CBAT Preparation Guide

Should I prepare?

CBAT isn’t difficult because the questions are complex. It’s difficult because everything is fast, unfamiliar, and stacked back-to-back.

Most candidates don’t struggle because they lack ability. They struggle because they waste time figuring things out on the spot.

Preparation is about removing that.

What CBAT is actually testing

CBAT is designed to measure how you perform across a range of tasks, not what you know.

Across the test battery, you’ll be assessed on:

spatial awareness
numerical reasoning
short-term memory
processing speed
multitasking
logical reasoning

Each test targets a different mix of these. That’s why it feels intense as you’re constantly switching gears.

Why candidates underperform

The pattern is always the same.

Candidates go in expecting a standard test. Instead they get:

unfamiliar layouts
tight time limits
multiple things happening at once

They hesitate early, panic hard, and never recover.

It’s not that the test is too hard. It’s that they’re reacting instead of executing.

What preparation should actually do

You’re not trying to “learn CBAT”.

You’re trying to make sure that when a task appears, you instantly know:

what you’re looking at
what matters
how to respond

That alone removes a huge amount of pressure.

What to focus on

Mental maths

This comes up more than people expect.

You should be comfortable with:

quick addition and subtraction
multiplication and division
basic percentages
speed–distance–time

If you have to stop and think through calculations, you’ll lose time.

Spatial tasks

A lot of candidates struggle here simply because they’ve never practised it.

Focus on:

bearings and directions
interpreting instrument-style visuals
visualising shapes and movement

This improves quickly with exposure.

Multitasking

Some tasks will force you to split your attention.

You need to get used to:

tracking more than one thing
switching focus without slowing down
prioritising what matters

This is where people fall apart if they’ve never seen it before.

Visual scanning

Several tests are basically speed and pattern recognition.

Work on:

spotting changes quickly
scanning tables efficiently
identifying patterns without overthinking

Small improvements here make a big difference.

Memory

Short-term memory is tested directly and indirectly.

Practise:

holding sequences in your head
recalling information while doing something else

How long to prepare

What matters is exposure and becoming familiar enough with the test conditions which allows you to hit the ground running on test day. At a minimum, a few weeks of preparation is enough to make a noticeable difference, however the more practice you can get the better. After all, you need to pass CBAT to get the role you require.

Next Steps - Full CBAT Preparation

Coming from a successful candidate who did not have CBAT Ready to prepare, it would be in your best interest to download CBAT Ready for acclimatising to the test conditions (at a minimum you can practice the first 3 tests for free).

CBAT Ready provides: