R&D supports you through the EPSO Competition cycles. The AST competitions being soon announced, we offer to our members two sessions of preparatory seminars in English and French.

The course in English consists of 6 modules, each lasting two hours, and taking place in the evenings from 18.00-20.00 during a two-week period. The aim is to introduce you to all the main features of the pre-selection tests for the EU competitions as well as show ways to prepare and approach questions, manage your time and adopt a good strategy in both the preparation period and the tests themselves. For this reason, it is advisable to attend all modules of the course because they are not self-standing but interrelated.

The arrangements for competitions may change from year to year and we do not know in advance the exact details of this year’s AST competitions. The programme below is a basic structure for this training course, but will be adapted when the Notice of Competition is published.

The course language is English and the tutor is Phil Gaskell who has been giving courses at R&D since 2003.

Module 1: Introduction Registering for the competition – Notice of Competition; CV & motivation statements; the tests; strategy in tests. Preparing yourself for the event. Some time will also be given to professional skills tests on this first evening (14/11 & 28/11).

Module 2: Numerical reasoning: the approach; ways of working; question practice and explanation/discussion (15/11 & 29/11).

Module 3: Verbal reasoning: the approach; ways of working; question practice and explanation/discussion (16/11 & 30/11).

Module 4: Situational judgement: the approach; ways of working; question practice and explanation/discussion (21/11 & 5/12).

Module 5: Abstract reasoning: the approach; ways of working; question practice and explanation/discussion (24/11 & 6/12).

Module 6: Workshop – a session consisting of a mix of questions for further practice (25/11 (exceptionally 12.30-14.30) & 7/12).

If you are interested, please reply by email as soon as possible mentioning your membership R&D number.

The preparatory training in French will be published next week.