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Welcome to the next stage of the National Public Health Specialist Training Recruitment (NPHSTR)

Applicants to Public Health Specialty Training:

You have now been invited to attend the Public Health assessment test which forms the next stage of the recruitment process. Applicants will be tested on critical reasoning, numerical reasoning and situational judgement in Public Health.

The assessment centre will take place on Monday 7th January 2013 at 1pm (alternative dates will not be provided). If you have a reasonable adjustment that has been pre agreed with NPHSTR, you will be contacted directly by Pearson VUE to book your test centre slot and this may commence before 1 pm on the day of the test. The outcome of the assessment will be made known to all applicants on or after Monday 21st January 2013. Those passing a minimum threshold in all three areas will be ranked, and those scoring most highly will be invited to attend a selection centre in person.

Further information regarding Public Health recruitment can be found at http://www.fph.org.uk/applications_in_england%2c_scotland_and_wales

Use the links on the right hand side to locate your nearest centre and book a place. Applicants should log on to the site using the username and password sent directly by Pearson VUE (do not use the application form log on details). The Public Health assessment test is “NPHSTR Exam”. Further guidance about scheduling an assessment is given below.

The NPHSTR Recruitment Team would like to wish you every success in the assessment.

Dr. David Williams

Important Information:

If you book a place, but decide not to attend, you must cancel your booking by 1pm (GMT) on Sunday 6th January 2013 via the Pearson VUE booking site. Applicants should be aware that a charge may be incurred if they fail to attend a booked assessment or they fail to attend a session that remains booked after 1pm (GMT) on Sunday 6th January 2013. Please note that if you have a reasonable adjustment that has been pre agreed with NPHSTR you will need to contact the call centre in order to reschedule or cancel your booking. Call centres are open between 8am and 6pm, Monday to Friday. The assessment will begin with a short tutorial to familiarise you with the controls and layout of the screens and will end with a short evaluation questionnaire. Use the Related Link on the right to access the testing tutorial.

Should you require more information about booking/cancelling a test centre slot or location please email nphstrcustomerservice@pearson.com

If your enquiry is about the Public Health recruitment process please email emsha.publichealthrecruitment@nhs.net

Practice Test Introductions

This stage involves 3 assessments, plus an evaluation form which you will be asked to complete to help us monitor and evaluate the tests.

The types of assessments we use are psychometric tests. These are a way of assessing a person’s ability in a measured and structured way. Psychometric tests are used as part of the selection process, as research indicates that recruitment processes which incorporate psychometric assessment are significantly more effective in identifying high performing applicants than interviewing alone. We use these tests as they accurately assess areas of the Public Health Person Specification which cannot easily be assessed in other ways.

You will complete the following assessment tests:

Watson – Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal lasting 50 minutes
RANRA – Rust Advanced Numerical Reasoning Appraisal lasting 40 minutes
A Public Health-specific Situational JudgementTest lasting 100 minutes

Please be aware that the tests you will complete as part of the selection process are designed to be challenging. You are not necessarily expected to get all the answers correct or to complete the tests. The style of the tests is such that you may find it difficult to be confident about how you have performed. This is a perfectly normal reaction.

The critical reasoning and numerical reasoning tests that you will complete are scored by taking into account both right and wrong answers. Try to attempt each question and identify what you think is the best answer, but avoid random guessing.

An introduction to the Public Health Situational Judgement Test can be downloaded below.