Module overview
What the test trains
This module focuses on Symbolic Reasoning — applied numerical reasoning under a route-reading load. It is designed to make the underlying process easier to recognise, repeat and review before you add more speed or workload.
How this trainer relates to CFAST
In this trainer's Pilot (PLT) domain breakdown, Airborne Numerical is grouped under Symbolic Reasoning (SymR). The Academy tracks this domain separately rather than combining it with an overall weighted index. This is the Academy’s training model, not an official CAF scoring calculation.
Task profile
What the task looks like
What it involves
- Read a map of named locations connected by routes and mileages.
- Identify start point, destination, current time and any load figure.
- Work through each route leg and apply Time = Distance ÷ Speed correctly.
- Convert the result to minutes and add it to the current time, entered as a four-digit HHMM value.
Practice screen example
These screenshots show CBAT Academy’s independent practice version of the task.
Interface briefing
Controls and test flow
Controls
Read the displayed flight figures and select your answer from the on-screen A–E choices using the keyboard or a click.
How the Academy version works
CBAT Academy presents an independently developed browser exercise with its own questions, graphics, timing and scoring. The instruction screen explains the current workload before launch; it does not claim to reproduce an official assessment screen or confidential question set.
Performance briefing
Difficulty and scoring
Difficulty and settings
Practice runs range from 8 questions in 8 minutes at Easy up to 16 questions in 16 minutes at Hard. Assessment mode blends all three automatically.
How scoring works
The result reflects performance in this Academy module. Accuracy is the main signal for decision tasks, while timing, missed targets, false responses or control error can also contribute where the task requires them. Assessment mode is more suitable for trend comparisons than adjustable practice runs.
Read how practice scores and estimates work →Training plan
Build a method that holds up under pressure
Why this becomes difficult
- Several pieces of information have to combine without losing track of the route itself.
- A misread route contaminates every calculation that follows it.
- Decimal-hour conversion is a second arithmetic step layered on the first.
- Time arithmetic can cross an hour, or midnight, without warning.
Preparation tips
- Know Speed = Distance ÷ Time well enough to rearrange it instantly.
- Get fluent with the common fractions: 0.25h = 15 min, 0.5h = 30 min, 0.75h = 45 min.
- Add legs in a fixed order, holding one intermediate value at a time.
- Sanity-check first — 200 miles at 200 mph is roughly an hour, full stop.
Common mistakes
- Using straight-line distance instead of the actual marked route.
- Dropping or double-counting a leg.
- Treating 0.5 hours as 50 minutes instead of 30.
- Entering 10:05 as "105" instead of "1005."
Useful practice drills
- Twenty rapid decimal-hour conversions in a row.
- Ten 24-hour clock addition problems.
- Route totals from simple network diagrams, one variable changing at a time.
Common questions
Frequently asked questions
Is this the same as an official Airborne Numerical test?
No. It trains related skills with an independently developed task. Rules, controls, timing, visuals and scoring can differ from an official assessment.
What's the most common mistake on this task?
Using straight-line distance instead of the actual marked route.
What actually helps here?
Know Speed = Distance ÷ Time well enough to rearrange it instantly.
Transparency
Sources and information status
Task guidance on this page describes CBAT Academy’s own software. Broad aptitude context is checked against the public references in the source register. Details not established by an official source are treated as independent training methodology.
The official CFASC candidate-guide PDF (22 January 2015) describes named test examples. Use it for historical familiarisation and follow your current joining instructions. The exercise mechanics and practice advice here describe the Academy version; domain mappings and scores are independent.
This guide describes CBAT Academy’s independently developed practice modules. It is not an exact specification of any current RAF, Canadian Forces or Ministry of Defence assessment. Official content, timings, scoring and administration may differ.
Continue the briefing
Turn the method into repeatable performance.
Launch the interactive trainer, begin with accuracy and review the pattern behind each mistake before increasing pace.