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Defence Aptitude Assessment (DAA)

Can You Cheat the DAA? Scores Decide Your Role

The DAA is not a pass-or-fail gate, it is a sorting test, and a shortcut sorts you into a role you cannot do.

Short answer: no.

Your section results decide which roles your careers adviser can offer you. Inflating one routes you to a role whose training assumes that aptitude, and the fastest parts leave no time to look anything up.

Who sets it
The RAF, the Royal Navy and the Royal Marines, as the first assessment after the application form.
What it decides
Which roles you can apply for. Each role sets its own standard for each of the six sections, and your careers adviser tells you which roles your results open.
Where you sit it
At home through a link in your candidate portal, valid for 14 days, on a screen of at least 10.2 inches, or at an Armed Forces Careers Office on a service device.
The fastest parts
Work Rate gives 12 seconds a question and Spatial Reasoning part 2 gives 18.
What the Navy says
Use of any AI technology, including tools such as ChatGPT, is treated as cheating.

The DAA is a sorting test, not a gate

Most shortcuts are aimed at clearing a pass mark. The DAA does not have one. The RAF says there are "a wide range of roles available in the RAF, all requiring different scores on the DAA", and the Royal Navy says requirements "differ by Profession and Specialisation". After the test your careers adviser takes your results section by section and tells you which roles they qualify you for.

That changes what a shortcut buys. An inflated Electrical Comprehension or Mechanical Comprehension result does not get you through a door; it opens technical roles whose training assumes you can reason about circuits and machines. The Royal Navy describes its tests as "strong indicators for in-job performance at all ranks". A borrowed result puts you on the wrong course, not the right side of a line.

The mechanism that actually defeats it
Your section scores choose your role. The DAA reports six separate results and each role sets its own standard on each of them, so there is no single number to fake your way past, only a profile that decides where you go next. Faking one section changes where you go, not whether you get in.

The fastest parts leave no time to look anything up

The DAA is 128 questions over eight separately timed parts, and the pace changes sixfold between them. Work Rate gives you 12 seconds a question to find one alternative code among five. Spatial Reasoning part 2 gives you 18 seconds to check the dots on two turned objects. Numerical Reasoning part 1 gives 20 seconds for a fraction or an equation, with no calculator. There is no window in those clocks for anything but the task.

What actually raises a DAA result

Practice at the real pace, part by part. Our Defence Aptitude Assessment practice tests run every section at the official item counts and clocks, with Back, Next and a summary screen as the familiarisation has, and feedback that names the part and the kind of question that cost you marks.

Do
Sit the official familiarisation test on the RAF or Royal Navy site at least once.
Practise each section at its own pace: 45 seconds a question on Verbal, 12 on Work Rate.
Answer every question. The MOD publishes no deduction for a wrong answer.
Revise the knowledge questions in Electrical and Mechanical Comprehension: units, materials, tools and drawing scales.
Ask your careers adviser which roles need which results before you sit it.
Do not
Do not use a calculator, a multi-function watch or any AI tool. None is allowed.
Do not pay for "real DAA questions". The only official material is the familiarisation, which is Crown copyright.
Do not sit the real test on a phone. It needs a screen of at least 10.2 inches.
Do not aim for a single overall score. The DAA reports six sections and roles read them separately.

The cost of being caught

The DAA is the first step into the armed forces, a career that runs on vetting, integrity and trust. A candidate found to have cheated is not marked down on one test, they have given the service the clearest possible reason not to take them further, and the interviews and selection boards that follow the DAA are designed to find out whether you are who your application says you are.

Frequently asked questions

Can you cheat the RAF or Royal Navy aptitude test?

No, and the reason is specific to the DAA. It is not a pass mark to clear once: your six section results decide which roles are open to you, role by role. A shortcut that lifts Electrical Comprehension does not get you through a gate, it routes you towards a technical role whose training assumes you have that aptitude, which is a worse outcome than an honest result.

Are DAA answers available online?

The only official material is the familiarisation test on the RAF and Royal Navy sites, which is Crown copyright and says copying any part of it is against the law. It is a practice paper, not the live test. Anything sold as the real questions is either that familiarisation or invented.

Can I use a calculator or look things up during the DAA?

No calculator and no multi-function watch; paper and pencil are allowed for working. The Royal Navy treats the use of any AI tool as cheating. And the pace makes looking anything up pointless: Work Rate allows 12 seconds a question and Spatial part 2 allows 18.

Is the at-home DAA supervised?

The at-home sitting is unsupervised, but that is not a gap to exploit. Your results decide the roles you are offered, you still face a Selection Interview, and for officers the Admiralty Interview Board or the Officers and Aircrew Selection Centre, and every role has its own training that assumes the aptitudes the DAA measured.

What if I do not get the score my role needs?

Talk to your careers adviser about the other roles your results open. In 2022 the Royal Navy allowed a retake after 28 days, up to two attempts, and held results for up to 36 months. The RAF does not publish its rule on the pages we could read, so ask your careers office.

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Defence Aptitude Assessment (DAA) practice tests

The Defence Aptitude Assessment (DAA), the aptitude test the RAF, the Royal Navy and the Royal Marines use at the first assessment stage for almost every role, often searched as the RAF aptitude test or the Royal Navy aptitude test. Six sections in eight separately timed parts, 128 questions in 69 minutes, no calculator: Verbal Reasoning, Numerical Reasoning, Work Rate, Spatial Reasoning, Electrical Comprehension and Mechanical Comprehension. It replaced the RAF Airman Selection Test (AST, also Airmen Selection Test) and the Naval Service Recruiting Test (NSRT, the Royal Navy Recruiting Test) in 2022. There is no single pass mark: each role sets its own standard section by section. The British Army runs its own, different test.

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