMI is there any expectation of 'normal' interview stuff, like you asking them questions at the end, etc., or is that strictly put aside until if you get to do the DMI?

 

[Arne]

On mine there was no normal stuff. All seemed fairly tightly mandated to the rubric the assessor was using

 

[d44nny]

Hi all, with the MMI is there any expectation of 'normal' interview stuff, like you asking them questions at the end, etc., or is that strictly put aside until if you get to do the DMI?

Not sure what questions you would be asking them as they are nothing to do with what TOC you have applied for so wouldn't be able to help with any of the information about the role.
Once you have finished answering the 6 questions it just a thanks very much you will be hearing the result in 7-10 working days.

 

[rfjk]

Hello everyone, I’ve got an assessment centre coming up in Birmingham for a Trainee Train Manager role with Chiltern and I’m starting to get those pre-interview jitters! I was wondering if anyone could share some general tips for preparing for the group exercise and interview stages. My background is in customer service, so I’m hoping to make the most of those skills, but any advice on what to expect or how to approach it would be much appreciated!

 

[traintee]

Hello everyone, I’ve got an assessment centre coming up in Birmingham for a Trainee Train Manager role with Chiltern and I’m starting to get those pre-interview jitters! I was wondering if anyone could share some general tips for preparing for the group exercise and interview stages. My background is in customer service, so I’m hoping to make the most of those skills, but any advice on what to expect or how to approach it would be much appreciated!

It will likely be as follows, assesments which you should of been sent some practice material for. Group excersize of which the result I don't believe is of the most importance, rather how you interact with others during the exercise. And an interview with questions regarding general company and job information (your own research) and then a few "name a time when you did xxx" type questions. Hope this helps