Brief a director out loud, then take the questions

In the Oral Briefing Exercise you have 45 minutes to review the project documents, then a 25-minute meeting: 10 minutes to brief the assessor, who plays a director, and 15 minutes to answer their questions. The official guide warns you may also have to deal with a challenging emerging issue. This simulator runs the whole exercise with invented packs: a clock for each part, a spoken briefing transcribed a minute at a time as you talk, a simulated director who questions what you actually said, and a written report that quotes your words back to you.

Look inside: the first pack

Getting rural young people to college and work

The department, the counties, the pilots, the organisations, the people, the events and every figure in this pack are invented for practice. Where a real institution is mentioned, what it does here is fictional too.

It is January 2027. You are a new fast streamer in the Department for Rural Opportunity, which advises on and funds policies that help people in rural England reach education, work and services.

Young people in rural areas are less likely than those in towns and cities to stay in education or training after 16, and many say transport is the reason. In the department's 2026 survey, 62% of rural 16 to 24-year-olds said they had turned down, or not applied for, a course or job because they could not get there.

In the two pilot counties below, the number of bus miles run each year fell by about a third between 2012 and 2025. Many villages in both counties now have no scheduled bus after 6pm.

Two 18-month pilots ran from July 2025 to December 2026. The department must now advise the Minister whether one of them should be rolled out across rural England.

The two schemes

Ride on Demand (Ashcombe): Minibuses for anyone aged 16 to 24, running from 6am to 11pm every day. Trips can be booked up to a week ahead, by app at any time or by phone on weekdays from 9am to 5pm, and every booking depends on a minibus being free. The zone is the whole of Ashcombe county, the pilot area in the tables below. A minibus picks the passenger up anywhere in the zone and takes them to any bus stop in the zone, including colleges, the hospital, the railway station and two business parks. £2 a trip.
Youth Fare Cap (Bramley): Single fares capped at £1 for anyone aged 16 to 24 on every scheduled bus in the county; existing cheaper fares and free travel passes stay as they are. Bus operators are paid compensation for the fare income they lose.

Task. Prepare a briefing for the Director of Rural Transport, covering:

Which scheme, if either, should be rolled out across rural England, and why.
For each scheme: what would go well and what could go wrong if it were rolled out nationally, and how you would manage those risks.

Items 1 and 2 are open here. Items 3 to 8 (Why rural young people do not use the bus; Policy Analysis Unit: costs; Polling data; Transcript of a discussion on "Countryside Hour"; Letter from the County Transport Network; Rural Access and Equality Office) open with the simulator.

The full simulator: full runs, every document, the director and the report

3 different packs, 8 documents each, with the 45-minute preparation clock
A 10-minute spoken briefing, transcribed a minute at a time as you talk
15 minutes of questions from a simulated director, with one emerging issue
A report that quotes your own words: when your recommendation came, the figures you used, how you held your position, filler words and long pauses
Typed answers if you have no microphone

Free try about 3 min read, Full practice up to 70 min a run, 9 runs

₹1,499

How a run works

45 minutes to prepare. Read the background, the task and the 8 items, and make notes on the page.
10 minutes to brief. Press Start my briefing and speak. The briefing is recorded a minute at a time and stops by itself at 10 minutes.
15 minutes of questions. The director is told to ask about the reasons, figures and risks you gave and to push back on your recommendation at least once, and brings in one emerging issue partway through. Answer out loud or type.
Your report. When your recommendation came, which figures from the pack you used or misread, whether you held your position under challenge, filler words and long pauses, practice scores, and what to say differently, with quotes from your own words.

Before you start

Is this the real exercise?

No. The timings follow the official Fast Stream Assessment Centre guide, and the packs follow the shape of its published example: recommend one of two options, or explain why neither, with pros, cons and mitigations, drawing on 8 items with data. The organisations, places, people and figures in our packs are invented. The official guide says the actual exercise will have different content from its example.

Who plays the director?

A computer model, told to stay in role, use only what is in the pack, question the reasons and figures you gave, push back at least once, and deliver one emerging issue in every run. It is told never to coach you or score you during the meeting.

What does the report judge, and what does it not?

It reads the transcript of your briefing and answers, and the timings of your run, including pauses measured from your microphone level. It looks at when your recommendation came, the figures you used and any you misread, the range of issues and mitigations, and how you handled the questions and the emerging issue. The scores are our own practice rubric, built on the official list of what a good response looks like; they are not an official score. It does not judge eye contact, body language, tone of voice, pronunciation or how you look on camera. The filler count comes from the transcript, which can leave out some hesitations, so the real number may be higher.

Is my voice kept?

No. Each minute of recording is sent once to a speech-to-text service and the audio is then discarded; we never store it. We keep the transcript and your report so that you can re-read them, and they are deleted if you delete your account.

Which devices work?

In our own test in Chrome on a computer, the spoken run worked end to end, and Chrome is the browser the official guide recommends for the real assessment centre. We have not yet tested it on iPhone Safari. On any other browser, phone or tablet, press Check my microphone before you start; if recording does not work, choose Type instead: the same run, with your briefing and answers typed.

Is practising with a simulator allowed?

The Fast Stream's guidance on Generative AI says you can use Gen AI tools to prepare, including for practice and simulation, but must not use them during the actual tests and assessments. The Oral Briefing page itself suggests recording yourself, and using AI tools to suggest the questions you might be asked.

How do I pay?

One card payment, no subscription. Prices are charged in your own currency where we support it. Access opens straight after payment on this device; sign in afterwards to keep it on your account. Purchase policy.

Also at the assessment centre: the Personal Development Conversation

It is a 30-minute, one-to-one structured discussion with an assessor, assessed on Relate, Adapt and Strive. Practise it with our FSAC interview practice: find your own examples first, then take practice conversations with follow-up questions.

Sources

Official pages read on 24 October 2026: