ENAC Patrons de Dés
Neuro-SensomotoricPSY1A die with a letter or a rune on each face, two or three views of it, and its net laid flat with the cells numbered. Type under each symbol the number of the cell it goes in. The symbols are already turned the way they lie on the net, so the cell you pick decides how each one sits on the die. The exam format is two parts of 10 boards, 20:00 a part for Air France Cadets and 17:00 for the ENAC EPL.
Overview
You get about 2 minutes a board (10 boards in 20:00, or 17:00 at the ENAC), which is plenty, so aim to get every board right rather than to be quick. Don't try to turn the whole die in your head. Read the views as pairs of edges: this side of the T touches that side of the R. Then find the two cells whose edges meet that way once the net is folded. Take two symbols that touch in a view: if the row shows them turned differently from each other than the view does, they don't sit side by side on the net, and that narrows things down fast. Leave the symbols that look the same upside down until last and let their neighbours place them. And before you validate, check that the six numbers are all different.
Assessments
Part of the ENAC EPL selection (PSY1) battery as “Patrons de cubes”.
Two halves of ten boards, 17 minutes each: the first on the cross with letters on the faces and very simple, the second on other nets with symbols. The faces are printed under the net already turned the way they lie on it, and you only give each one a cell, so where a face goes also decides which way round it sits. There is no going back to a board. The time is roughly double what the published trainers allow, and most candidates finish early. Symbols that look the same turned round are where the time goes.
Part of the Air France Cadets selection at ENAC (PSY1) battery as “Cubes 3D”.
The same test on twenty minutes a half: ten boards on the cross with letters, then ten on other nets with runes, where a few nets let two or three numberings build the same die. Letters and runes that look the same upside down (I, X, O, H, and runes symmetric about two axes) cost the time, because they pin less; some runes look symmetric and are not.
Battery mappings are based on public information and may change.
One die, its views and its net
- The views show the same die from different corners, three faces at a time. A letter is drawn the way it sits on its face, so a view tells you which side of each letter touches which side of its neighbour.
- The net is the die cut open and laid flat, its six cells numbered. Folded back up, it’s the die in the views.
- The row of symbols under the net is the die’s six faces, each already turned the way it lies on the net. You can’t turn them, so a cell also decides how a symbol sits on the die.
- Symmetric letters like this board’s H look the same upside down, so their neighbours have to place them.
One board
Click a box under a symbol, then the number of the cell it goes in. Fill all six, then hit Validate. Stuck? Show which edges meet: the same letter sits beside two edges that join when the net is folded.
Game Phases
Read What Touches What
In each view, see which side of each symbol meets which side of its neighbour. That's what your net has to rebuild.
Know the Folds
Learn which edges of each net meet once it's folded. On a straight line of the net, cells two apart end up on opposite faces.
Symmetric Ones Last
An H, an I or a rune that looks the same upside down tells you little about its turn. Place the others first and let them fix it.
Six Different Numbers
Check the six boxes hold six different numbers before you validate, because there's no going back.
More Practice
Spatial Orientation
11 exercisesSpatial Awareness
Visualise a 3D shape from a fixed viewpoint and pick the matching 2D view. Tests mental rotation and spatial perception under time pressure.
Mental Rotation
See a 3-D block figure, then pick the option that is the same object rotated — not a mirror image or a different shape. The classic Shepard–Metzler / Vandenberg–Kuse task.
Spatial Orientation
Read your compass heading and a beacon's bearing, then judge where the beacon lies relative to your aircraft. Tests spatial orientation and sense of direction under time pressure.
Cube Folding
Mentally fold a flat net of six symboled faces into a cube, then pick which of four folded cubes it makes. Tests spatial visualisation and 2D-to-3D reasoning under time pressure.
Sense of Direction
One arrow shows your vehicle's new heading; you name the driving maneuver that got you there — straight, left, right or U-turn — on a circular four-wedge control. A practice version of scales nav, Aon's (cut-e's) Sense of Direction test: one minute, arrows chaining item to item, your heading held only in memory, plus a sudden-death Challenge mode.
ENAC Tetralogy of Angles
Read which way a small clock runs, then measure the turn from one line to another in that direction. In the ENAC EPL form you type 40 angles in four parts of 10: over a picture, between an arrow and a point, around a cross, and as an object to straighten. In the Air France Cadets form you get a figure and 8 clocks, each printing a value, and you tick every clock that matches the angle.
ENAC Point Tracking
Two figures side by side. The round one holds a few circles and four points lettered A to D. The square one is the same figure, turned in the plane and moved, with only one of the four points left and sometimes a circle or two added. You name the point that was kept. The exam format is 32 boards in 6:30 on one clock.
ENAC Objects Tracking
Two pictures, one above the other. In the lower one, an object is circled and five more carry the letters A to E. The upper one holds the same objects moved over together, among plenty of others. Tick the letters still at the same distance and direction from the circled object, and still exactly the same. The exam format is 30 boards in 12 minutes.
ENAC 3 Dimension Rotations
A chair starts in a slanted position, then 4 turns follow, one at a time. Each turn is a ball with an arrow and an angle, always a multiple of 45°, and you only see the chair itself beside the first one. Then you picture the chair from a named side, say from the right or from above, and pick it out of 5 pictures. The exam format is 40 boards, 5 seconds a turn and 15 seconds to answer.
ENAC Cube Nets 2D/3D
Two nets of the same die side by side: the original, complete, and yours, unfolded from the die turned another way, with a few faces in place. Drag the other faces onto yours so that it folds back into the same die, and turn the letters the right way round. The exam format is 5 boards, 90 seconds each.
ENAC Viewpoint Finder
A photograph shows a few simple solids standing in the sand. Beside it, the same scene is drawn from directly above, with eight camera positions round it, and every camera looks at the centre. Click the position the photograph was taken from. The shadows, the left-to-right order of the objects, and the objects you can't see all tell you where you're standing. The exam format is 10 boards with 20 seconds each.