failed assessment after weeks of studying... gutted:-(

[iceman0303]

Sat my assessments for trainee driver yesterday, bought the Barron book on mechanical comprehension, bought how 2 become a train driver and done loads of different test on mechanical comprehension to which I was extremely confident in.

Gets to assessment centre opens book and bam not 1 question was even similar to anything that were in the books , this through me off straight away as I wad really confident going in.

Passed all other tests, group bourdon, trainability with flying colors , right now I'm gutted .

So if your studying for assessments look at a wide range of tests and don't be caught out like me. Sad thing is I'm a mechanic lol .
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I understand aptitude is something your born with and can't be taught. Well I can repair almost anything mechanical and electrical, can soak up any info I read and turn to useful knowledge . you need enthusiasm , responsibility and work hard and study hard to train to be a driver, I have all of this in bucket loads and I blew it.

 

[apestyler]

Really sorry to hear that. On the plus side you now know what to expect and as long as suitable vacancies exist in 6 months you can apply again and only have to do the MT4 test again.

 

[387star]

So if they arn't like those in the books what are they like? I would be very interested to know and were you shown which answers you got wrong and why? Good luck for next time you now have the experience. I will buy the Barron book hadn't heard of that one never know it might be useful!

Edit: Sorry I do have it in fact and only the first chapter is useful and it does not go into much detail so I see your point there
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Really sorry to hear that. On the plus side you now know what to expect and as long as suitable vacancies exist in 6 months you can apply again and only have to do the MT4 test again.

I thought you had to do the entire assessment again- good to know. Does that apply to guard positions?

 

[myboysam]

I too failed the first assessment as I'm sure many many people do. All you can do is apply again and at least this time you have a good understanding of the types of things they will ask. If it helps I got the exact same mechanical comprehension questions the second time round.

 

[apestyler]

I thought you had to do the entire assessment again- good to know. Does that apply to guard positions?

I think it varies from TOC to TOC but First ScotRail allows this and has a 3 year validity on assessment passes.

 

[iceman0303]

Can't believe the questions were so different, I had everything under control or so I thought. Really gave total dedication to studying so to fail was a shock . I will help any 1 who has any questions , at lest my failure could help someone else achieve the dream I had myself .
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If I apply again in 6 moaths do I fill application out exact same way I'm worried I don't get to assessment centre again

 

[apestyler]

Keep the application form largely the same as it got you through the sift this time so I can't see why it wouldn't next time.

 

[387star]

Question re First apps

It asks you only to put down your educational achivements during the past five years so in a few years time I might apply and have none to put down because obviously time would have crept on since my GCSEs, A-Levels and Degree?

 

[Rjhsteel]

Sorry to hear that iceman.

I've got an assessment coming up next week. I too have bought the book and looked at other tests.

What type of questions did you encounter?

 

[TDK]

Sorry to hear that iceman.

I've got an assessment coming up next week. I too have bought the book and looked at other tests.

What type of questions did you encounter?

When you look at the mechanical test it is all aptitude and logic, the best way to be successful with this test is to go through all the question first and mark the the ones you know are definately correct, then go through again and mark the ones that you think are correct then go through the 3rd time and guess because as far as I know incorrect answers on the mechanical test do not go against the result, this is the method I used and got 84%, the pass is about 60% I believe.

 

[myboysam]

We were told that they didn't know what the pass mark would be for the tests as they would be measured against the previous assessment results. I don't know how that works tbh. Also we were told that it's all about how many you got right out of how many you managed to answer.

 

[TDK]

We were told that they didn't know what the pass mark would be for the tests as they would be measured against the previous assessment results. I don't know how that works tbh. Also we were told that it's all about how many you got right out of how many you managed to answer.

So if you answered one and got it right you get 100% - I think you may have been mis-informed however it may have changed since I did interviewing, I still believe the more you answer the better chance you have of passing, as for the tests marked against the previous assessments that could have been a factor for consideration if there were too many applicants passing the assessments but this is unusual. I answered all 40 questions and knew before I stared the pass rate was I think 60%, I answered 31 that I knew were 100% correct and at that point knew I had passed the assessment. This was a long time ago though.