How the Group Bourdon test works
The Group Bourdon is one of two attention tests in the national battery that RSSB’s standard RIS-3751-TOM sets for trainee drivers on the GB mainline railway. The standard names the paper Group Bourdon, so expect a pencil and printed sheets at the assessment centre.
Each sheet is covered in small groups of dots, reported as three to six dots a group and 25 groups to a line. You mark every group of four and leave the rest, working left to right along each line and down the sheet. The assessor calls time every two minutes and you move on to the next sheet, five sheets in all.
Wrong marks and missed fours both count against you, so the test rewards a steady, accurate pace over a fast, patchy one.
How to find the fours at a steady pace
Use the same routine on every sheet:
- Count each group at a glance rather than dot by dot. Threes and fives are what catch people out, so look for the one dot too few or too many.
- Keep to one line at a time. Run your pencil tip just below the line so your eye cannot slip to the next row.
- Mark as you go and do not go back along a line. Returning costs time and invites double marks.
- Pick a pace you can hold for all five sheets. Five even sheets look better than a fast first sheet and a ragged fifth.
- If you mark a wrong group, correct it the way the assessor showed you and carry straight on.
Worked example
A line opens with these groups: three dots, four, five, four, three, four, six, four. The fours are the 2nd, 4th, 6th and 8th groups, so you mark those and leave the other four alone.
Say you marked the 3rd group by mistake, because five dots packed tightly looked like four. Correct that mark as instructed and keep going at the same pace rather than slowing down to recount everything after it.
Tips for the real Group Bourdon
- Use the practice material the train company sends you. RSSB says invited candidates get approved practice materials at least a week before the assessment.
- Practise on paper as well as on screen. Working down a printed sheet with a pencil feels different from tapping.
- Ask about anything unclear during the instructions and examples. Once the test starts, no questions are allowed and the room is silent.
- Sleep well the night before. Ten minutes of close scanning is tiring, and the last sheet is where tired eyes miss fours.
- If a condition affects your attention or reading, ask the train company about adjustments well before the day.
Practise the Group Bourdon on CogniPrep
Our Group Bourdon gives you five sheets of two minutes each, 18 lines of 25 groups to a sheet, with three, four or five dots in a group. Tap a group of four to strike it, and tap it again to turn a wrong stroke into a cross. You get a score out of 100 from the lines you reach and the fours you miss or strike wrongly, and a band based on what candidates report passing with, judged also on how evenly you worked across the sheets. Screen and paper feel different, so practise on printed sheets too.