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DFFT: fault finding against a guide

Twenty questions in forty-five minutes. It is the most generous clock of the day, and the only test where slowing down reliably scores better.

gold Stage 1 7 min read

You are given a display panel showing indications — lights, readings, states — and a fault finder guide that maps combinations of indications to fault codes and the action each one requires. The question is which fault to deal with first, and what to do about it.

Items: Around twenty
Clock: Commonly forty-five minutes
Per item: Just over two minutes
Materials: A panel and a reference guide, both in front of you

What it is measuring

Not mechanical knowledge. You are not expected to know anything about the equipment, and the guide contains everything needed. What is being measured is whether you can work systematically through a reference document under mild time pressure without taking shortcuts — which is exactly what a driver does with a fault book at two in the morning with a train full of people behind them.