Tips for those going for their AIB
Naval Knowledge
The navy knowledge test covers an immense spectrum of topics surrounding not just the Navy and the Royal Marines, but the RFA, ministry of defence, history and also 'health' (we had a question about which war was Florence Nighting Gale in, amongst other 'health' related questions).
The navy knowledge itself, about ships etc. is not that hard, if you have been reading about the different weapons systems, the more prominent radars and roles of ships and aircraft, you should be able to do quite well. Knowing the names of ships and squadron numbers are also helpful, but there weren't lots of questions on these sorts of things.
Maths
This was always going to be my weakest area, and I was very surprised at the level of the maths. It wasn't particularly difficult (it has been a long time since doing maths at school, but I wouldn't say it was any higher than GCSE). There were no equations, no pythagoras, no angles. Basically it was all about using tables of data, graphs etc. to answer the questions which are all multiple choice, and focused mainly on percentages, fractions and ratios. There were some Speed Time Distance questions, and the numbers were not the easiest to work with, but no impossible. I would recommend
Data Interpretation Practice Tests or
Mental Arithmetic as being useful. The main problem is the shortage of time for this test.
Essay
This is where, according to my AFCO, most people fall down. I don't know how I did, but have had many years of experience writing reports and essays to tight time scales. In the essay they are not looking for factual knowledge, but your ability to structure an argument and get across a point. So make sure you take time to create a plan (you have plenty of time for that) and then keep it nice and simple - Point explanation example is what I usually use. Make sure your conclusion actually concludes something and doesn't just leave you sitting on the fence, or the reader unsure of what your actual point was.
PLT's
This was, in my opinion, the easiest part of the whole week. Make sure you are loud, probably slightly 'camp' in your support of your team mates
and that you keep you plan simple and clear for everyone to understand. Use lateral thinking, if something is in your way and you don't need it, and the mission statement has not specifically mentioned the object, just push it out the way.
Final point, don't panic! Don't allow yourself to freak out, if you get stuck, ask your team mates for suggestions.
Planning Exercise
Personally I found this the hardest section of the AIB. Main points are;
You are given 15 minutes to sit in silence to read your scenario, make sure you remember AS MUCH as possible of EVERYTHING. My problem was that I skimmed over certain sections of the scenario in the belief that they were irrelevant, however it is all brought up during the 'interrogation'.
When it comes to the group discussion, make sure you are as vocal and active in the construction of the plan as possible, and don't be afraid to make suggestions. My problem was I lost the thread of our plan from the start of the discussion because it was getting towards the end of the second day. I switched off for a second and it proved very detrimental my planning exercise.
Prior to the AIB, I was using the STD website that has already been posted on here, to practice. I was able to do the questions in an average of 8-10seconds per question in my head easily - at the AIB, when confronted in the interrogation section with STD, I completely lost it and couldn't even do the simplest of sums. My point is, don't just practice STD, practice having someone firing STD questions at you, and then adding your answer onto an existing time (for example, you don't just have to be able to do the STD, you then have to remember what the original time was that you started with, and add your answer on to this very quickly...and make sure you do it ALL in 24 HOUR CLOCK - the Lt. who is asking the questions doesn't like 12 hr clock :lol: ).
Other than that, the whole process goes very quickly and you rarely have a chance to worry.
enjoy,
N.
ps. This is simply based on my own experience, so things may change, and will possibly be different for anyone else. Also I haven't recieved my debrief yet, so don't take it as gospel