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AIB Advice- The condensed version (Updated regularly)

wannabe-atco said:
PTA - 2.4K run (MSFT level in brackets)

15-24
Male 11.13 (9.10)
Female 13.15 (7.03)

25-29
Male 11.38 (9.03)
Female 13.50 (6.07)

30-34
Male 12.05 (8.07)
Female 14.28 (6.02)

35-39
Male 12.34 (8.01)
Female 15.09 (5.05)

40-44
Male 13.02 (7.06)*
Female 15.52 (4.09)*

45-49
Male 13.34 (6.10)*
16.41 (4.04)*
* or Rockport walk

PTA graded in levels pass/good/v.good/excellent as times/levels improve. IIRC for 16-24 males a good is roughly 10.10mins on 2.4k and level 11.12 on the bleep tests but I will have to check that with my PTI tomorrow evening if anyone wants the specifics.

PTB – Press-ups, sit-ups & sprint (5x55m or 60m)

Press-ups
Up to 40 male - 23
40-45 male - 19
Up to 40 female - 17
40-45 male - 13

Sit-ups
Up to 40 male - 39
40-45 male - 35
Up to 40 female - 29
40-45 female - 25

Sprint
Up to 40 male - 59 seconds
40-45 female - 64 seconds
Up to 40 female - 72 seconds
40-45 female - 77 seconds
 
jrwlynch said:
The "ship recognition" at my interview was limited to three nice pictures on the wall, all surface units: from memory a Type 23, Ocean and Daring. If I could get the class, role and main armament right, that seemed adequate. There might have been bonus marks for getting ships by hull number but I got by without: I wouldn't recommend trying to digest and memorise the entire "United Kingdom" section of Jane's Fighting Ships.

Just as important is getting hold of Navy News or similar and having at least an idea of where the RN is deployed at the moment and what the purpose of each deployment is; if you can put specific ships in the right area that won't hurt either. (You'll be asked to point out operating areas on a wall map - however, it's a bare map with no country outlines or names, so make sure your basic geography is okay)


There's a good piece in the latest Warfare Officer's Newsletter by the AIB's N2 lieutenant, who from the timing is likely to have been on my board: can't duplicate the whole article, but a few useful pointers from it:-

1. Preparation. Quite a few candidates let themselves down by poor preparation. Not so much a failure to gen up on Service knowledge, more often less tangible issues like an inability to give a good concise answer to "why do you want to join the Navy?" when put on the spot.

2. Competency-based interviewing. The final interview is tailored to be fair and effective: you won't be asked for hypothetical examples, you'll be asked for specific cases where you've exercised leadership, dealt with difficult subordinates, seen someone being harassed or bullied, and how you dealt with it. Think that through so you can describe them properly when you're hit with the question. Examples that end with "...and it didn't go very well, so I asked for some advice, and next time I think I'd..." seem to be acceptable - perfection would be nice, but showing you can spot and learn from your mistakes is also good. If you honestly can't think of an example (I'm lucky enough not to have seen someone being bullied, for example) then I'd suggest you say so rather than flailing around - let them move on to something else where you *can* show a good example.

3. Fairness. The AIB is set up and run to be scrupulously fair, assessing candidates entirely on the basis of their potential to succeed as commissioned officers (and to provide evidence to that point if necessary). It's been said many times and it's still worth repeating - give every part your best effort, don't try to second-guess or analyse your performance. The standard is high, but not impossibly so: they're looking for someone who will make a good mid-career lieutenant (or captain RM) rather than demanding every candidate be the next Nelson and/or Cunningham.


Best of luck with it - it's actually a good couple of days, though I daresay it looks best when filtered through the happy pink buzz of being told you've passed :)
 
jrwlynch said:
Saying "relax!" probably won't help :)

More seriously, the next best thing to sailing through on a perfect performance, is picking up and recovering - especially on the PLTs and planning exercise. Do not get into a "that's it, I blew it, AIB failed" mindset - concentrate on recovering as much as you can if it starts to unravel. As an example, my PLT went horribly wrong halfway through, and all I could think of to do was to sound positive and confident while I binned half my plan, abandoned a lot of objectives and tried to salvage something from the mess.

And be sure that things will come apart a bit. The PLT seems straightforward when you look at the paper and come up with a plan - until your clever idea about swinging to the side to pick up the oil drum refuses to work. The planning exercise is *designed* to keep you on your toes, even to knock you onto your back foot, and to see how well you can keep your main objectives in mind and not get distracted but still assimilate a lot of information on the fly.


From experience I can tell you that once you've got started it's a lot easier- they keep you busy enough that you don't have too much time to brood. The only really tense part is the wait between your interview and being told your result... other than that, I was mostly concentrating on being in the right place at the right time in the right rig (which is not that hard to do, but things can be switched around at short notice; you need to pay attention to the staff, and be able to change, unpack and pack quickly)

Give it your best effort, look out for the other candidates, stay positive and you'll do well.
 
