The cut-e / Aon pilot test: a complete guide
cut-e — now Aon Assessment — is the aptitude system most European airlines and cadet programmes put candidates through. It is distinctive for very short, intensely speeded tests and for game-like exercises where you fly something while answering unrelated questions at the same time. This guide explains every test, how the battery is scored, and how to prepare for it properly.
Pilot Ready is an independent study aid and is not affiliated with Aon plc or cut-e. Confirm the tests you will sit with the organisation assessing you.
What is the cut-e / Aon test?
cut-e is an online assessment publisher, acquired by Aon and now marketed as Aon Assessment, whose aviation battery has become the default in a large part of European airline and cadet selection. If you are applying to a European carrier or a cadet scheme, this is the system you are most likely to meet.
Two things make it feel different from a conventional aptitude test. The first is brevity: individual cut-e tests are often only a few minutes long, so there is no settling-in period — you are at full speed from the first item or you have lost marks. The second is the psychomotor and multitasking exercises, which look like simple video games and behave like nothing most candidates have ever done. These are where scores separate.
You will not sit every test in the catalogue. Airlines select a battery appropriate to the role, so two candidates applying to different operators can have very different days.
How the battery is structured
A cut-e pilot assessment is a sequence of separate tests, each with its own short instruction screen, practice items and then a fixed window. Between them the format changes completely — from a reasoning grid to a joystick tracking task and back — which is itself part of the challenge.
Many operators run the first stage remotely and unsupervised, then re-test shortlisted candidates under supervision to confirm the result is genuinely theirs. Treat the remote stage as the real thing: a strong unsupervised score you cannot reproduce in the room is worse than useless.
Practically, that means preparing for a long, format-switching session rather than for any single test. Being able to reset your attention between very different tasks is a trainable skill and a real advantage.
Every cut-e test explained
Below is every cut-e-style test Pilot Ready builds practice for, grouped by the ability it targets. Each links to a full description and a playable version.
Multitasking
The tests cut-e is known for, and the ones that separate candidates. Two or three demands run at once and every one of them is scored.
Keep an aircraft on course while answering unrelated questions — the flagship multitasking exercise.
Land a drifting aircraft on the strip while judging equations and spotting duplicate letters.
Adds a listening channel: spoken letters to monitor alongside the visual tasks.
Dodge falling obstacles into a safe box while equations and shapes keep arriving.
Psychomotor & control
Continuous hand-eye tasks. Almost nobody has done anything like these before, which is exactly why rehearsing them pays.
Monitoring & attention
Noticing what changed in a busy display, and staying sharp when very little is happening.
Watch several instruments at once and catch each one as it drifts out of tolerance.
Sustained, error-free work on a repetitive task — attention under boredom rather than pressure.
Hold a pattern in mind, answer an interrupting question, then reproduce it in order.
Spatial & navigation
Knowing where you are relative to something else, and holding shape and direction in mind.
Numerical & verbal
Short, intensely speeded reasoning tests. Accuracy is weighted heavily, so pace beats panic.
Pull the right figures out of tables and charts and judge statements under time pressure.
Fast arithmetic without a calculator — the foundation for everything else numerical.
Judge statements against a written passage: true, false, or cannot say.
English usage, grammar and comprehension at speed.
Logical reasoning
cut-e's reasoning tests are unusually short and unusually strict on timing — familiarity with the answer format matters as much as the reasoning itself.
Find the rule governing a set of figures and apply it.
Spot the odd one out in a grid of related objects.
Deduce which object belongs in a gap from the surrounding pattern.
Work out the arrangement that satisfies every stated rule.
Track how a set of switches transforms an input into an output.
Technical
Mechanical principles applied to practical situations.
The multitasking tests: where the marks are
If you take one thing from this guide, take this. The cut-e multitasking exercises — flying or steering something while judging equations, monitoring letters or dodging obstacles — are the tests that most reliably separate prepared candidates from unprepared ones, for a simple reason: performance on a first attempt is limited almost entirely by unfamiliarity rather than by ability.
The instinct everyone has is to fixate on one task until it feels safe and then switch. That is exactly wrong, and it is what the test is designed to catch. What works is a deliberate scan — accept that the flying task will drift a little while you answer, answer quickly, and come straight back. Candidates who protect one channel perfectly and abandon the others score badly, because every channel is scored.
