Storm 0 Posted February 13, 2007 Share Posted February 13, 2007 I have had my date through for my assessment for West Mercia !The 7th March at Ryton Coventry. I have tried to prepare my self as best as I could (attended a college pre recruitment course and brought the how to be CD) The one thing I'm worrying about (besides not passing!) is the written test. I can't find anything that will give me an idea of the sort of thing they will be looking for, the course didn't really touch on it and the CD only shows a good example of a letter. Has anyone anything that could help me? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Salsoul 0 Posted February 13, 2007 Share Posted February 13, 2007 Like the interactive exercises you will be given some information usually about something that has happened at the Westshire Centre and a memo, the memo will be from a manager at the Centre and will contain some instructions. Your will probably have to put forward some proposals and suggestions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Storm 0 Posted February 13, 2007 Author Share Posted February 13, 2007 Thanks for your reply. I know you don't have much time to do this excercise. Do you have any tips on the best way to approach this part of the assesment? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Salsoul 0 Posted February 13, 2007 Share Posted February 13, 2007 You will have 20 mins for each of the written exercises, you will also be given paper to make rough notes on. Time management is the key, don;t spend ages making notes, get the key points from the candidate instructions, make brief notes if necessary. Concentrate your efforts on writing up your answer on the proposal document template. Use simple language, and words you know you can spell, you don't get extra marks for flowery language, this just increases your chances of making spelling mistakes which would affect your written communication score. Don't look around the room, because I know of people who have wrote half a side of A4 then panicked bacause they saw someone else writing reams and reams, ignore others in the room. If possible give yourself at least a minute at the end just to read through your answer to make sure there are no obvious errors. Make sure you strike a line through any rough notes you make otherwise they will be marked. Also read the Info for Candidates and the Westshire Centre welcome pack. Good Luck! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
t_wond 0 Posted February 20, 2007 Share Posted February 20, 2007 I have mine in Wakefield on the 6th, I am unsure about written exercise too despite buying how to cd and lots of books and just sitting degree where report writing is essential!!!! for example if you had to respond to a letter of complaint about disabled parking in a report proposal format would you just give an example letter (because in that case it is wrong to put it in a proposal doc) or would you tell your manager you propose to write a letter saying that you''ll start by offering apologies, then going onto say you will say you understand his frustrations etc. etc. Sorry this question isn't clear! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Storm 0 Posted February 21, 2007 Author Share Posted February 21, 2007 The timing is the problem I have. I not sure how to start the report and what format is best to use when writing the proposal. Is it true you should avoid bullet pointing? How do you get your point across in such a short time? Has any one got any examples of how they wrote reports that were successful for them? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Salsoul 0 Posted February 22, 2007 Share Posted February 22, 2007 In a nutshell, don't get hung up on the report format, there are no marks for the format, just make sure you write in paragraphs, and use full stops and capitals (teaching you to suck eggs I know, but its amazing how many people don't). Only use bullets if you have to refer to a list, but don't set your report out as a series of bullet points. Keep it simple and to the point, and there is no need for any fancy introduction, a simply reply is good enough. I'm afraid there are no examples, the exercises, even old ones are confidential. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
camsey36 0 Posted February 27, 2007 Share Posted February 27, 2007 Storm, I was also worried about the written tests and tried to prepare myself the best I could by reading and writing more, the westshire pack I found was good material for this exercise. During the test imagine my horror when I had just finished reading the brief and was prepared to start writing when the words "you have ten minutes to go". This was made worse by the fact that the person next to me was onto his third page ( He failed on diversity ). As the mod says its not the quantity but the substance. Good luck pal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Storm 0 Posted March 27, 2007 Author Share Posted March 27, 2007 Thanks for all the help ! It must have helped because I passed ! Next thing to stress about is fitness and medical ........ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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