The selection opens online, unsupervised, with modules from Symbiotics' ADAPT suite. Because it is the first gate and sits between you and everything else, it is where preparation pays off most. This platform has a dedicated ADAPT Test Preparation course that covers the whole suite in depth; the summary here covers the parts TUI's pre-selection uses.
Part 1 — FAST, the ball task and cognitive reasoning
The FAST test is ADAPT's multitask flight scenario: you steer a small aircraft with the keyboard, report traffic and waypoints and answer quick questions at the same time, then answer questions about what you noticed during the run. It scores how well your attention divides under load, not a single right answer. Alongside it you work through capacities and cognitive-reasoning material: the numerical, logical and abstract problem-solving that predicts how quickly you will absorb flight training.
Three families of practice map onto this part. No game on this platform reproduces FAST, but three train its parts: the Triple Multitasking Test trains the split between moving your aircraft, spotting and quick sums, the Multitasking Test adds spoken questions while you work, and Instrument Comprehension trains reading instruments at a glance. The online stage also includes ADAPT's joystick ball task, keeping a ball centred on a plate, so you need a joystick at home; the Drift Control Test trains it. For the cognitive-reasoning demand, Math: Full, Number Sequences and Non-Verbal Reasoning drill the numerical, pattern and non-verbal formats these tests use, with Speed, Distance & Time for ADAPT's speed/time/distance and fuel-rate items and Aviation Knowledge for the aviation-theory paper the suite can include. Train little and often: all three are speed-under-pressure skills that fade without upkeep.
Part 2 — the personality questionnaire
The last module is an ADAPT psychological/personality questionnaire. There are no right answers, but there is a wrong strategy: answer intuitively and honestly rather than trying to engineer an 'ideal pilot' profile. These instruments carry consistency and impression-management checks, and your answers are read again later — the same profile follows you into the HR interview and the final assessment centre, where an inconsistent self-presentation is the classic way a strong candidate trips. The Big Five personality test on this platform lets you see the kind of trait profile these questionnaires produce before someone else reads yours back to you, and Understanding the Psychological Evaluation covers how to prepare with self-knowledge instead of a script.