Module overview
What the test trains
This module focuses on Symbolic Reasoning — translating a written scenario into the correct calculation. 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, Mathematics Reasoning 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
- Turn a written scenario into the right numerical relationship.
- Separate what's known from what's actually being asked.
- Apply distance/speed/time relationships with consistent units throughout.
- Estimate the scale of the answer before doing the exact arithmetic.
Practice screen example
These screenshots show CBAT Academy’s independent practice version of the task.
Interface briefing
Controls and difficulty
Controls
Work through each problem and select your answer from the on-screen multiple-choice options.
Difficulty and settings
Question count doubles from 8 at Easy to 16 at Hard, with 5 minutes available at Easy narrowing to 3 at Hard for a faster required pace of mental arithmetic. Hard questions also bring in several aircraft at once, part hours and answers that need rounding to the nearest, up or down.
Read how practice scores and estimates work →Training plan
Build a method that holds up under pressure
Why this becomes difficult
- Verbal information has to become variables before any calculation starts.
- Minutes and hours often need normalising before they can be combined, and hard questions use part hours and answers that must be rounded to the nearest, up or down.
- The question might ask for speed, distance, time, or an arrival time — four different targets from similar wording — and at hard difficulty may involve several aircraft at once: one catching up with another, two flying towards each other or a whole formation.
- Time pressure encourages calculating before the problem is actually translated correctly.
Preparation tips
- Know D = S×T well enough to rearrange without thinking.
- State the target variable before touching a single number.
- Check units line up before calculating, not after, and decide how the answer is to be rounded: up for whole aircraft needed, down for complete hours, otherwise to the nearest.
- Estimate the scale of the answer first, as a check.
Common mistakes
- Plugging the right numbers into the wrong formula.
- Mixing minutes and hours without converting.
- Answering journey time when the question asked for arrival time.
- Missing that a given rate only applies to part of a journey.
Useful practice drills
- Mixed distance-speed-time sets where the unknown changes each time.
- Convert minutes to fractions of an hour and back, repeatedly (20 minutes is a third of an hour, not 0.20).
- Catch-up and meeting-time questions with two aircraft: work out the gap first, then the speed it closes at.
- Read a word problem and write only the equation, without solving it — a separate skill worth isolating.
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.
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.