Every pilot aptitude test, explained

Read the data, decide at speed

Interpret data from tables and charts under time pressure and judge statements True, False or Cannot Say. A core cut-e/Aon test, and appears in COMPASS and DLR in maths form.

Fast maths, no calculator

cut-e's scales eql: each equation has a missing value shown as a box (□) — choose the digit that makes it true. It adapts as you go: easy items are addition, harder ones add multiplication and larger numbers, and the hardest have two boxes. Five speeded minutes, no calculator.

True, false or cannot tell

cut-e's scales verbal: a company is described across five tabs of text and you judge each statement True, False or Cannot Tell against what the passages say. Ten different company sets cycle so you don't see the same one twice in a row.

Match the grids that share the rule

cut-e's scales clx: two example grids are linked by a rule — the grid is rotated and each symbol is swapped for another. Work out that rule, then pick the two grids (of four) linked by the SAME rule. A correct pick flashes green, a wrong one red.

Read the mechanism, work it out

cut-e's scales mtu: diagram-based mechanical questions in an even mix — belt and gear speeds/directions, spring force (F = k × x), torque (force × distance), see-saw moments, and pulley effort. The DLR (TVT) and COMPASS versions add applied physics.

Where am I, and which way?

cut-e's scales ndb: read a Direction Indicator (your heading) and a Relative Bearing Indicator (the needle points to a beacon relative to your nose), then make two picks — the plane matching your heading, and the tile showing where you sit relative to the beacon. Commit both to answer.

Hold it while it changes

cut-e's gridChallenge: a field of dots is shown and one lights up red — memorise its position and the order the dots light up. Between each dot a question appears (an equation, or two dot-grids to judge as rotated or symmetrical) to answer Yes or No. Each round is three dots with a question between each; then you click the three back in order. Five rounds.

How many dots are there?

cut-e's monitoring (cmo): fast white dots drift and overlap inside a dark circle — count them and pick the number as quickly as you can. Every correct answer speeds the dots up; every wrong one slows them down.

Fly the crosshair through the gap

cut-e's wingChallenge: your crosshair flies down an endless tunnel of rotating shapes and you steer with the arrow keys to line up with each shape's opening. Pass through for a point; hit the shape and you bounce back to try again.

Clear a path for the plane

cut-e's motionChallenge: a Rush-Hour-style 7×7 grid of sliding blocks. Drag the obstacles out of the way — each can only slide along its handle's axis — to clear a path for the plane to reach the runway. Solve as many as you can; two minutes per grid.

Shapes, sums and sounds at once

The sonic module of the Aon pilot assessment: three tasks at once. Read the orientation of the triangle in a row of shapes and press left or right, confirm whether equations are Correct or Incorrect, and listen to a spoken series of letters to say whether one is Duplicated.

Land it while you count and check

The runway module of the Aon pilot assessment: three tasks at once. Guide an approaching aircraft onto the runway by placing the landing point on the grey strip, confirm whether equations are Correct or Wrong, and say whether a row of letters contains a duplicate.

Dodge, calculate, spot — together

cut-e's Multi-Tasking (falling obstacles): three tasks at once — slide the aircraft into a safe box so the falling obstacles miss it, judge whether each equation is Correct or Wrong, and say whether the shape sequence contains a duplicate.

Three tasks at once

cut-e's Multi-Tasking (scales mt · avi): three tasks at the same time — fly the aircraft through the gates with Up/Down, judge whether each equation is correct, and press Match when the spoken shapes match the ones on screen. Five relentless minutes.

Spot the figure that doesn't belong

Aon's Inductive Reasoning (ix): a row of figures all follow one hidden rule except one — the number of shapes, whether they're all dark, all solid, or all the same type. Spot the odd one and pick its letter, fast. A correct pick flashes green, a wrong one red.

Find the code that reorders the row

Aon's switchChallenge: a number code reorders a row of five shapes — each number says which position a shape comes from. You're shown the top row, three candidate codes and the bottom row; pick the code that turns the top row into the bottom. Built-in Help and a Hint that shows what each code produces.

Sudoku with shapes — fill the ?

Aon's scales lst — Sudoku with six shapes. Each shape appears once in every row and once in every column; one cell holds a ?. Deduce the missing shape by elimination and pick it from the palette. Built-in Help and Hint buttons.

Complete, match and spell

Aon's Language Skills (scales lt): complete sentences, match words to their meanings, and pick the correctly-spelled word. Quick, English-usage items.

