Guide
CBAT scores, timing and difficulty
Three questions everybody asks before an aptitude assessment, answered as honestly as they can be, including the one where the honest answer is that nobody selling you preparation actually knows.
What is the CBAT pass mark?
It is not published, and anyone quoting you a number is guessing or inventing. Treat a specific pass mark on a preparation site as a sign of how much else on it was made up.
Two further things make a single pass mark unlikely to exist in the first place. Scores are typically normed against other candidates rather than marked out of a fixed total, so what counts as competitive moves with the cohort. And different aircrew branches weight the skill areas differently, so a profile that suits one may not suit another. That is why candidates are sometimes offered a branch they did not apply for.
The practical consequence: aim to have no weak area, rather than to hit a number. A jagged profile is the thing you can actually control.
Then what do the scores here mean?
They are our own training benchmarks, and we are explicit that this is all they are. Each one is measured, not chosen: a simulated candidate that knows every answer and never mistypes is run through the test thousands of times, and the benchmark is set at a fraction of what it scores. The bar you are scored against is set above that on purpose, so clearing it leaves you margin. That gives you a fixed, honest reference to improve against.
What it is not is a prediction. Beating a benchmark here means you have got better at that skill, which is the only thing any practice can truthfully claim.
How long does it take?
The real assessment is a half-day event and covers more than the computer battery. Briefings, forms and waiting all take their share. The tests themselves are short, and there are a lot of them.
For scale, the 27 tests here total about 410 minutes of actual testing. The shortest (Numerical Operations) runs 3 minutes; the longest (Verbal Logic Test) runs 60. Almost nothing gives you time to settle in, which is the single most useful thing to know in advance.
How difficult is it?
No individual question is hard. Almost every one of these tests is straightforward if you are given as long as you like. The difficulty is entirely in the clock and in doing several things at once. Candidates who are used to being good at exams often find this genuinely unsettling, because the familiar strategy of thinking carefully is the wrong one.
The multitask tests
Reliably the ones people report as hardest. Three or four jobs run at once and none of them waits, so it is impossible to do everything. The score comes from choosing what to abandon, which is a skill most candidates have never had to practise deliberately.
Anything with a control
Tracking feels unfair the first time because the control does not behave like a mouse. It stops feeling unfair after about twenty minutes of exposure, which is the strongest argument for practising the live tests at all.
Sustained attention
Not difficult, but tiring, and it comes after everything else. Accuracy on the later tests falls for reasons that have nothing to do with the tests themselves, which is why full-length runs are worth more than isolated ones.
Can you retake it?
Policies vary by force and change over time, and a waiting period between attempts is common. Some scores are held on record and reused. Because the terms differ and get revised, check the current rules with the recruiting body you are applying to rather than trusting any preparation site on this, including this one.
To see where you stand across the skill areas, sit one test from each area free. Premium’s Scores page lays the areas side by side.
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Every test has a free version, including every live simulation, which is the part paper cannot cover. A free account saves your runs so you can see whether you are improving. No card.
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CBATONE is independent practice material and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to the Royal Air Force, the Royal Australian Air Force, the Australian Defence Force, ADF Careers, the Ministry of Defence or any other armed force, government department or recruiting body. “CBAT”, “ASP”, “MACTS”, “GAT” and “OSB” are used only to describe the assessments this material is intended to help you prepare for. Every question here is original material written to the published format. Full terms.