The cognitive and knowledge half of ADAPT measures reasoning, perceptual speed and the maths and physics fundamentals an airline expects you to carry into training. None of the items is individually hard; the score separates candidates on speed and accuracy as the pace rises.
What is tested
Cognitive: short reasoning, pattern, spatial and memory items under time pressure, some scored on response time. The easyJet version has about 36 items in about 30 minutes: odd-one-out shapes, number series, cube nets, routes on a city map, timed anagrams, short-exposure memory and a spoken working-memory task with no writing allowed.
Maths Progressive: calculator-free mental arithmetic that gets harder as you go, spanning fractions, decimals, percentages, ratios and time. The easyJet version has 20 four-option questions in 30 minutes on a single timer, and you can skip a question and come back to it.
Physics Progressive: applied secondary-school physics, from forces, motion and levers to basic aerodynamics. The easyJet version has 20 questions in 30 minutes with a formula sheet on screen, and adds electricity, springs, the gas laws and general-knowledge items in English.
Perceptual and spatial tasks: orientation and pattern items, such as cube nets and routes on a map.
How to prepare
On the practice page, Math: Full covers the Maths Progressive test, and the Speed, Distance & Time game mirrors ADAPT's speed/time/distance and fuel-rate items directly. Physics Knowledge and Technical Reasoning together cover the Physics Progressive test, the first for the taught material and the second for the mechanical intuition. Cube Folding, Odd One Out and the Acoustic Memory Test train three of the cognitive test's item types: cube nets, odd-one-out shapes and the spoken working-memory task. Non-Verbal Reasoning, Number Sequences, Letter Series, Analogies and Syllogisms train the wider reasoning and pattern layer, Spatial Awareness covers the orientation items, and Aviation Knowledge prepares the Advanced Aviation Knowledge paper some operators switch on alongside the core battery. Refresh secondary-school physics and drill arithmetic daily until it is automatic — the progressive format means the questions outrun anyone who is still calculating slowly.