Cognitive Updating Test
CBAT-style practice test · Multitasking
Holding several jobs in your head at once and switching to whichever is drifting out of tolerance.
- Skill area
- Multitasking
- Length
- 32 minutes
- Format
- Real-time simulation
- Cost
- Free version, or Premium
Free version
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What this test involves
- Two screens, six displays. Set each screen to whatever needs you.
- MESSAGE is where orders arrive: comms codes, camera and load drop times, values to enter. They stay on the page, so you can go back and read one.
- The WARNING PANEL is different. It shows what you have already let slip. Ideally it stays empty all run.
- Engine drains one tank at a time; switch the ON tank to hold the levels within 50 L. Work the hydraulic pump to hold pressure in the correct band. Airspeed bleeds off on its own and the required figure changes.
- Select a Mission field or the comms code box, then enter the digits on the pad under it or on the keyboard.
How to prepare for the Cognitive Updating Test
- Keep one screen on Message. Everything you are about to be asked for arrives there first, and an order you never read is an order you cannot serve.
- A video recording order gives a time and a camera. Type the time into the video recording Time field, select the camera on Sensor, then press ACTIVATE CAMERA when the clock reaches that time. Early is a fault, not a head start.
- The comms code can only be entered in the last 15 seconds of its countdown. Read it when it arrives, hold on to it, and come back for the window.
- A load drop gives a time and a dispenser. Type the time into the Time field, select the dispenser, then press RELEASE when the clock reaches that time. There are no lights to tell you when.
- The hydraulic pump answers straight away, so switch it once and watch. Flicking it back and forth is how the needle ends up out of the band.
- Camping on one job while three others drift is how people fail this. Fix, move, fix.
Other multitasking tests
Figures, Logistics and Groups
Three jobs at once: maths, colour-zones and callsign memory.
Colours, Letters and Numbers
Three streams at once: timing, memory and mental arithmetic.
Auditory Capacity Test
Fly the tunnel while obeying spoken orders. Audio required.
Target Recognition Test
Watch four recognition tasks at once and act on every match.
Dynamic Projection Test
Steer three aircraft at once. Gates, intercepts and hazards.
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