What the FAA and Pearson VUE publish about the ATSA: 3.5 hours, free for invited candidates, three result categories, three-year validity, and the details the pages read leave out.

ATSA Test (Air Traffic Skills Assessment): Length, Results, Validity

air-traffic-controller-selection-tests-compared

Four selection routes side by side from their official pages: who can apply, how long the tests are, what they cost, what preparation each body offers, and who sets the pass mark.

Air Traffic Controller Tests Compared: FAA ATSA, NAV CANADA, NATS, FEAST

faa-air-traffic-controller-requirements-and-hiring-process

The FAA’s own pages side by side: age under 31, citizenship, experience or degree, medical standards, the five hiring steps, Academy pay, and where the FAA’s pages disagree.

FAA Air Traffic Controller Requirements: Age Limit, Steps and Pay

FAA Air Traffic Control Specialist Hiring and the ATSA (US)

The Federal Aviation Administration hires entry-level air traffic controllers through announcements on USAJOBS. The FAA lists these minimum qualifications: be a United States citizen, be under the age of 31, pass a medical examination, pass a security investigation, pass the FAA air traffic pre-employment tests including the Air Traffic Skills Assessment (ATSA), speak English clearly enough to be understood over communications equipment, and have one year of progressively responsible work experience, a Bachelor's degree, or a combination of post-secondary education and work experience that totals one year. The ATSA is an entry-level employment aptitude assessment made up of several subtests, taken in person at a Pearson VUE test centre by candidates the FAA invites after their application is found qualified. Entry-level applicants who are hired spend several months at the FAA Academy in Oklahoma City and are then placed at a facility for on-the-job training.

Timed practice for four skills Pearson VUE names for the ATSA

FAA ATSA practice test (independent): 35 spatial awareness and 30 decision-making questions on our own clocks, every answer explained, plus working memory and multitasking drills. 4 questions free. Not the official test: the FAA endorses no practice test.

Timed practice for four skills that Pearson VUE, the FAA's test vendor, names for the Air Traffic Skills Assessment (it adds "among others"): spatial awareness and decision-making as timed question sets in the full test player, with every answer explained, and working memory and multitasking as interactive drills. The FAA endorses no practice test, and ATSA content is not public: these are our own items.

FAA Air Traffic Control Specialist Hiring and the ATSA (US) — Discussion

FAA Air Traffic Control Specialist Hiring and the ATSA (US) — Group Discussion