RFAIB tips

[dawg]

Hiya

so this is invisible to the rest then?

I could scan/type up and do some diagrams and throw them on over the next fortnight... I know exactly what I did wrong with the PLT and I'd really like to discuss it with people... but not on TOOTP.

cheers

[dawg]

Re: RFAIB tips

This is what I used to help with the "scenario" part of the AIB

[The H]

Re: RFAIB tips

I got sent these by 2nd Officer Sutton

[kayak]

Re: RFAIB tips

Thanks that would be great! What sort of tasks was it for the PLT's? And the leaderless?

Yeah I've had the same two from 2/O Sutton yesterday. Cheers for the other one tron!
Im going to ask the PE teachers at my 6th form if I can get some practice of the bleep test a few times too as they often do it with the lower school
Oh and Im getting navy news at the moment, which seems to have a fair bit of RFA stuff in.

Oh and how much time did you get for the planning exercise, because it doesn't say in the practice ones matt sent us?

Cheers!
Alec

[The H]

Re: RFAIB tips

You get 15 minutes for the initial planning exercise. (Worked out individually in silence)

Then another 15 minutes between the team infront of the board, discussing the new problem.

[dawg]

Re: RFAIB tips

You know when I did my AIB last time, it was on remembrance day 2008 - a 90th anniversary of the end of WWI.

So I had the 2 minutes silence exactly before the final interview... pause... then knock, and enter... talk about psychological warfare!

It sounds like I'm going to get a second crack at it soon... dunno exactly when yet... May or June perhaps. Hmmm...

[kayak]

Re: RFAIB tips

Psychological warfare?!?! I have to revise that?

:O

[The H]

Re: RFAIB tips

I think the main bit of advise, is ENJOY yourself.. After sitting there for 10mins listening to what everyone had learnt i starting thinking ****.. the knowledge questions were hopeless, yet I still passed :shifty:

[dawg]

Re: RFAIB tips

I dunno if I'd quite call it "enjoyable", it's ok... and a bit unecessarily stuffy sometimes.
I didn't like those enormous soup spoons that are like metal bowls welded to the end of silver spanners.
I kept fretting I was going to land a huge dollop on my shirt/suit! I didn't really like the sort of up tight tension when a Marine WO came and ate with us. Old worzel put his polite bar steward head on, but I kept thinking "what a tedious so and so you are". I have the advantage of having been to a couple of public schools as a kid, so it wasn't a completely unfamiliar territory; but - didn't quite "make sense" to me... this is civil service; I think the AIB (and arguably the BRNC phase) is over-egging the military connection really.

I'm still gunna scan and upload my notes (if I can't be arsed to type 'em up).
I think the AIB is deserves a complete Wikification...

As this forum is hidden...
[rant]
...it's such a bs formulaic test.

I had a few issues with being "debriefed on my essay" by a cross-eyed pongo, who seemed to be being provocative tbh... I was bit too "clevva wiv wurds" I think... I used the word "immanent", and I think they lost the sense of what i wrote, because they thought I was misspelling "imminent"... so I know better now what level to pitch it at.
http://www.orwell.ru/library/essays/pol ... sh/e_polit

The way the RFA use the AIB to filter applicants as if they were applying to join the navy, when for some roles they allegedly don't get enough applicants is lame IMO. It's lazy and they ought to be capable of judging their needs against what an applicant brings and make a decision in the round... yes I'm grumbling because I got offered it last year, and the new HR want me to redo the AIB, when apparently they need more engineers... that's just lame. If I was applying for the Navy, then fine but I'm not, am I! So many (civilian) organisations seem to try and replicate the AIB but set their own criteria... yet the RFA (only recently) have decided that they are suddenly incapable of doing that.
It's that kind of officiousness + the military fetishism that make the idea of working for Maersk or Shell more appealling... I think the RFA wins 2-1 with pay & conditions, and variety & shoreleave though...
[/rant]

I think there are some things - like info to learn for the computerised testing they do that can be compiled on a wiki quite sensibly; strategies for the PLT; maybe we could say summat about the planex stuff,

[dawg]

Re: RFAIB tips

a community concerning careers and life in the British Merchant Navy

just to be pedantic, sorry picky ...
(and I'm thinking along the lines of this "Never use a long word where a short one will do."
http://www.orwell.ru/library/essays/pol ... sh/e_polit)

A website (for info) about careers and life in the British Merchant Navy

I just hate the way the word "community" is tagged onto just about anything you can think of... the bogey-flicking community, the sentence inflecting community, the Nigerian Viagra & Cialis spamming community... etc...

[Steve]

Re: RFAIB tips

I've said this before, and I'll keep saying it until they dole out commissions: The AIB and BRNC bear no relation to the real RFA that you see once you get past those two bits of bull****. They are both new introductions and they are both the idea of some ****wit senior officer who wishes he had got into the Navy himself and wants to turn the RFA further into Navy-Lite.

Fortunately most of the cadets coming through seem to realise that early on and don't need heavy deprogramming once they reach the fleet.

The old RFA interview was 30 minutes at HQ or a regional hotel business meeting room with the cadet training officer and the recruitment officer chatting about ships, life at sea and your background - a pretty standard and easy job interview. That's how most of the current officers got their job.

[dawg]

Re: RFAIB tips

So our mission is to use this site to carry out a heavy deprogramming campaign :techie-ebay: :romance-grouphug:

[Curly59]

Re: RFAIB tips

The best advice is to just relax and look at the experience as what it is... a job interview with some other bits tagged on...

The fitness is nothing to worry about trust me the ENG was harder as I had to lose 2 stone to pass it first time round!!! The beep test is worth a whopping 10 marks or thereabouts and they are looking for effort so if you miss one run hard to catch up and you win some points even if you don't hit the 7.2 which I fell short of.

As for the PLT's, just listen and ask any questions during the explanation the day before the test. You don't need to finish every task to win they just need to see that you can look at a problem and come up with a solution... And don't be silent at any time... it's cheer-faces on and go for the whole American "yeah... good work... keep going... looking good guys..." because if the markers can't hear you they wont mark you.

Planning ex was interesting... all I will say is no-one prepared me for the questions phase which was a little daunting! Once you have a plan you will be questioned by the Lt... remember that he has a list in front of him of every possible way to complete the challenge and will pick upon every little detail... The trick we found was DON'T PANIC!!!!! Just stick to your guns... reiterate why you are doing it your way and remain polite!!!

That's about it really. Just stay confident and remember you wouldn't be there if you were a muppet... that is what the AFCO test is for

[dawg]

Re: RFAIB tips

I distinctly remember someone saying that the bleep test pass mark for RFAs was 6.7

I got 9-ish last time (with more in the tank tbh), but one lad was under the impression he'd failed that part with a 6.4

My tip for the bleep test is... rhythm... I turned it into a game where I was trying to bounce off the line on the beep, and it took my mind off other things.

I'm afraid I'm going to get a bit more detailed about things for the RFAIB article on the wiki...

[christhis]

Re: RFAIB tips

Bit of AIB hate? I found it stressful, especially the planning exercise. I couldn't have been more sure I had failed it all but hey ho I made it through somehow and am now at college with a lad who didn't pass so I know they weren't just letting anyone in on my entry!