Cpt_Black said:
For me, the difference between a T22 and T23 is fairly obvious - the helipad at the stern is the same size as the main deck in the T23 and lower in the T22. The T42 differs from the T23 with the reinforced deck - along the side of the gunwales (spelling?)
I've not moved on to minesweepers or RFA yet

dbzz said:
For differentiating between classes:

T22 and T23 as Cpt_Black said: the helipad is lower on a 22
T42 and T45: the big giveaway has to be the ginormous Sampson radar in the middle of the 45(that's the really tall prism with the big ball on top of it in case you were wondering :) )

HMS Ocean and Albion-class: Ocean is "all" flight deck (if that makes sense)
Ocean and Invincible-class: Absence of ski jump!

SSBN and SSN: The Sail on the SSBN is at one end, whereas it's (pretty much) central on the SSN

That's about it for obvious areas of confusion I can think of

HighFlyer said:
What I've got so far is the following:-

Type 42 - Bulb on top of Bridge and 4.5 at front
Type 23 - 4.5 at front with Box Launcher behind it
Type 22 - 4.5 at front
Carriers - Duh?
Hunt - Bridge close to the front
Sandown - Bridge further back

Lynx - camera on the front
Merlin - Fins for landing gear
Sea King - has the sonar balloon on the side
Harrier - IR camera on the front
Sea Harrier - No IR Camera
LPH - Irregular aft
LPD - Square aft
Survery Ship - Retractable Pylon
Antartic Patrol - well it's red

I just need some help identifying differant submarines

But with them is that all I need

AndyGrayland said:
For me it's the masts, then weapons systems.

Escorts:

Type 23 has 1 large and one small with the large one towards the bow.

The type 42 has the same, but the large one is towards the stern.

The 22 has two about the same size.

Type 45 - Sampson

If you do get a close up though the weapons are a big hint.

Type 42s - Seadart right behind the mark 8.

Type 23s - vertical seawolf and harpoon right behind the Mark 8.

Type 22s - Movable seawolf launcher and harpoon next to the forward mast.

You can tell the difference between the batch 2 and 3 42's by a large bulge running along each side of the batch 3s. This is because the extended length required a strengthened hull.

There are only batch 3 22s left.

Carriers:

If you get a really good close-up you can also use the CIWS to help name the carrier. Goalkeeper is Illustrious and Phalanx is Ark Royal.

Submarines: (assuming you can't tell the scale)

Vanguard - Unmistakable in my opinion - it's just so wide!

Astute - Has a dimple either side of the tower and a pointed (ish) bow.

Trafalgar/Swiftsure - These look very similar, the best way I have found to spot them is that the trafalgars' rudders are slightly higher than the vessel, whereas the swiftsures' are pretty much level.

OPVs:

Batch 1s have a 20mm gun, the Clyde has a 30mm and a helipad.
 
Annual Bursaries, Reserved Places & 6th form scholarships are currently awarded as follows:

Pilot 2 bursaries, 4 Lower 6th, 1 Upper 6th
Observer 1 bursary
Warfare 4 bursaries, 1 Reserved Place, 3 Lower 6th, 1 Upper 6th
Warfare Submariners 2 bursaries
Engineer 11 bursaries, 2 Reserved Place, 5 Lower 6th, 2 Upper 6th
Logistics 1 Lower Sixth
Royal Marine 2 bursaries, 2 Reserved Place, 2 Lower 6th, 1 Upper 6th
Defence Technical Undergraduate places 31
Welbeck places 29
 
littleshinydemon said:
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 :D 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 :D
 
 Ships. The RN operates 100 vessels, comprising; 2 Aircraft Carriers, 3 Amphibious Assault Ships, 8 Type 42 Destroyers, 17 Frigates (4 Type 22, 13 Type 23), 16 Mine Countermeasure Vessels (8 Hunt, 8 Sandown), 22 Patrol Vessels (4 River class, 18 P2000), 4 Survey Vessels, 1 Ice Patrol Vessel, 4 Trident submarines, 7 Fleet submarines, 4 Landing Vessels, 4 Fleet Tankers, 2 Support Tankers, 4 Replenishment Ships, an Aviation Training/Primary Casualty Reception Centre ship, and a Forward Repair Ship.

 FAA. The Fleet Air Arm operates 161 combat and 2nd line aircraft, comprising 30 Merlin, 21 Mk 3 and 20 Mk 8 Lynx, 11 Mk 5, 10 Mk 7 ASaAC Sea Kings, 12 Hawk and 10 Jetstreams. The RN contributes a further 29 Sea King and 6 Lynx helicopters to the Joint Helicopter Command, and RN aircrew and maintainers are fully integrated across JHC units. Additionally, the Naval Strike Wing, comprising 800 and 801 NAS, operates a combination of 12 Harrier GR7/7A and GR9 variants as part of Joint Force Harrier.

 Personnel. At 1 Oct 08 there was a total strength of 34,320 regular uniformed personnel (trained, untrained and Full Time Reserve Service (FTRS)) against a requirement of 36,090. This comprises of 5,750 RN, 670 RM and 150 FTRS officers, 22,430 Ratings and 5,850 Royal Marines on the trained strength.