Scoring and what counts as a good score
cut-e results are standardised and compared against a norm group, usually reported as a percentile or a stanine rather than a raw mark. The airline then sets its own thresholds — commonly a combination of an overall requirement and minimum scores in specific abilities.
Because the thresholds are set by the operator and are not published, there is no universal "cut-e pass mark", and you should treat any specific number you find online with suspicion. What is consistent is the underlying logic: your weakest required ability sets your ceiling. Practising what you are already good at feels productive and changes your outcome least.
On strategy: several cut-e tests weight accuracy heavily or penalise wrong answers, so working at the fastest pace at which you stay accurate beats racing to attempt more items. Speed built on shaky accuracy collapses under timing.
How to prepare for cut-e
- Do the psychomotor and multitasking tests first. They improve most with practice and are the ones you cannot afford to meet cold. Start early and return to them often.
- Learn each reasoning test's answer format. cut-e tests are so short that spending thirty seconds working out how to respond is a significant proportion of the test.
- Drill mental arithmetic away from the screen. Percentages, ratios and quick division underpin the numerical tests and improve with plain repetition.
- Practise short bursts at full intensity. Matching the real rhythm — brief, maximal effort, reset — trains the right thing. Long relaxed sessions do not.
- Use Aon's own candidate practice material alongside your other preparation; it comes from the publisher and reflects current formats.
- Rehearse the switch between tests. Chain three unrelated tests back to back and practise resetting your attention between them.
Common mistakes
- Treating the unsupervised stage casually. A score you cannot reproduce under supervision ends the application.
- Protecting one channel in the multitasking tests and letting the others collapse. Every channel is scored.
- Guessing to finish. Where accuracy is weighted or errors penalised, this actively costs you marks.
- Skipping the tracking tests because they feel awkward. That feeling is the reason to practise them.
- Assuming your battery from someone else's experience. Airlines choose different test combinations, and they change.
Frequently asked questions
What is the cut-e pilot test?
cut-e is an assessment system, now part of Aon and branded Aon Assessment, that is widely used in airline and cadet pilot selection. Its pilot battery combines very short speeded reasoning tests with game-like psychomotor and multitasking exercises, where you fly or steer something while simultaneously answering unrelated questions. Candidates are typically assessed on a selection of tests chosen by the airline rather than the entire catalogue.
Which cut-e tests will I have to sit?
That is chosen by the organisation assessing you, and it varies between airlines, programmes and years. Multitasking, monitoring, spatial orientation and numerical work appear very commonly in pilot selection; the exact combination does not. Your invitation or the Aon candidate information should indicate what to expect, and it is worth asking the recruiter directly.
How long does the cut-e assessment take?
Individual cut-e tests are short — often just a few minutes each, which is one of the system's defining characteristics — but a pilot battery chains a number of them together, so expect the session to run well over an hour. Some stages are sat remotely and unsupervised first, with a supervised re-test later to verify the result.
Can you practise for cut-e tests?
Yes. You cannot learn the answers, but you can learn the formats, build a reliable method for each test type, and rehearse the psychomotor and multitasking exercises so they are not a shock. Those exercises in particular reward practice heavily, because performance on them is limited far more by unfamiliarity than by ability on a first attempt. Aon also publishes its own practice material for candidates, which is worth using alongside anything else.
Is there negative marking in cut-e tests?
Scoring models vary by test, and several cut-e tests weight accuracy heavily or penalise incorrect answers rather than rewarding volume alone. The practical implication is the same either way: guessing wildly to finish more items is a poor strategy. Work at the fastest pace at which you remain accurate.
What is a good cut-e score?
There is no single published pass mark. Results are standardised and compared against a relevant norm group, and each airline sets its own thresholds — often including minimum scores in specific areas as well as an overall requirement. That means the same result can clear one operator's bar and miss another's, and it is why your weakest required ability deserves the most practice time.
Practise the cut-e battery
Three cut-e tests are free with no account, including the Falling Obstacles multitasking test. Every test scores you instantly and tracks your progress.
Disclaimer. Pilot Ready is an independent study resource and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to Aon plc or cut-e. "cut-e" and "Aon" are trademarks of their respective owners, used here only to describe the assessments this app helps you prepare for. Our practice tests are original exercises built to develop the same underlying abilities; they are not the real tests and are not reproductions of them. Formats and standards can change — confirm the current process with the organisation assessing you.