We have asked EU Career candidates: if they could give 1 single piece of advice to EPSO exam-takers, what would it be?
Read 22 of the best tips and tricks on how to pass the EU recruitment competition:
- "Practise 'til you drop! Never underestimate the power of practising. I managed to get 100% in abstract reasoning this year, while I had only 50% last year and could only guess..." (Anikó)
- "This may sound dull at first. You can only practice to some extent. When the time comes, the most important thing is to stay calm, read everything as carefully as possible and to have faith in your abilities." (Soeren)
- "Always read very carefully the verbal reasoning questions. Especially now when they are - or may be, depending on your choice - in your national language. You may think that they are easier than in EN/FR/DE. Well, they are not." (Pawel)
- "Practice as much as you can but the most important is to have the psychology of the winner. To imagine yourself, while you are taking the exams, that you are a member of the working European community. That you are the best and afraid of nothing..." (Alex)
- "Just practice and study, study and practice! :)" (Irina)
- "Practice makes perfect - simple!" (William)
- "Expect the worst by practicing the hardest questions. Practicing means more than going through the questions: it means reviewing them afterwards and grokking why you understood them differently at the time you were answering them. And here's a tip that is no tip: it works best when you have the enthousiasm to go for it!" (Marco)
- "The test taken in front of the screen (CBT) is much more difficult than the one taken on paper or on books, so I would suggest to do just "on line" tests or exercises. If you get used to underline sentences, make comments on paper etc. you can not use the same techniques when you are actually making the CBT during the competition." (Marco)
- "First of all, don't panic if the first questions are harder than you have expected to be. Just try to stay relaxed, focus on the questions, and don't spend a lot of time on them, usually the first answer that flashes in your mind is the correct one (or after thinking 2-3 minutes on the question you will still think that it is correct). If you see that you are running out of time and you have a lot of unanswered questions, just tick a "correct" answer at all the remaining questions, and if you have time to read them, think, and change the answer, it is ok, if not, at least you have answered at all the questions. if you are lucky enough some of those answers could be correct. and the most important, always think positive." (Ilona)
- "Go for a drink with EPSO staff... ;-)" (Christina)
- "Practise, practise and... practise more! The secret is to train our brain to this type of exam: you will be faster, you will increase your score, and last but not least, you will be able to manage stress that is a very important factor to manage." (Antonella)
- "Don't leave a question without an answer...if you haven't finished when the message "5 minutes remaining " appears on the screen - better go forward and click as many answers as possible - 25% chance is better than 0%:)" (Dessislava)
- "The only thing that I found really helps is LOTS of practice. It's as easy as that. The more practice tests you take, the better you will do. Trust me, this applies to almost everything. There are no secret rules or tricks. Start way ahead of time and spend a LOT of time with it and you will ace this." (Flaviu)
- "Your motivation and will for a better future is the key" (Martina)
- "I think you should have a positive attitude and believe in yourself. Trust in what you have learnt and practised before the exam, and very important: don't lose your head when the first question "pops up". Focus!" (Réka)
- "Relax, practice and trust yourself. Be cool!" (Kristiina)
- "More tests you do better you get!" (Elena)
- "Learn, learn, learn"... shame this quote is by Lenin, otherwise that would be my piece of advice!" (Tereza)
- "When you don't know the answer, remember: the correct is always "B"" (Aliki)
- "The KEY is to invent a time travel device to stop the time when Im sitting the CBT" (Samuel)
- "Practice regularly cos regularity is the key!" (Anne)
- "From my own experience the first idea-answer-thought which comes to my mind is correct. So, DON'T PANIC, take a deep breath and go ahead! :-)" (Katerina)
+1 "Always be yourself ;)" (Paula)
Our summary: practice very hard, know the methodology, plan your time, always stay cool, believe in yourself, and when you have no idea which one is the correct answer... then choose 'B' :-)
Good luck to all, and don't hesitate to ask us for some FREE advice!