Yellow rule or blue rule?

Aon's scales cls: diamond grids are tagged yellow or blue, each colour standing for one of two rules. Work the two rules out from the tagged examples, then decide whether a new grid is yellow or blue. A correct pick flashes green, a wrong one red.

Simple, fast, True or False

Aon's Ability to Concentrate (scales e3+): each figure is a letter with dots beside it, and a target letter is named that changes every item. Decide whether the figure is that exact letter with exactly three dots — as fast as you can for two relentless minutes.

Identical or different — as fast as you can

Aon's Reaction Time (scales rt): two images appear side by side — decide whether they are identical or different as fast as you can. Sliders drift in the middle as a distractor, for three intentionally monotonous minutes.

Which way did the arrow turn?

Aon's Sense of Direction (scales nav): memorise an arrow's heading, then — when it reappears in a new position — decide whether it stayed put, turned left 90°, turned right 90°, or rotated 180°. One relentless minute of spatial transformation.

Counter the drift, keep it centred

COMPASS Control: a compensatory tracking task across two instruments at once. A ball drifts along each semicircle — fly the left one with Up/Down and the right one with Left/Right, keeping both on the orange centre datum. Tests fine hand-to-eye coordination under continuous correction.

Thread the aircraft through the gates

COMPASS Slalom: a pursuit tracking task. Your aircraft holds station while a winding corridor of gate dots scrolls toward it — steer Left/Right to keep the plane between the two dotted walls. As you progress the whole view banks and rolls, so the corridor tilts and you must keep reorienting to steer the right way. Tests pursuit tracking, hand-to-eye coordination and spatial orientation.

Applied maths, no calculator

COMPASS Mathematics: applied numeracy without a calculator. Aviation word problems — fuel-burn rates, unit conversion, fractions & percentages, averages and quartiles, probability, areas, powers & roots and speed/distance/time — each with three answers. Pick one and it locks, flashes green or red, then auto-advances.

Read the FMC, key it back

COMPASS Memory: an aviation short-term memory task. An FMC-style panel shows four values — Altitude, Heading, Speed and Frequency — for 5 seconds; then some are blanked and you have 10 seconds to key the missing ones back in. Up to all four can be missing at once.

Fly the autopilot, watch the lights

COMPASS Task Manager: two concurrent tasks for five minutes. Primary — copy Altitude, Heading and Speed from the Scratchpad into the Autopilot Computer each time they change, before the progress bar expires. Secondary — continuously monitor nine lights (U I O / H J K / B N M) and extinguish each one by pressing its key. Tests multi-tasking and prioritisation.

Read three instruments, place the aircraft

COMPASS Orientation (Bearings): interrogate three aircraft instruments — a Direction Indicator, an Artificial Horizon and a Relative Bearing Indicator — and pick the one aircraft (of four) whose heading, bank and position around the central beacon match all three. Tests spatial awareness and combined instrument reading.

Apply the physics

COMPASS Technical Test: scientific comprehension, applying basic and advanced physics to answer multiple-choice questions. Covers force, motion & energy, electricity, radiation & magnetism, the gas laws, mass, weight & gravity, levers & gears, waves, thermodynamics and units of measurement.

Copy the clearance

COMPASS Aviation English (optional module): listen to ATC transmissions delivered in a variety of accents, then answer multiple-choice questions on each one — callsign, frequency, QNH, runway, flight level, heading and squawk. Some messages contain a 'break' and carry clearances for two different aircraft. Tests listening comprehension in an aviation context.

True, False or Cannot Tell

COMPASS Verbal Reasoning: read a passage, then judge each statement about it as True, False or Cannot Tell. 25 different passages are served in a random rotation — you work through every one before any repeats. Tests reading comprehension and the ability to separate stated fact from inference.

Copy the clearance

DLR Aviation English (ENS): listen to ATC transmissions in a variety of accents, then answer a question on each — callsign, frequency, QNH, runway, level, heading or squawk. The same listening task as the COMPASS module.

Fold it in your head

DLR 3D Cubes (PPT): a flat cube net is shown with symbols on its faces — work out which of four folded cubes it makes. Symbol orientation counts as well as position. Tests spatial visualisation and mental manipulation of 3D objects.

Track the cross by ear

DLR Rotating Cubes (ROT): a blue cross is marked on one face of a cube. A spoken instruction gives the starting face, then a run of four to seven tipping commands — left, right, front or back. Track the cross through the rotations in your head and pick the face it finishes on from six cube diagrams.

