Thanks! I passed with a Cat 1 so it went well! Yeah of course! There are some good diary's on here for Main Board and Briefing, but non with the shorter covid format I don't think?
So the new Briefing format is 1 day (6hrs) only. My order of events for my diary is based on my day, so they might be a different way round for others, but here is my write up!
Arrive between 9.45 & 10.45am, sign in, show your ID, collect your bib, drop your bag off (just a heads up, I had no access to my bag the whole day as we didn't have time, so there isn't much need to bring things that aren't on your immediate personal). We were in 4 groups of 8 people, men and women mixed (there were only about 5 women all together).
Then you have an intro from the staff and then we went straight outside for the Physical tests. Warm up is literally a few stretches and some running on the spot and then you get 1min to do your own warm up bits (on the spot). Then the groups are split and 2 do the bleep test and 2 do the mid thigh pull and med ball throw. Then you all come together and do some warm down stretches to finish. Make sure you've prepped for these tests as it'll make you so much more confident going into it. Quite a few failed the bleep test and I heard others saying they had failed the mid thigh pull or the med ball throw, so whilst these aren't super tough, you can't just turn up and expect to pass!
Next my group had lunch which was really nice!
Then we went for the MAP computer tests which took about an hour to do. These were abstract reasoning, verbal reasoning and numerical reasoning. There wasn't much time compared to the amount of questions and I didnt get through them all, but my score was still "above average" so I wouldn't stress about the timer. I didn't guess questions I worked them out, but I heard people saying they guessed them to get through them faster. Personally I wouldn't do that, but I guess if you have no idea then its your best option!
After this we stood outside in the freezing cold and rain for 20mins waiting for the next part. Because of the covid regulations you can't mix in the rooms or corridors or anything like that, so make sure you have a coat and don't leave it in the bag room, carry it around with you, its worth it!
We then had our Plan Ex, command tasks and obstacle course tutorials. Make sure you take lots of notes as this is instead of actually doing them and getting to practice, so pay attention to what they tell you!
Last up was the group discussion. We did our 2min intros first and then sat and chatted about topics that the staff gave us. They give you a time limit for each, so make sure you get your point in early! We also all had to give our own topic to discuss and then the staff picked 2 at the end to talk about. Make sure you're up to date on current affairs and also that you have an opinion on it! No point knowing all the facts, but not being able to give your side of the argument with justification. I mostly listened to podcasts to prep (anything like: Global news, intelligence, coffee house shots, today in focus, today explained, the week summed up) but also read the BBC news daily and I have a subscription to The Week.
For the 2min intro, you get a knock at 1min and a knock at 2mins. Make sure you have an idea of what you want to say, but that it's not too rehearsed.
Overall, sounds corny but just relax and enjoy yourself! Don't get caught up if you don't think something went well, because else it will affect the rest of your day! Oh and make sure you wear warm clothes, because all the doors and windows are open so its absolutely freezing everywhere!
Hope this helps! I found the info on here from others super useful, so happy to be able to give back to others going through the process
