What the Aon (cut-e) Assessment Is and Who Uses It
Aon acquired the German testing firm cut-e in 2017, and pilots still use both names interchangeably. The product is a library of short, web-delivered psychometric modules that airlines mix and match into a custom battery, typically delivered through Aon's MAPTQ portal and completed at home on your own computer. Each airline picks which modules its candidates see, so two pilots applying to two carriers can face meaningfully different batteries built from the same catalog.
At Delta, this is not gouge, it is policy: Delta's own pilot hiring FAQ states that competitive candidates are invited to begin the interview process by taking the Aon online assessment, which tests "personality and skill based competencies" (Delta pilot hiring FAQ). Pass it and you move toward the panel interview at Delta headquarters, where the MMPI-2 and a psychologist interview wait further down the funnel. Our 2026 gouge reports add a useful tell: candidates consistently report that their application status flips to "interviewing" once the Aon gate is passed. If you see that status change, your scores cleared the bar.
At American, the same engine runs under a different label. The American Airlines Pilot Skills Test is administered on the Aon (cut-e) platform, and prep providers who track the AA battery describe nine mini-tests spanning applied numeracy, deductive and inductive reasoning, monitoring ability, reaction speed, sense of direction, spatial memory, complex control, and multitasking. Beyond the US majors, cut-e modules show up across Europe, the Middle East, and Asia-Pacific in both cadet programs and direct-entry pilot selection, so time invested learning these formats keeps paying off across applications. United runs its own selection process, but the underlying skills these tests measure travel with you to any flight deck interview.
The Subtests: What You Will Actually See
Exact batteries vary by airline and change without notice, so treat any list as a snapshot rather than a promise. That said, candidate reports and prep materials are consistent about the core pilot modules, and most of them run between one and six minutes each. The names below are cut-e's internal module names, which you will often see in gouge.
Spatial orientation and sense of direction
The best-known pilot module (scales ndb) puts a Direction Indicator and an Automatic Direction Finder in front of you and asks where the aircraft is and what course it is flying relative to a non-directional beacon. If your NDB work is rusty, this test will expose it at speed. A companion module (scales nav) is a rapid-fire sense-of-direction task: pick the maneuver that gets you pointed the right way, over and over, in about a minute. Both are highly trainable, and both punish first-time exposure.
Memory and monitoring
The working-memory module most candidates describe is gridChallenge: memorize dot positions on a grid while symmetry tasks interrupt you, then recall the positions in order. It runs several minutes and gets harder as you go. Monitoring ability (scales cmo) is a vigilance task built on moving dots; you track a busy field and catch changes in quantity. Neither is hard in isolation. Both are hard when you are tired, which is the point.
Reaction and concentration
Reaction time (scales rt) shows you pairs of images and asks, as fast as possible, whether they match. The concentration module candidates nickname "the E with dots" (scales e3+) is a couple of minutes of relentless true/false pattern checks. These are pure speed-and-accuracy tests, and accuracy matters: on several cut-e modules, wrong answers subtract from your score, so guessing wildly is a losing strategy.
Multitasking and complex control
The multitasking modules are where most pilots feel the burn. The variants candidates report (mt avi, sonic, runway, falling obstacles) all follow the same template: fly or maneuver something with one hand while simultaneously verifying math equations and answering true/false statements, roughly five minutes at a time. The complex-control module (wingChallenge) is a hand-eye coordination task, flying an object through a tunnel with your mouse or keys. This is the closest the battery gets to stick-and-rudder, and it rewards calm, small corrections over aggressive chasing.
Reasoning and numeracy
Expect some mix of applied numeracy (mental math and rate problems of the fuel-time-distance flavor), deductive logic (scales lst and switchChallenge), and inductive pattern recognition (scales clx or cls). The reasoning modules run longer, up to the ten-to-fifteen-minute range, and feel like conventional aptitude tests.
Personality scales
Delta's FAQ says the assessment covers personality as well as skills, and Aon's personality instrument (ADEPT-15) measures fifteen work-style dimensions. There is no gaming this piece, and you should not try: airlines compare your profile against a target profile, the questionnaires include consistency checks, and a faked profile that clears the gate sets up a bad day with the psychologist later in the process. Answer honestly and spend your prep energy on the trainable modules.
How Scoring Works
Aon does not publish pass lines, and airlines do not release them. What is well established: your raw performance on each module is standardized against a norm group, meaning you are ranked against other candidates rather than against an absolute score. Percentile-style reporting is typical for the ability modules, and the personality scales are reported on standard ten-point (sten) profiles matched against the airline's target. Several modules are adaptive or open-ended, serving items as long as the clock runs, so "finishing" is not the goal; sustained speed with high accuracy is.
Practically, that means three things. First, you cannot cherry-pick one strength to carry you; airlines see the whole profile. Second, because you are graded on a curve against a pool of prepared candidates, walking in cold is a real handicap. Third, accuracy discipline matters: on modules that penalize wrong answers, a slightly slower, cleaner run beats a frantic one.
One Attempt: The Warning That Matters Most
Here is the piece of gouge we push hardest, because it is cheap to respect and expensive to ignore. Neither Delta nor American publishes a formal retake policy for these assessments, but the candidate reporting is consistent and blunt.
American: Candidates repeatedly warn that only the FIRST attempt's score is saved on the Pilot Skills Test. Opening the live link "just to see what it looks like" can lock in a score you never meant to submit. Do not touch the scored assessment until you are ready to fly it for record.
Delta: Candidates report the Aon invite arrives by email after application review and carries a completion deadline of roughly a week. Once the assessment is passed, application status flips to "interviewing" — the cleanest confirmation you will get that you cleared the gate.
Treat the assessment like a checkride, not a video game with a restart button. Everything exploratory happens in the practice environment. When you finally open the scored battery: rested, fed, quiet room, phone off, external mouse, decent screen, hardwired or rock-solid internet. Candidates have reported completing these on laptops in hotel rooms and regretting it. The test does not care about your excuses, and there is no asterisk next to your percentile explaining that the dog barked during multitasking.
How to Prepare
Pro Tip: The Aon gate is only the first hurdle — the panel interview behind it is where the job is actually won. While you drill the cut-e formats, keep your interview prep warm in parallel: the Delta and American question banks in the Vectors to Hired app are built from real candidate debriefs, and the AI Voice Coach scores your spoken answers before a panel ever hears them. For the end-to-end process, start with our complete airline pilot interview guide.