ATC Simulation
Keep them apart, and keep counting
The ATSA's work sample, and the subtest closest to the job. A radar panel carries nine numbered aircraft that enter from the edges over five seconds and fly straight lines. When two are closing, you type either of their numbers and that aircraft leaves. Miss it and both turn red, and a red pair cannot be undone. If a round holds no collision at all you call it by pressing 0 — the sooner the better, but call it wrongly and it costs you. Stage 2 runs arithmetic alongside the whole thing.
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What to expect
- Nine numbered dots, entering from the perimeter over the first five seconds.
- Six rounds; some of them contain no collision at all.
- Easy, Medium and Hard, which differ by how fast the dots move.
- Stage 2 adds arithmetic answered with A, S, D and F — and it is scored.
What it measures
- Divided attention
- Detecting a converging pair early
- Judging when NOT to act
- Arithmetic under load
Instructions
- 1Type 1-9 to remove an aircraft, 0 to call a round with no collision in it.
- 2Removing either aircraft of a converging pair prevents the collision — you do not need the right one of the two.
- 3Removing an aircraft that was never a threat costs points, so being trigger-happy is not free.
- 4Once a pair has turned red the accident has happened and neither can be removed.
Tips
- Watch for CLOSING pairs, not close ones. Two dots near each other on parallel tracks are nothing; two far apart and converging are the ones that matter.
- Straight lines mean you can extend both tracks by eye and see where they would meet. That is worth more than watching the gap shrink.
- A round with nothing in it is worth calling early — but only call it when you have traced every track, because a wrong call costs more than a late one.
- In Stage 2 the sums are scored, but a collision costs more than any of them are worth — so let a sum go when traffic converges, and never the other way round.
- Do not guess at a sum to clear it. A wrong answer costs nearly what a right one earns, so a random press loses points on average.
ATC Simulation
Aircraft move in straight lines across a display and you keep them from colliding, while a stream of arithmetic runs alongside and also has to be answered. Both tasks are live at the same time and both are scored.
This is the subtest closest to the job, and the scoring rewards an even hand rather than excellence at one thing. Candidates who protect the traffic and abandon the maths score badly, and so do candidates who do the reverse. Practise keeping the secondary task alive — that is where the marks actually go.
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