 Defence Budget. The total UK Defence Expenditure in 07/08 was £37.407Bn. This equates to 7% of the UK government’s expenditure, or 2.3% of GDP. (Other Departments share of spend for comparison are: Health 18%, Social Security 23% and Education 10%). Spending by other nations on defence (% GDP in 07) include: Germany 1.3%, Bulgaria 2.3%, France, Turkey & Greece 2.8%, USA 3.8%.

 Importance of the Sea. The sea covers 70.8% of the world’s surface and two thirds of the world’s population live within 100 miles of the coast. Over 156 of the 192 member states of the UN are coastal states. The UK has 10,500 miles of coastline and no person in the UK lives more than 80 miles from tidal water.

 World Trade. 90% of the world’s trade is moved by sea, by over 50,000 merchant ships manned by over a million seafarers. World maritime trade is estimated at over 5 billion tons / year (or US$4 trillion / year). 95% of maritime trade passes through just 9 chokepoints. In the last 40 years, the population of the world has doubled, but maritime trade has quadrupled. Container movements in 2007 were estimated at 140 million TEUs.

- UK Trade. Sea transport was one of the top 5 trade in service export earners for the UK in 2006 and UK registered and owned shipping continues to grow at a rate of 1 million DWT per year, quadrupling the UK fleet in just 7 years. 95% of the UK’s visible trade is reliant on shipping and the UK is 5th largest exporter of goods by value worldwide, exporting more than 25% of everything it produces and as a headline figure, shipping now earns well over £1million every hour of every day for the UK economy. 584M tonnes of freight passed through UK ports in 2007, compared to 2M tonnes by air freight – this equates to 18.58 tonnes per second by sea compared to just 63 kilos per second by air.
 
WarfareYoyo said:
...will run through how the PlanEx worked for me:

1) You and your team are put into a waiting room together, each with a booklet containing the scenario (the booklet has a small map too). You have 15 mins to read the scenario and take any notes you want. You can't talk to the others in this period.

2) You are all taken into the Board room, with your booklet and notes, and sat at a table with a large map, identical to the one in your booklet, opposite you all.

3) You will have the problem introduced by one of the Board members (write this down on your notes so you can refer back to it). You are then given 15 minutes to discuss the problem, come up with aims and a workable plan within the group. You still have your notes and the booklet with the scenario during this period.

4) After the 15 mins is up, the team is asked to state their aims and plan and no more discussion is allowed. You are then told to put your scenario booklet and notes away! You want to have memorised the aims and plan the group came up with by this point. One of the Board members (it was the Lieutenant doing it all on mine) will then start asking you questions individually, but if you get it wrong he'll ask one of the other team members.

5) After the questioning, you are all told to go back into the waiting room, still without your notes and booklet and still not able to discuss anything with your teammates. You then have a couple of minutes to finalise your aims and plan in your own mind, taking into account what may have happened during the questioning, before finally going back into the Boardroom individually to present your personal solution within 2 minutes (although it probably won't take this long, try to be concise). You won't get questioned on this final plan at all, you just leave when done and go concentrate on whatever you have next.

Hope this helps!
 
EDUCATIONAL PRE-FILTERING

Educational pre-filtering is used to identify enquirers who would have little chance of passing the AIB,or to establish whether they are sufficiently academically able to be considered for sponsorship.

The Professional Achievement Predictor ‘O’ Level (PAP(O)) pre-filter is applied to Officer candidates who do not yet possess ‘A’ level passes.

Candidates who do not have at least one "A" level (or equivalent, e.g. 2 Scottish Highers) or higher qualifications at the time of
contact will be scored using PAP (O).

Candidates studying for qualifications above GCSE are not exempt from PAP(O). Candidates who are bypassing GCSE or equivalent qualifications to study "A" levels, Highers etc. cannot be scored using PAP(O) since GCSE grades will not be known.

A Non-Graduate candidate must have at least five GCSE passes at grade C or
above, including mathematics and English language, or equivalent.

Non - graduate Officer applicants PAP(O) score of 23.5 if they apply before attaining A levels.

Scholarship Applicants.

Must have at least five GCSE passes at grade C or above, including mathematics and English language, or equivalent. Must have a minimum PAP(O) score of 35.

Calculating the PAP(O) Score

PAP(O) is based on performance in GCSE subjects (or equivalent subjects) and not examination sittings. In case of successful resits, the previous failure is discounted ;

if the same subject is taken more than once, the better or best grade is counted.

Similarly, 2 unsuccessful attempts at the same subject count as only one fail. Integrated Science with double certification counts as 2 subjects.

The 5 items used for PAP(O) are:

(1) Number of GCSE or equivalent subjects passed.

(2) Number of GCSE or equivalent subjects failed outright.

(3) Number of GCSE or equivalent grade points,

(where A=3, B=2 and C=1 for each subject passed).

(4) Best GCSE or equivalent Maths grade.

(5) Best GCSE or equivalent English Language grade.
 

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