Dynamic Projection Test

CUT and the Dynamic Projection Test were far too easy to max out

Both were marked against what a simulated player scores, set below it on the assumption that a computer steering everything perfectly is out of reach. It is not. Of the nine people who have sat each, the best candidate on CUT outscores that simulation and the typical one on the Dynamic Projection Test beats it outright.

So the bar was set below almost everybody, and six of nine on CUT and eight of nine on the Dynamic Projection Test finished on the maximum of 150%. A score everyone gets tells a strong candidate and a struggling one exactly the same thing, and makes re-sitting pointless.

Both bars now come from what candidates actually score. CUT moves from 305 to 520 and the Dynamic Projection Test from 50 to 80. A typical run on either now reads around 100%.

This moved scores. Your CUT and Dynamic Projection Test scores will read lower than before, around 100% instead of 150%. Nobody got worse. Runs sat against the old bar are kept and shown separately rather than compared with new ones, because they were measured against a bar that was wrong.

The Dynamic Projection Test no longer runs out of work

It used to end. Each aircraft had four gates and there was one unknown to intercept, and a capable candidate cleared the whole board in about nine minutes of a ten minute run, then flew in circles. That is why almost everybody scored within a few points of the maximum: the test ran out of work rather than time, and a score everyone gets cannot tell you anything about yourself.

Fly your four gates and a fresh four appear, labelled on from where you were. Intercept the unknown and another arrives a few seconds later. There is a fourth danger area to plan around, and the aircraft turn more slowly, so you can no longer point at a gate and arrive at it. You have to set the approach up.

The score is worked out exactly as before. It simply keeps climbing with how much you get through, which is the point.

The target is set from a simulated pilot for now, because nobody has sat this version yet, and it is deliberately set high rather than low. Expect it to be corrected once ten people have run it.

This moved scores. This is a different and much longer piece of work, so your earlier Dynamic Projection Test scores are kept and shown separately rather than compared with anything you do now. Expect your first run on it to read lower than you are used to: the target was set from a simulated pilot and erring high was the safer mistake.

Three things a candidate found

The Dynamic Projection Test could be steered with the arrow keys alone. A turn now needs a figure typed first, which is how the real one is flown, and the page that teaches the controls was rewritten to match.

Directions and Distances now names the shortcut: every straight line answer comes from one of five triangles scaled up, so no question needs a square root worked out in your head.

A score can read over 100% and still sit in the Developing band. The results card now says when accuracy is what is holding the band back, instead of showing two numbers that look like they disagree.