Reaction tests come in three escalating forms. Simple Reaction Time is the baseline: one signal, one key, pressed as fast as you can — a pure measure of how quickly a signal travels from eye to hand, and of how consistent that speed stays. The Determination Test (DT) adds decision: colours, directional arrows and sounds arrive across three channels at once, each mapped to its own key, and the test adapts in real time — answer well and it speeds up, always holding you near the edge of your capacity. The Complex Choice Reaction Test adds discrimination under a hard deadline: four reference figures and a single target, about two and a half seconds to decide whether the target exactly matches one of them — and a distractor is often the same shape merely rotated, so a glance is not enough.
Why airlines test it
Together these measure the whole reaction chain: perceive a signal, identify it, choose the response it calls for, and execute — and they let selectors see how much of your response time is raw speed and how much is the decision. Airlines test every link because a cockpit bombards you with signals in parallel — visual, aural, tactile — and a pilot must react correctly to the right one, quickly, without freezing, fumbling or confusing channels. The adaptive designs also expose your speed-accuracy trade-off: whether you stay accurate as the pace rises, or start throwing away points to go faster.
In the cockpit
The cockpit is a multi-channel alerting environment: master-caution lights, aural warnings, TCAS and ground-proximity callouts, radio calls, tactile cues — often several at once. You must attend to the right stimulus, identify it correctly, and respond with the correct action, because a stall warning and a 'traffic, climb' command demand very different things and confusing them is dangerous. Underneath the decisions sits the cross-check reflex: does what I see match what I expect — the right runway, the right frequency, the right configuration — checked quickly and correctly, again and again, often against convincing lookalikes.
For example: moments after takeoff a warning fires. If it is 'stall', you must lower the nose and add power; if it is a ground-proximity 'terrain, pull up', you must climb hard; if it is a TCAS 'descend', you must follow the guidance down. Three different aural signals, three opposite correct responses, and a second or two to identify the right one and act — react to the wrong channel and you make a survivable situation worse. That is precisely this family of tests, with the stakes turned all the way up.
How to practise
Start with Simple Reaction Time to establish your baseline — one signal, one response — so you can see how much of your response time is raw reaction and how much is decision. Then move to the Determination Test (DT): learn the key mappings until they are reflexive, and push your pace only as fast as your accuracy will hold, because the adaptive level system punishes errors hard and drops you down a level when you slip. Finish with the Complex Choice Reaction Test, which forces you to verify orientation rather than just shape — build a steady, deliberate rhythm, since the scoring rewards a long correct streak and punishes rushed clusters of errors. Simple Reaction Time also carries a Pair Match mode, the cut-e scales rt format tested in assessments at FTEJerez: two symbols sit side by side and you press only when they match, adding a discrimination layer on top of raw speed. The Time Anticipation Test asks for the opposite of raw speed: a ball vanishes mid-flight and you press at the exact moment it would cross the line, then point to where — timing a response rather than racing it, in the style of Schuhfried's ZBA.
The Air France cadet pre-selection runs a rule-bound reaction test of its own, recreated as ENAC Shapes and Colours: a rule handed over in four lines, then shapes one at a time, each with a shape, a colour and filled or empty, each answered X or N on the keyboard with one final press. The rule is not shown again once the series starts, so the speed that counts is the speed of applying a rule you are holding. The Air France course sets it in its stage.