TEA-Occ practice test: count the high tones, find the upright lamps (independent trainer)

How the trainer works

1. Turn your sound on and play the test tones: you should hear a high tone, then a low one.
2. Listening: a run of tones plays. Count only the high tones and ignore the low ones, then tap your count on the keypad.
3. Looking: a panel of lamps appears. Tap every lamp whose pointer points straight up, before the clock runs out. Tap again to take a mark back.
4. Both at once: a new panel appears while runs of tones play. Search and count at the same time, then key in each count.
5. Nothing is shown on screen when a tone plays: you have to hear it.

What the result tells you

• Correct counts: the runs of tones where your count of high tones was exactly right
• Lamps found: lamps pointing up that you tapped; wrong taps are shown separately and lower your finding accuracy
• Score: out of 100: the average of two percentages, your exact counts out of the runs counted, and the upright lamps you found out of all upright lamps plus your wrong taps
• Alone vs both: at levels 1 and 2, your counting and your finding alone against both at once; level 3 compares finding alone with finding while counting; level 4 is combined rounds only
• Cleared: our own target, not an official standard: an overall score of at least 80, and at least 75 on the rounds where you do both (at level 4 every round is both, so 80)

Independent practice

Independent practice by ProSyllabus, not produced or checked by Pearson TalentLens, RSSB, an assessment centre or a train company. These are original exercises, not official TEA-Occ items, pages or recordings, and trainer scores do not predict a TEA-Occ result. Train companies send the approved practice materials at least a week before the assessment; work through those too.

Read our guide to the TEA-Occ test. If you have ADHD, dyslexia or a hearing condition, read our guide to adjustments in train driver selection and ask the train company early.