Stage 1 is TestAir360, the pilot aptitude test Wizz approves for cadet selection. You sit it at home, in English, under remote supervision. It is the one stage you pay for: €130, which also buys four practice sessions.
The window
Once you pay, you activate your TestAir360 profile and have a fixed window to sit the final test: two months on the Academy, six months on the Pathway Programme. The four practice sessions fall inside that window. Each lasts 60 minutes and stays open only for a limited time once started, so plan them before you begin.
What the sitting contains
The final test runs ten modules in a fixed order, in three blocks with a 10-minute break after the third module and another after the seventh. Wizz announces 3–4 hours; the sitting itself takes about two and a half. Details can change between sessions, so train each module a little beyond these numbers.
Mental arithmetic: a voice reads each calculation in English and you type the answer. 20 items, 20 seconds each, with nothing on screen and no paper.
Concentration: apply the rule shown to a two-digit number to build a new two-digit number from its digits. 150 items in 9 minutes.
Analytical thinking: match a code against five words and decide which of them fit. 20 items in 10 minutes.
Spatial orientation: a clock face shows a single numeral, and you give the time the hands show. 50 items in 10 minutes.
Visual perception: six instruments and a rule such as 'white instrument with a circle'; read every instrument the rule selects, up to five. 30 items.
Acoustic memory: a voice reads digits and you type them back in order. Ten series of seven digits, then five of eight and five of nine.
Hand-eye coordination: keep a ball in a coloured zone on a seesaw using two keys, over three phases of seven rounds, about five minutes each.
English: two grammar sets of 20 questions in 4 minutes each, then five short texts, each read for 90 seconds and removed before one question with 30 seconds to answer.
Maths: 10 questions in 12 minutes, with pen and paper only.
Physics: 10 questions in 12 minutes, with a calculator allowed.
The Pathway sitting has no rotating-cube exercise; the Academy's version may add one.
What the practice sessions are, and are not
The four practice sessions are simplified. They show you some of the exercises, but they do not reflect the difficulty of the final test, they leave out the maths and physics, and the real sitting holds more exercises than they do. Use them to learn the instructions and the controls, then train harder than they ask.
Setting up
The test is supervised by Proctorio, which uses your webcam and microphone and monitors your surroundings. Sit alone in a quiet, clear room; anything unusual counts against you.
The seesaw uses the W and P keys of a QWERTY layout. On any other keyboard, find those two keys before the day.
Pen and paper are allowed for the maths; the calculator is for the physics only.
Results come by e-mail, from an hour to three weeks later. No pass mark is published.
How to prepare
Five of the ten modules have a TestAir360 version on this platform: mental arithmetic, acoustic memory, hand-eye coordination, English and physics. The next two lessons take every module in turn, with what to train for each.