Spatial awareness test practice
Spatial awareness is one of the five ability areas NATS names for Stage 1, and it recurs throughout FEAST and the FAA's ATSA. It covers two distinct things that often get lumped together: reading position and direction from instruments, and manipulating a shape in your head.
Controllers hold a moving three-dimensional picture from a two-dimensional display. That is why every provider tests this, and why it is worth more practice than most candidates give it.
The single most common error is answering with the direction you just calculated rather than the one the question asked for. Bearings questions are frequently two-step, and the second step is a reciprocal.
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Spatial Orientation — Bearings
Read the two instruments, then place yourself relative to the beacon. This is the item type that separates candidates more than any other in the spatial group.
Your heading indicator reads 270°. The bearing needle points 45° to the right of your nose. Where are you in relation to the beacon?
3D Cubes
A flat cube net with symbols on its faces, and four folded cubes to choose between. Only one is consistent with the net — and symbol orientation counts as well as position.
Mental manipulation of 3D objects. The distractors differ only in which face a symbol sits on or which way up it is, so the item punishes anyone who folds the net roughly and then guesses.
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Other ability areas
ATC Ready is an independent practice tool and is not affiliated with, endorsed by or associated with NATS Holdings, EUROCONTROL, the Federal Aviation Administration, NAV CANADA or any other air navigation service provider or testing authority. No provider publishes its question bank or scoring, so these tests are modelled on the ability areas each one names publicly.