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A cockpit requires you to keep track of several things at once: you fly the aircraft, listen to the radio, check your instruments and think ahead. That is why almost every pilot selection includes a test that measures how well you combine tasks. In this article you can read what a multitasking test is, where you will meet it, what you do, what is known about the scoring and how to prepare sensibly. All information was checked with the organisations themselves and is correct as of September 2026.
What is a multitasking test? A multitasking test is a computer test in which you carry out two or more tasks at the same time, such as controlling something, calculating, reacting to signals or remembering information. The point is not to do one task perfectly, but to keep all tasks at a good level at the same time and to divide your attention wisely. The test has a different name and format at each organisation.
Sometimes it is a separate test, sometimes part of a larger sensorimotor assessment. What they have in common: the workload increases, you have to set priorities and you get little time to think. Multitasking in the KLM Flight Academy selection At KLM Flight Academy, the Aviation Medical Center, an aeromedical centre, runs the first selection phases. Multitasking comes up there at two points.
In pre-selection, according to its own website, the aeromedical centre maps your eye-hand-foot coordination and your reactive stress tolerance. KLM Flight Academy writes that you take two sensorimotor tests in pre-selection. The whole pre-selection, including questionnaires and aptitude tests, takes about 2.5 to 3 hours. In the Sensorimotor Assessment (SMO), phase 2, you take five sensorimotor tests according to the aeromedical centre, as an indicator of your flying aptitude.
The aeromedical centre mentions your ability to perform different tasks at the same time, eye-hand coordination, multitasking, spatial awareness, concentration and vigilance. KLM Flight Academy speaks of coordination, multitasking, concentration, spatial awareness and sustained attention. According to the aeromedical centre, the SMO takes about 2 hours. You do it on the same day as the Basic Aptitude Assessment (BCO): if you meet the minimum requirements of the BCO, you go on to the SMO after the lunch break.
You receive the result by email, usually within one working week. If you do not meet the minimum requirements, the selection ends after the SMO. The aeromedical centre does not publish exactly which five tests they are. Both the aeromedical centre and KLM Flight Academy do refer to the Vienna Test System (VTS) by Schuhfried to give you an idea of the tests you can expect.
Which multitasking tests exist? Several test publishers describe their multitasking tests publicly. That gives a good picture of how such a test is built, even if the selection you take uses its own variant. Schuhfried M-TASK (Vienna Test System): according to Schuhfried, a new multitasking test has been part of the VTS since March 2026, developed for personnel selection in safety-critical professions such as defence, aviation and transport.
You work for about 18 minutes on a PC or laptop on three tasks at once: a planning and prioritisation task: geometric symbols appear in a queue and you select them according to fixed rules (triangles before squares, squares before circles); an arithmetic task: at irregular moments simple addition and subtraction sums appear, and within a time limit you choose the missing value from four answers; a symbol task: you drag three symbols so that they match an example exactly. Whether the aeromedical centre uses this test is not publicly stated. Symbiotics: Symbiotics describes its tests on its current website under the name ADAPT. Two of them are about multitasking.
The Future Aptitude Selection Tool (FAST) takes about 15 minutes and puts you in an increasingly busy situation in which the number and intensity of overlapping tasks increase. The test looks at how well you set priorities, manage several activities and learn from each flight scenario. The Flight Test takes about 20 minutes: after an introduction you fly a fixed route with a joystick and throttle, holding altitude, heading and speed according to prescribed SOPs while also following audio. Aon (formerly cut-e): Aon's public preparation page does not describe a separate multitasking test.
It does describe related tests: gridChallenge (working memory, 9 minutes) measures whether you can remember something while processing other information at the same time, and scales e3+ (2 minutes) measures whether you keep your concentration and react quickly to signals. According to Aon, most individual tests take less than fifteen minutes. How is multitasking scored? None of the organisations publishes norms or cut-off scores.
They do say something about the way of scoring: In the sensorimotor part, the aeromedical centre and KLM Flight Academy look not only at the result but also at how you approached the task. For the M-TASK, Schuhfried uses non-compensatory scoring: your multitasking score is the harmonic mean of your performance on the three tasks. A high score on one task therefore does not fully make up for a weak score on another. Symbiotics describes that in the Flight Test the telemetry of your flight is scored, with measurements of accuracy and control.
The lesson to draw from this: do not neglect any task. Dropping one task to do another perfectly usually earns less with this kind of scoring than keeping up reasonably with all tasks. DLR The DLR in Hamburg has carried out psychological aptitude assessments for pilots since the 1950s and uses computer-based tests of basic cognitive skills. The DLR-Zertifikat consists of the parts mental performance, operational competencies, personality and social competencies, and consists only of computer tests.
The DLR does not name a separate multitasking test. According to the DLR, you receive documents and login details with your invitation so you can prepare. How to prepare The organisations' advice comes down to the same thing: get to know the test format, but do not train on tricks. In concrete terms: Get to know the format: Aon recommends watching the explanation videos so that you know how a test works.
The aeromedical centre and KLM Flight Academy refer to the Schuhfried VTS. Practising with a similar test helps you avoid being surprised by the structure on the day itself. Work accurately, not only fast: the aeromedical centre warns that a lot of practice often leads to working very fast at the expense of accuracy, and that the test at the aeromedical centre may be slightly different from what you practised. Divide your attention deliberately: keep looking briefly at each task.
With non-compensatory scoring, your weakest task counts heavily. Spread your practice: the DLR advises spreading training sessions over three weeks, because spaced learning is more effective. Work on coordination: Symbiotics mentions sport, fine motor activities and games with a joystick as ways to improve your coordination, and recommends practising multitasking. Be fit and alert: according to the aeromedical centre, that is the most important preparation for the sensorimotor part.
Practise with multitasking tests in different formats to get used to tasks that run at the same time, not to drill a fixed trick. Note: KLM Flight Academy asks candidates not to take selection training that produces learned or socially desirable behaviour, especially with a view to the competency assessment. For the sensorimotor part, the academy warns that a lot of training can lead to working faster, but also to making mistakes faster. So practise to know the format and stay accurate.
