Masterdog,
The aptitude tests do indeed still contain spatial awareness stuff. There were, when I applied, 3 separate testing days broken down as follows
1 - Spatial awareness (choosing which of the shown 'nets' would fold up to make the shown cube), dyslexia tests, literacy and numeracy, colour blindness, tests to spot repeating letters in a sequence, and letter combinations. Useful in the real world, as it's tempting to get the callsigns DLH123 and DHL123 confused when you're under pressure! The first, of course, being Lufthansa and the second DHL..
2 - A scripted interview (must be something to do with HR, they ask everyone the exact same 60 questions; questions about challenges you've overcome, how you solved certain things in previous jobs - nothing to do with ATC at all, in fact). We also had reams of computer programs to work through to test your ability to multitask. There was a very simple version of a radar in front of you and you had to solve potential conflictions given a set of rules as quickly as you could. Later on you had to do the same, but at the crucial moment had to solve a maths problem at the same time. Other tests analysed your reaction times, that sort of thing. Nothing you cant handle if you play lots of computer games!!
3 - A second interview day. This time, we had an interview with a valid ATCO and a HR person. We'd been given a 30-ish page document about how ATC works in it's simplest terms and we were tested on this as well as working through any background knowledge we may have had. It seemed that they were a lot easier on people with no aviation experience compared with, say, those who had previously been military controllers or ATC assistants. We also played a game of their own devising, not unlike snakes and ladders, but with lots of complicated rules to move "planes" around a board and land them in the correct order. It's difficult to explain, but it basically tested teamwork. All the 6 people who were there with me on that interview day passed, and almost all were o the same course as me at the college in Bournemouth.
3a - Medical tests. All the usual things, but done to a very high standard. ATCOs have to hold a class A medical. I had colour blindness tests, blood pressure, heart monitors, ECG, hearing tests, vision tests, weight, height measurements, drugs tests, lung capacity....the full works...
Wow, think this is the most I've every typed! Hope that answers a few of your questions! Oh, and the starting salary is £10K, with £60 a week acommodation allowance. If you're good with money, dont have a family to support and run a cheap car, it can be done! When I first started, we didnt even get the acommodation pay....
As to pointers about help on the spatial reasoning stuff, that link that itsallaboutyou posted is exactly what I was harping on about. If you can practice stuff like that.... I can't think of any hints or tips as such, its a weird thing, you can wither do it, or you can't.. Good thing is, NATS let you apply 3 times for the job, so get re-applying if you're keen!
Just another thought - if you want more of those sample question papers to practice... have you tried emailing the HR people.... email address is on the website...
