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

The Air Traffic Skills Assessment, ATSA, is the aptitude test that the FAA’s hiring and qualifications pages list as a requirement for its air traffic controller positions. This guide sticks to what the FAA and its test vendor, Pearson VUE, publish on the pages listed under Sources: how long it takes, who may sit it, what it costs, what the result looks like, how long a result lasts, and, just as useful, the things those pages leave out.

ProSyllabus is an independent study site. It is not part of the FAA, the US Department of Transportation, Pearson VUE, NAV CANADA, NATS or EUROCONTROL, and their advice appears only where it is attributed to them by name; our own comments are marked as ours. Every rule, date and figure below is taken from the pages listed under Sources, each read on 24 October 2026. Where we noticed two pages of the same body giving different figures, the guide shows both.

Pearson VUE, FAA Certification Examinations, ATSA page (last updated 20 July 2026), read 24 Oct 2026.

Pearson VUE’s ATSA page, run by the FAA’s contracted test vendor, describes the test as “an entry-level employment aptitude assessment consisting of multiple subtests designed to assess the majority of skills and attributes necessary to be successful as an air traffic controller at the FAA.” It names some of what is assessed: “decision-making ability, spatial awareness, multitasking, and working memory, among others.” It also says the result “is one of many factors in determining the best candidates for FAA Air Traffic Control Trainee positions.”

The FAA hiring page puts it more briefly: step two of five is “Pass the Air Traffic Skills Assessment (ATSA). A 3.5-hour computer-based test of your cognitive skills,” taken in person at Pearson VUE, which “Predicts aptitude,” with “Well-Qualified required.” The FAA’s qualifications page uses a longer name for the same thing, the Air Traffic Controller Specialists Skills Assessment Battery.

The US Department of Transportation’s Inspector General gives the background: the FAA reviewed its controller hiring process in 2012 and decided its pre-employment test needed updating, and it “deployed the Air Traffic Skills Assessment (ATSA) test in November 2016” (report AV2023011, issued 11 January 2023). The report says the FAA worked with the human resource consulting organisation APTMetrics to identify the critical skills, abilities and other characteristics the job needs, and then worked with APTMetrics, NATCA and various subject matter experts to make sure the ATSA evaluates those characteristics for entry-level controllers.

No page read reports an overall score. Pearson VUE says so directly: “You will not receive an overall score, only your placement into one of these three categories.” The FAA’s NYC page speaks of receiving “a score in one of three categories,” which is the same thing in looser words: a category, not a number. What the three categories are called depends on which FAA page you read:

Three points follow from the table. First, both the FAA hiring page and the NYC page point to Well-Qualified as the result they select from, so do not read Qualified as a guaranteed referral (our reading). Second, the Enhanced CTI announcement refers to “best and well qualified results,” a wording the Pearson VUE page does not use, which suggests the labels differ by route; the pages do not explain why, and that reading is ours. Third, the timing statements differ too, and they may describe different events: Pearson VUE gives the point from which to look for application status information (approximately two weeks after the last date of testing), while the NYC page says Well-Qualified candidates are notified about next steps within a week of taking the ATSA. Do not plan your job notice around either number.

Pearson VUE’s answers are specific: “If you completed the ATSA in the past, your previous results are valid for three (3) years from the date the test was completed. If your results are still valid, you may opt to use them instead of retaking the test.” If you want to use them, “no action is required.” If you choose not to, you register and schedule the test again, and “If you complete the exam again, your LATEST results will be used. You will NOT be able to use previous results.” To find an old result, check the USAJOBS status for a previous air traffic control trainee announcement or email atsa.questions@faa.gov.

The practical consequence of “latest result replaces earlier” is easy to miss: retesting can lower your standing as well as raise it. Pearson VUE says that if you complete the exam again your latest results will be used and you will not be able to use previous results, so completing a retest while holding a valid Well-Qualified result would replace it. That is our reading of the sentence, not extra advice from the FAA.

Seven questions people ask about the ATSA are not fully answered on the pages read for this guide. We looked for each on the Pearson VUE page, the three FAA pages, the USAJOBS announcements and the Inspector General’s summary:

The Inspector General’s report is also a reminder that the same report found the ATSA “identifies sufficient applicants to meet FAA’s trainee hiring goals,” and that few applicants who had taken the ATSA and been selected as trainees had yet completed training and obtained certification, partly because of a lengthy hiring process and COVID-19 restrictions. The report was issued in January 2023, and the material read for this guide contains no later evaluation.

No FAA or Pearson VUE page we read names the individual subtests or describes how they work, and the FAA says it does not endorse any practice test. So this page does not describe how the subtests work, because we would be guessing, and we make no claim that any practice test, ours included, mirrors the ATSA or predicts a result category.

ProSyllabus sells an independent practice test, offered after this article, for four skills Pearson VUE names: decision-making ability, spatial awareness, multitasking and working memory (Pearson VUE adds “among others”). Its items, practice clocks and bands are our own; it is not the ATSA, and neither the FAA nor Pearson VUE has endorsed or checked it. For questions about your own case, the pages direct previous-result, name and accommodation questions to atsa.questions@faa.gov.

Pearson VUE’s preparation advice is short and practical: a good night’s rest, comfortable attire, a nutritious meal prior to testing, and plenty of time to arrive at the test site before the scheduled reporting time. The checklist below turns the pages’ rules into things to do before test day.