This is the day where you have to swap the previous 4 days of living in the vertical for a day in the horizontal. To aid this switch over, on my assessment 5 out of the 6 of us got up at 05:00 and went and did two hours of morning navigation. This was really good as it just helped get the mind free of ropes and back into maps and contours. Our day was logistically quite simple; 1 assessor and 3 assesses. One of you is given a location to get to and this is kept secret from

If Day 2 was a technically tiring day, Day 3 was a mentally tiring day then Day 4 is the physically tiring day. For this day it's you, a fellow candidate and 1 assessor. From people I've spoken to you do tend to be in Ogwen. We were on Tryfan, but you could easily be on Glyder Fach or Idwal. You get told in the car park which route they want you to get them to and then the assessor will expect you to lead them to the base. On the walk in is where you get to express your kno

So we've had two technical days, now it's time for the mental challenge of Day 3; "Teaching Day" or "Client Day". This seems to be the day that everyone fears. I'll set out a brief detail of how the day runs from my experience, a brief explanation of how it actually ran for me and then finally (and this is the bit I do have experience of) how to get through a Meltdown... When you break it down this day it is Actually quite simplistic. As I see it, you only have to do three th

So to follow on from Day 1 see below my experience of Day 2. This is not a "do this and you'll pass" post, far from it. Take it more as me expressing my experience and an example of how the day can run. Day 2: Problem solving day. I'd once pretty much guarantee that you'll be at Tremadog however you really could go anywhere in North Wales. They try to do it all on VS terrain. It will be you, another candidate and a different assessor than from day 1. Today's the day when y

As it is now "Assessment Season" I thought I'd drag out a few articles I wrote about what to expect on Assessment. It became apparent that a few people I had spoken to over the next couple of years really didn't know what to expect on Assessment week. This is mainly due to the fact that quite a few people work in isolation as they are not 'in the industry' and don't get the chance to speak to Actual MIA's that much. Below is MY take on what to expect. It is not a 'do this an