Mr. Miner
Trusted Contributor
- Messages
- 251
They're saying that your training in OKC is their form of an 'interview'. If you pass the academy (a 4 month interview), you get offered a job
Hiring Bid FAA-ATO-20-ALLSRCE-65607
- Thread starter MJ
- Start date
ClearanceClarence
Legendary Member
- Messages
- 1,552
Exactly. The ATSA is essentially just to gauge if you have the basic mental abilities needed for an ATC career. Pre employement is to make sure you’re not a terrorist or that you’re not a psychopath. The Academy is where the FAA really determines if they believe you can do the job or not. Then your actual training begins at your facility.
S
SIXTY-NINE
Guest
Wow can't believe I really slipped through all three nets.... /s... or am I?
Trying to figure out the best way to study for the ATSA. What's the best way to prepare? Is there an objectively better ATSA study guide, app, or program that is the best? Thanks
S
SIXTY-NINE
Guest
Personally used ATCPrep for about 30 minutes a day for a month before the ATSA and got a BQ first try. I think it does decently well for the first part of the exam, second part of the exam you should look at L-SAT practice questions in logic and reading comprehension.
TushingPin
Trusted Contributor
- Messages
- 614
Use the search bar in the top right and read one of the 30 other times it's been asked
I used ATCPrep a couple of times before taking the test. Got me ready so I knew what was going to be on the test. Got BQ on my first try. It was pretty cheap too. And for the LSAT questions, I just googled them. Only looked at those one day for maybe 20 minutes. I'm sure its the part that I did bad on, but I love mental math so I'm sure that brought up my score
VictorTango
Member
- Messages
- 24
Is the air traffic scenario math on ATCPrep (difficult level) still much easier than on the real ATSA?
S
SIXTY-NINE
Guest
I'd say yes.
I believe there was some custom settings to make it extremely fast, which is what I ended up doing. Not sure if it was the nerves of taking the test but thinking back now, I'm sure I got the ATCPrep thing to go faster than the real test. If you have more questions you can PM me. I enjoyed the math part a lot and can try to help you out if you're struggling on it
ChuckMastaT
Trusted Contributor
- Messages
- 179
I can tell you that the ATCPrep.com app that I have on my ipad is the exact same as the ATSA, and its fairly popular so.
I think it's funny reading all these posts of people saying how easy the ATSA was. I took it last year and it was the one of the 2 hardest tests I've ever taken. I didn't prepare at all but still passed. But it was MUCH harder than I expected. I left thinking that I must've failed. I don't know if I got Q, WQ or BQ. Any way to find out? Anyway, I got an FOL, Alaska FSS (I'm too old to apply for normal ATC) and am just waiting for MMAC to reopen.
The reason I'm following this thread is because my wife applied. She'll take the ATSA on the 20th so I was reading up on how to prepare. She got ATCprep. I just can't imagine anyone saying this test is "easy" unless they're just trying to sound macho or something.
The reason I'm following this thread is because my wife applied. She'll take the ATSA on the 20th so I was reading up on how to prepare. She got ATCprep. I just can't imagine anyone saying this test is "easy" unless they're just trying to sound macho or something.
Sassyquatch
Trusted Contributor
- Messages
- 202
The ATSA is probably the worse test that I've taken so far in my life. I've taken the ATSA 3 times, and each time I finished I had to sit in my car a good 30 minutes before driving back home. Definitely a mentally exhausting test and I felt like I failed every time. The last time I took it, I remember talking to another test-goer (we finished at the same time) and he boasted about how he didnt have a single plane/dot collide and answered every math problem. I had at least 8-12 dots collide if I remember correctly.
It's not an easy test, it's not designed to be easy. It's designed to test your aptitude and see if you make one mistake, can you continue to work or will that mistake mess you up for the remainder of the test?
You just have to remember to keep trying at the same level of confidence that you started with. Don't let one mistake distract you.
AscendingTo
Member
- Messages
- 29
Randomly guessed on every math problem FTFY
Seriously, I scored BQ and I would be completely blown away if someone scored a 100% on the final portion. I’m far from an expert, but I’d consider it nearly impossible.
Mr. Miner
Trusted Contributor
- Messages
- 251
Yeah, anyone who says that they had zero collisions and answered all the math questions correctly is lying.
That section is designed for you to miss questions and have collisions. Its testing how you well you prioritize handling multiple things at once and if you can handle the pressure; not how many arbitrary dots you can keep from intersecting with each other.
S
SIXTY-NINE
Guest
I think I had 2 collisions and I thought that was the equivalent of acing it. Did the math problems to the best of my ability but I wouldn't be surprised if I got 5+ wrong. Got BQ.
brsana
Trusted Contributor
- Messages
- 208
did you use the prep software? and if so, is it slower than the actual test like people say?
S
SIXTY-NINE
Guest
I used ATSA-Prep (whichever one is the one that's not pinned as an ad right now on p65).
I'd say it was crucial to getting me BQ. Anyone going into it not doing any prep is going to do far worse than someone who did use a test prep program. If you're serious about pursuing this as a career I would pay the $30 (I think I paid that amount) for it. I practice about 30 minutes a day for a month before my exam. Some parts of ATC Prep are slower, some are faster.
I remember that one part of the Prep software has you adding/subtracting double digit numbers when only single digit numbers are used for one section of the exam so it's just artificial diffculty. If you can do all parts of the program on max difficulty with 90% accuracy you're pretty much guaranteed to get a BQ (assuming you're up to snuff with the reading comp problems)
