Re. DWP Online Test For AO

Truegho · 2 August 2011 at 6:55PM

I sat an extremely difficult online test yesterday for an AO post with DWP. It was for the Pension Service. The test is the one where they give you 75 mins to answer 36 questions. Unfortunately, I got the bad news today that I did not pass.

What I want to know is this: is having to sit this test going to be necessary for even AA posts? If it is, then how on earth are we going to stand a reasonable chance of getting a job in the Civil Service anymore if we have to sit such a difficult test? It was really hard, and you really had to have a strong analytical mind to answer the questions adequately.

God, I'm so depressed. To think, I have had 25 years experience in the Civil Service, and now my attempts to get back in have been made almost impossible due to the introduction of these accursed tests!

Gillyx · 2 August 2011 at 7:16PM

My mum works for the civil service herself and she told me a very low percentage of people actually pass the tests, whether online or a test centre. It's basically then easier to do the interviews etc as there are less people to interview.

Also now your application makes up a good percentage of your chance of getting the job, something like 40% and your interview is 60% don't quote me on the figures though because I can't remember exactly.

Truegho · 2 August 2011 at 8:02PM

Hi Gilly

Thanks for your reply re. my posting about the DWP online test. Very interested to read your mum works for the DWP, and her comments about how many people actually pass these tricky tests. So that is why they are made so hard, then, so that they can cut right down the mass applications they receive? I was wondering why they were so darned difficult to pass. When I sat this test, I just felt as if I were on The Krypton Factor, as you need a remarkably strong analytical mind to pass these things.

It is especially frustrating for me having to go through all this online testing, as I am a former employee of the DWP who has been trying to get back into the department for ages. I had hard luck last time, as just as I passed the interview and received my successful letter for an AO post, the recruitment freeze was implemented.

I am just wondering if they are going to introduce this test for AA roles too. If they do, then I don't suppose there's much hope for me there either.

It is terribly hard now trying to get back into the Civil Service, and these tests are only exacerbating the problem.

Gillyx wrote: »

My mum works for the civil service herself and she told me a very low percentage of people actually pass the tests, whether online or a test centre. It's basically then easier to do the interviews etc as there are less people to interview.

Also now your application makes up a good percentage of your chance of getting the job, something like 40% and your interview is 60% don't quote me on the figures though because I can't remember exactly.

KiKi · 2 August 2011 at 8:10PM

I did explain this in your last thread about tests. You don't pass or fail them. The recruitment team review the results and then take the top few; this is a way to filter the mass applications that they get (just as do in supermarkets, retail and other mass recruitment campaigns). The norms of the tests determine who the high flyers are and the team will interview those who score highly in the tests and in their application.

If companies didn't use these tools, they'd simply replace them with something else to filter people out.

KiKi

Gillyx · 2 August 2011 at 8:16PM

I'm not sure why the tests are so hard, I've never had to do one myself, any job I applied for with the civil service was a good few years ago and was by application and different scenarios.

I'm assuming it's because they think these tests will find what they consider to be the "right" people for the job, although when I hear about some of the people who work for the civil service I wonder how they managed it.

bluenoseam · 2 August 2011 at 8:52PM

This is one where i'll be a little less nippy than usual, they're looking for people (particularly in a benefits role) who are capable of keeping up with things in an analytical manner with speed & efficiency, so while you may have found it difficult imagine the situation where you have Agnes on the phone wanting to know why X has been stopped and wanting that information 3 weeks ago - like someone pointed out, purely done to save them time at interview stage. Times are constantly changing and they're looking for different things than they were even 10 years ago, these days more than ever they can't afford to interview 10 people to find out that 8 of them would screen themselves out by using this method - that's pretty harsh, but ultimately it's budgeting and these days the pound is king.

anmarj · 2 August 2011 at 10:19PM

i would say you would be very lucky to find AA jobs being advertied, our centre had a lot but very few exist now and I think they were the ones that came on a permanent contract before they switched to the fixed terms.

detroy · 2 August 2011 at 10:28PM

Hi Truegho
sorry to hear you failed the test. i work for the pension service and have done for a number of years. I understand what previous posters are saying but I dont necessarily feel these tests mean we get the best candidates. I feel that the standard of our newer recruits has gone down either that or it is the way we train our staff now. Wish you well in your job search

Hammyman · 3 August 2011 at 12:53PM

Truegho wrote: »

I sat an extremely difficult online test yesterday for an AO post with DWP. It was for the Pension Service. The test is the one where they give you 75 mins to answer 36 questions. Unfortunately, I got the bad news today that I did not pass.

Say what? I've done those.

If it is the literacy and numeracy one, you have to completely illiterate and innumerate to fail it. They're not designed for rocket scientists.

ikkleosu · 4 August 2011 at 1:45AM

My husband sat the same test last week and got 80% so is going forward for an interview. I guess the test does the job of finding out if you have the right kind of mental skills to do the job. Whodathunk it?

tupac662 · 4 August 2011 at 10:54AM

Sorry to hear you didn't pass OP, I have to agree that the test wasn't the usual competency style questions. Mine included some serious percentage and ratio calculations and I was forced to hunt down my calculator!
Interview in just over 2 weeks, so ample time to prepare.
Anyone had the interviews before?

[FONT=&quot]DWP Competencies for the Contact Centre Profession[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot][/FONT][FONT=&quot]Delivering a Customer Focused Service[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot][/FONT][FONT=&quot]Analysing[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] Improving and Changing[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Delivering a Professional Service
Managing People and Performance
Building Capability
[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Leading[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot][/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Never worked in a contact centre environment before so not too sure on what to expect, but 2 weeks of research, research and even more research should help.
[/FONT]

Re. DWP Online Test For AO

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