Find the shape in the noise

DLR Hidden Forms (VFF): two large line drawings are shown with a target shape beneath. Decide whether the shape is concealed in the Left drawing, the Right, Both or None. The drawings hide the shape among lines running in the same directions as its own edges, so it takes concentrated examination to find.

Follow the line through

DLR Path Figure Test (WFG): a computer-generated route is drawn as a folded blue line, starting at a dot and finishing at an arrowhead. Follow it from start to finish and count how many left — or how many right — turns it makes. The route crosses back over itself repeatedly, so the count only holds if you track it cleanly.

Fly the bugs, watch the numbers

DLR Instruments (MIC), run as the Simulate activity: pilot a light aircraft on basic instruments — airspeed, compass and altimeter — holding the speed, heading and altitude marked by each blue bug, while at the same time listening to a spoken number series and flagging runs of three odd or three even numbers. Tests instrument flying and divided attention.

Turn the words into sums

DLR Math Word Problems (RAG): mathematical questions wrapped in short passages of text, on everyday and abstract situations. Interrogate the wording, choose the right equation and pick from the answers shown — speed/distance/time, headwinds, percentages, proportions, rates and unit conversions.

Listen, calculate, answer

DLR Mental Arithmetic (KRN): calculations are narrated by audio rather than shown — you hear something like '26 plus 38' or '72 times 41 plus 156' and pick the answer. Basic and complex operations, worked entirely in your head. Tests numerical fluency and auditory working memory.

Apply the physics

DLR Science (TVT): scientific comprehension, applying basic and advanced concepts to answer multiple-choice questions. Covers force, motion & energy, electricity, radiation & magnetism, mass, weight & gravity, the gas laws, Hooke's law, waves, thermodynamics and units of measurement.

Three rules, one triangle at a time

DLR Triangles (SKT): each session opens with three rules covering colour, orientation and dot count. A starting triangle is shown, then a stream of triangles — for every one you compare it with the triangle before it and press the button whose rule describes what changed or stayed the same. The rules are replaced every session.

Read only the dials that match

DLR Dials (OWT): a statement names a colour and shape — Black Squares, White Circles and so on — then nine dials appear for 15 seconds. Read only the dials matching the statement, work out each pointer's value from a partly-labelled scale, and memorise them. Instruments 1 to 9 are then asked in turn, with 'Instrument Not Read' for the ones that didn't match.

Learn the rules, apply them fast

DLR Signal Processing (DRT): the Stimulus Numpad highlights one of the four corner keys (7, 9, 1, 3) in a colour, and each colour is assigned a rule — Direct, Diagonal, Horizontal or Vertical. Press the resulting key on the Response Numpad. The colour-to-rule assignments are shown before each series and change between them, so they must be re-memorised. Tests concentration and logical rule application.

Hear it forwards, key it backwards

DLR Tracked Memory (RMS): a run of randomly-generated digits is read aloud, and you key them back in REVERSE order on a keypad within 20 seconds. Sequences grow through the run. Tests memory recall and mental manipulation of a held sequence.

Pair it, then recall it

DLR Visual Memory (MEK): four elements are shown down the left of the screen, each paired with a two-digit number. You get 5 seconds to memorise the pairings. One element is then shown on its own with a '?' and you key its number back in on the keypad within 10 seconds. Fresh sets keep coming for the full 10 minutes, so answering faster earns you more of them.

Match it to n symbols back

DLR Visual Memory (VMC): symbols appear one at a time, each defined by a shape, a colour and a style. For every symbol you say whether it matches the one shown n positions earlier — all three attributes must be identical. Blocks run at 2-back, 3-back and 4-back, and the first n symbols of each block are observation only.

Read the data, decide at speed

Interpret data from tables and charts under time pressure and judge statements True, False or Cannot Say. A core cut-e/Aon test, and appears in COMPASS and DLR in maths form.

Fast maths, no calculator

cut-e's scales eql: each equation has a missing value shown as a box (□) — choose the digit that makes it true. It adapts as you go: easy items are addition, harder ones add multiplication and larger numbers, and the hardest have two boxes. Five speeded minutes, no calculator.

Read the six-pack at a glance

Read the attitude indicator (climb, level or dive, plus the bank) and the heading dial, then pick the aircraft — shown from behind — that is flying in that attitude and heading. A COMPASS / PILAPT-style instrument test. Five minutes.