The multitasking test deliberately overloads you. You scan grids of numbers for duplicate pairs while, at the same time, answering questions delivered only through your headphones — phonebook and agenda lookups, mental arithmetic, sequences, odd-word-out — some of which must be answered at an exact moment on the clock. Tasks arrive faster than you can comfortably serve them, and the score reflects how well you keep several balls in the air at once.
Why airlines test it
This is the test that most resembles flying itself. It measures divided attention, task prioritisation and working memory under load — your ability to time-share between tasks, decide what matters most right now, and set the lesser one aside without dropping it entirely. Airlines weigh it heavily because it discriminates strongly: plenty of people are sharp at any single task and come apart when three arrive together, and the cockpit never presents just one.
In the cockpit
Flying is continuous multitasking. Aviate, navigate, communicate: hold the aircraft on profile while reading back a clearance while reprogramming the box while monitoring an engine — and doing it during the busiest, highest-workload phases close to the ground. The skill is not doing everything at once but managing a rhythm: scan, prioritise the primary task the instant workload spikes, accept a small error on a secondary task rather than letting one mistake cascade. That rhythm is precisely what this test builds.
For example: descending through 5,000 ft into a busy terminal area you are, in the same fifteen seconds, flying the profile, handed to a new frequency, given a speed restriction and a late runway change, and reconfiguring the flaps. The winning move is not to attempt all of it at once but to fly the aircraft first, read back the clearance, then reprogram the box, letting the least urgent item wait its turn. Drop the flying to work the box and you fall behind the aircraft fast — which is exactly the failure the test provokes.
How to practise
The Multitasking Test below is demanding by design, and headphones are required, since the spoken questions never appear on screen. Build a steady scanning rhythm instead of fixating, protect the primary task, and let go of perfection on the secondary ones. Practise in longer sessions: how you perform when you are tired is what selection is really trying to measure. And when you want the same divided-attention pressure with a stick in your hand, the Instrument Coordination and Dual-Task Tracking tests in the Coordination & Motor Control module pose it in psychomotor form — tracking loops instead of number grids. The Triple Multitasking Test poses the cut-e version of the same overload without headphones: chained equations to verify, rows of icons to check for duplicates and falling hazards to dodge, all on one screen against one five-minute clock. And the M-TASK Multitasking Test brings Schuhfried's current-generation format: a priority-rule symbol queue, timed mental arithmetic and pattern reordering worked side by side through a ten-minute work phase, scored so that a neglected channel drags the whole composite down.
The Air France cadet pre-selection puts divided attention on a traffic picture in ENAC Airspace Conflict Watch: two bands of lanes with a grey zone in each, aircraft crossing from both sides, and two limits holding inside every zone at once. The only control is closing lanes, and a closed lane never reopens, so every closure spends something you will not get back. The Air France course sets it in its stage.