What the test is
The formatTwo separate visual-estimation sub-tests, both multiple choice. Angles: two lines form an angle on screen and you identify its value from the options; the angle rotates and the options narrow as it goes, so there’s nothing to anchor to. Bearings: a 360° compass circle carries lettered points (A, B, C…) plotted across it, and you estimate a named point’s bearing clockwise from north, again picking the closest option as they converge.
Format description from the published CBAT TMI test guides
(rafcbat.wordpress.com) and the Air Defence Academy test guides
(airdefenceacademy.com/testguides).
Skill area: Spatial reasoning.
What candidates say
These points come from people who have sat the test, gathered from forums, community chats and candidates who wrote to us afterwards. Nothing here is quoted or attributed. Each point is graded by how many separate accounts back it up.
✓ Well established! Single account✕ Outdated? From the published guides
On bearings, anchor to the four cardinal points first and count from the nearest one to the target rather than estimating from north every time.
This is from the published guides rather than from anyone who sat it, but it’s sound and it costs nothing to adopt. It cuts a good chunk off your estimation time, which matters because the multiple-choice options get closer together as you go.
Angles is pure speed and accuracy built through repetition. There’s no clever method to find.
Free angle-estimation and protractor tools are all over the web and they’re a decent use of a spare twenty minutes a day. This is the least mysterious test on the battery. You just have to put the reps in.
Almost no first-hand information exists on this test anywhere.
Nobody I found had described sitting it. That’s not a reason to worry, given how simple the format is, but treat any confident account of the exact question count or timing with suspicion.
Angles is well worth practising, and one candidate noted the real screen is laid out its own way.
So train the skill, estimating an angle quickly, rather than getting used to one particular layout.
Practise it on SkyWatch
Our Angles game is quickfire estimation of angles and bearings, the same skill that helps on the DPT and DAD tests.
900+
practice runs played
on SkyWatch
on SkyWatch
74%
of players who practised 10+ times
improved on their first runs
improved on their first runs
Every SkyWatch game is our own CBAT-style practice version, built from what candidates report. None of them is the real test.
Related tests
- Instrument Comprehension Test (INSC)instruments 1 and 2
- Dynamic Projection Test (DPT)the bearings test / directing aircraft through gates
- Directions and Distances (DAD)the ship leaves the harbour questions
- Spatial Integration Test (SIT)the grid layout and short clip test
- Trace Test 1 & Trace Test 2 (TRAC1 / TRAC2)trace 1 and trace 2
- Visualisation Testsspatial awareness
Read more
This page is one part of the complete CBAT guide, which also covers how the day runs, the pass marks and the domain minimums. Or see every CBAT test on one page.