TEA-Occ Test for Train Drivers: What It Is and How to Prepare

TEA-Occ, the Test of Everyday Attention for Occupational Assessment, is one of the two attention tests in RSSB's standard for train driver selection on Great Britain's mainline railway, alongside the Group Bourdon. Its publisher, Pearson TalentLens, says it measures selective attention, sustained attention and attentional switching, through everyday tasks: counting tones and searching pages of a mock telephone directory.

ProSyllabus is an independent study site. It is not part of RSSB, the Office of Rail and Road, The OPC or any train company, and nothing here is official test material.

The test has slightly different names in different documents. RSSB's FAQ calls it the "Test of Everyday Attention-Occupational (TEA-Occ)"; The OPC and Avanti West Coast call it the "Test of Everyday Attention for Occupational Assessment". They are the same test.

Its publisher, Pearson TalentLens, describes it on a page marked "For UK Clients Only". It says TEA-Occ "is based on the Test of Everyday Attention (TEA)" and gives an assessment "sensitive to selective attention, sustained attention and attentional switching – vital skills for safety critical workers such as train drivers". It names train drivers first among the groups it is relevant to, with rail signallers, bus and coach drivers, heavy goods and machinery operators, and road and construction workers.

The page lists both "30 minutes" and "Untimed" and does not explain how they fit together, so do not build a plan on either: the approved practice materials and the train company describe your session. The last row matches RSSB's FAQ, which says the people who administer and interpret the train driver tests must hold the "BPS Test User: Occupational, Ability" qualification to join ORR's register.

Appendix A of RIS-3751-TOM issue four lists the tests by the ability each one assesses. RSSB's FAQ reproduces it, and TEA-Occ sits under the first criterion:

RSSB's FAQ says the selection criteria and tests in Appendix A were not changed in issue four, so TEA-Occ is in the same place it was before December 2024. Three published documents show where it falls in practice:

For all the tests in the standard and the rules around them, see our hub guide to the UK train driver psychometric tests.

The publisher says the subtests together measure three kinds of attention:

It names three subtests. Described in general terms, without reproducing any item:

Two things follow for preparation. First, part of the test is heard, not seen, so arrive able to listen in a quiet room: if you have a hearing condition, ask about adjustments early (see below). Second, the last subtest asks you to do two things at once, which is a different demand from the single dot-marking task candidates describe for the Group Bourdon (forum-reported).

We do not reproduce any TEA-Occ material on this page, and nothing here is a copy of it. The approved practice materials your train company sends are the place to familiarise yourself with what to expect.

RSSB's FAQ says: "If you are invited to an assessment, you will be given the approved practice materials at least a week before your assessment date." Their purpose, it says, is to let candidates "familiarise themselves with what to expect on the assessment day". If yours have not arrived, RSSB says to contact the train company you applied to. Work through any TEA-Occ material in them under the conditions the instructions describe, including any audio.

The OPC's guide says that before each test you may have the chance to complete some examples, and that the assessor can help with these. Ask every question before the test time starts: once it has started you cannot ask anyone anything, and the tests are done in complete silence. Its hints for the tests include "Try to avoid wild guessing" and "Listen carefully to the instructions" given before each exercise, which matters doubly for a test with audio-tone tasks.

RSSB says that if you have a disability or condition, including neurodiversity, you can ask for suitable adjustments: contact the train company's recruitment team as soon as possible, with evidence of your disability or condition. Without prior notice, it says, support is not guaranteed. Because part of TEA-Occ is played on audio, this applies to a hearing condition as much as to anything else.

The publisher names three abilities. Our approach is to practise each one separately, which is what the drills below are for.

These are our own general attention drills, deliberately unlike the TEA-Occ tasks: they use speech, text, cards or a dot-cancellation task rather than tones and directories, and do not copy or imitate any TEA-Occ item. They train the habits, not the test. Keep each one short and stop when your attention slips.

Do them in silence, with your phone out of reach, at the time of day your assessment is booked if you know it. A week of short daily sessions is more useful than one long evening, and none of these drills tells you whether you would pass: none of the sources we read gives a pass mark.

The attempt rules for the whole process, including the three-attempt rule for candidates starting from 7 December 2024, are in the hub guide. For the other attention test, see Group Bourdon test practice and a 14-day plan.