Royal Navy Recruiting Test (DAA) Guide
What the Royal Navy now sets in place of its old recruiting test, where it falls for ratings and for officers, and what follows it
The Royal Navy recruiting test is now the DAA
If you are searching for the Royal Navy Recruiting Test, or the Naval Service Recruiting Test (NSRT), you are looking for a test that no longer exists. The Naval Service moved to the Defence Aptitude Assessment in 2022, and the Royal Navy’s DAA page was describing the new test by July 2022. Practice books and videos for the old test still circulate. The NSRT was a different paper with different sections, so do not prepare from them.
The DAA is the same test the RAF and the Royal Marines set: 128 multiple-choice questions in eight separately timed parts, 69 minutes of timed work, no calculator. The Royal Navy tells candidates to allow about 90 minutes in all. Every part, its clock and an original worked example are on our Defence Aptitude Assessment practice page, so this guide spends its time on what is particular to the Navy.
Where it falls for ratings
On the Royal Navy joining process, the DAA is step 2 for ratings, after the online application form and before the Selection Interview. The Navy says you must attempt every section. Your link arrives in the candidate portal and stays valid for 14 days; once you start, you finish in one sitting. You can sit it at home on a laptop, tablet or PC, or book a sitting at your local Armed Forces Careers Office through your Career Adviser. If you go to the office, the Navy asks you to bring photo ID, your portal login and a device that can open your personal email.
After the Selection Interview come a medical and a fitness test, and the joining process page also describes the Navy’s Candidate Preparation Course. The fitness standards change from time to time, so take the current ones from that page rather than from any guide, this one included.
Where it falls for officers
Officer candidates sit the same DAA, before the Admiralty Interview Board (AIB). The AIB is now run online in two parts: a pre-recorded interview with two minutes for each answer, then an online Group Planning Exercise. The Navy’s AIB page notes it is “Facilitated by our contracted partners SSCL”. Neither part is a written aptitude test, so the DAA is the only stage in the officer route that practice questions can prepare you for.
Retakes and how long a result lasts
The most specific published rule is from the Royal Navy’s 2022 DAA page: you could retake after 28 days, you could sit the DAA only twice, and a result was held for up to 36 months if you withdrew and later re-applied. You could also choose to discuss the other roles your result already qualified you for. That page has since been replaced, so ask your Career Adviser whether the same limits apply to you before you plan around them.
The Navy also says that using any AI technology, ChatGPT included, during the DAA will be treated as cheating.
Fleet Air Arm aircrew sit a second, separate test
Pilot, Observer and Air Traffic Controller candidates go on to the Flying Aptitude Tests (FATs) at RAF Cranwell after the DAA. These are not the DAA, and unlike it they do have published standards. In a freedom of information response dated 7 August 2023, Navy Command gave the pass mark for pilot candidates as 218, scored across seven areas on a stanine scale with these minimums:
- Strategic Task Management: 4
- Perception: 4
- Short Term Memory and Capacity: 2
- Spatial Reasoning: 5
- Symbolic Reasoning: 4
- Psycho motor: 4
- Central Information Processing: 5
The same response says only Observer and Air Traffic Controller candidates may re-sit, after at least 12 months; a pilot candidate who fails can be reconsidered only for Observer or Air Traffic Controller following a re-sit; and the tests may be retaken up to the age of 26. We do not simulate the FATs, which are supervised and partly psychomotor. The DAA’s spatial and work rate sections are the nearest written practice.
Practise the DAA sections
- DAA Work Rate (20 questions · 4 minutes · free) - Twenty code-substitution items in four minutes. Free here, and the part where a steady pace matters most.
- DAA Electrical Comprehension (22 questions · 15 minutes) - Twenty-two items in fifteen minutes on circuits, batteries, switches and electrical concepts.
- DAA Mechanical Comprehension (19 questions · 13 minutes) - Nineteen items in thirteen minutes on gears, levers, pulleys and forces.
- DAA Numerical Reasoning (27 questions · 15 minutes) - Both numerical parts: quick arithmetic without a calculator, then graphs and tables.
- DAA Verbal Reasoning (20 questions · 15 minutes) - Twenty questions on written scenarios in fifteen minutes.
- DAA Spatial Reasoning (20 questions · 7 minutes) - Both spatial parts: joining flat shapes, then matching rotated 3D objects.
- DAA Full Assessment (128 questions · 69 minutes) - All eight parts in order on the real clocks, the closest rehearsal of the sitting itself.
The Royal Navy also hosts the official familiarisation test, which is worth doing once for the look of the screens. For the general skills, see our pages on numerical reasoning, verbal reasoning, spatial reasoning and mechanical reasoning, and our guide to the DAA sections.
Common questions
Is the Royal Navy Recruiting Test the same as the DAA?
No. The Recruiting Test, or NSRT, was the Naval Service’s own paper until 2022. The DAA replaced it, and it is the same test the RAF and the Royal Marines set.
What DAA score do I need for my branch?
The Royal Navy does not publish role-by-role scores. Your Career Adviser has them and will tell you which roles your results open. Sites quoting a percentage for “most branches” do not cite a source.
Do Royal Marines candidates sit the same test?
Yes. The Royal Marines joining process also puts the DAA at step 2, before the Selection Interview.
Can I take the DAA on my phone?
No. The real test needs a screen of at least 10.2 inches and is optimised for a laptop or desktop. You can practise on a phone, but the layout of the real sitting will be different.
Is the British Army test the same?
No. The Army sets its own, different test. If you are applying to both, see our British Army test practice as well.
Are your tests the real DAA?
No. The DAA is Crown copyright. Our questions are original, written to the published format, and are not supplied or endorsed by the Ministry of Defence or the Royal Navy.