Attention Test

Company Preparation Courses IMC Round 1 – Online Assessment Attention Test

Cognitive ~5 min

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Overview

The fourth NeurOlympics game measures attention: sustained focus, fast shifts of focus and precise processing at speed. The Attention Test trains that with one rule: five arrows appear, and only the middle one counts. A grey ball sits in the middle of the field. A row of five arrows appears above or below it, and you answer the direction of the middle one: 1 for left, 0 for right. The four outer arrows often point the other way, and reading past them is the whole task. Speed counts more than accuracy: a wrong key costs little, a slow answer costs points on every row. Before every row a red cue flashes for an eighth of a second: either the ball itself, or a red ball at the spot where the row is about to appear, and that spot is always right. The row follows 0.4 seconds later. The cue is a warning, not the signal to press. Every row is worth (1000 minus your reaction time in milliseconds) divided by 3, so about 233 points for a 300 ms answer. A run is 32 rows in two parts of 16, with every combination of position, direction, outer arrows and cue appearing once per part. Part 1 sets your average speed as the benchmark, part 2 asks you to beat it, and the end card shows both speeds and the difference. Four exercises: Direction (no cues), Red cues, the Full run (two parts with the benchmark card between them) and the Challenge (rows until your first lost one, with a leaderboard). The first three run at the length you pick on the setup screen: 32 rows, or 64 or 96 for stamina.

Example: a row above the ball

The row has appeared above the ball. The middle arrow points left while the four outer arrows point right, so the answer is 1, and the faster it comes the more points: (1000 minus the milliseconds) / 3, about 223 for this 330 ms answer. Before the next row a red ball flashes below the grey one, exactly where that row then appears; before the third, the grey ball itself flashes red.

Example animation

KeysMiddle arrow: 1 left, 0 right

223

237

160

← Left 1 → Right 0

1,130 points 1,353 points 1,590 points 1,750 points

After the key: the outer arrows dim, the middle one lights up with a trail to the edge of the field, and a ring around the ball shows the points that row earned, while the line under the field counts the run total. A wrong key: an empty ring with 0. No key inside a second: the ring turns red and reads -999, the points it costs, then “TOO LATE”.

This is a looping animation of the game screen, not the live game. Play Now

Game Phases

Fingers on 1 and 0 Index fingers on the 1 and 0 keys, and they stay there for the whole run. Keep your eyes on the ball in the middle of the field between rows; the next row appears above or below it.

Answer the middle arrow 1 if the middle arrow points left, 0 if it points right (or the buttons). Read only the middle one: the outer four are there to distract you. You get one second per row: answer later than that and the row is lost, the ring around the ball turns red and reads -999 for the points it costs you, and a TOO LATE banner follows.

Wait out the red cue Before every row the ball flashes red, or a red ball flashes where the row will appear. The row comes 0.4 s later. Nothing counts until the five arrows are on the field: a key before that is "too early", the row is lost and the banner stays two seconds.

Beat your benchmark After part 1 a card shows your average speed: that is the benchmark for part 2, so be faster than it. The results show both speeds, the difference, your median reaction and the flanker cost, block by block.

We are not affiliated with BrainsFirst or IMC. The Attention Test is our own practice game, built to train the skill that NeurOlympics game 4 measures; all information provided is for educational purposes to help students prepare for interviews.

Scoring

Correct row The right key for the middle arrow, after the row appeared, inside a second. Direction, Red cues and the Full run play 32, 64 or 96 rows, whichever length you pick.

333

Points per row A correct row earns (1000 minus the reaction time in milliseconds) / 3: 200 ms keeps 267, 300 ms keeps 233, 450 ms keeps 183, nothing from 1000 ms. A wrong key earns 0, a key before the row earns 0 and loses the row.

-999

Too late No key inside a second costs 999 points. Median reaction, flanker cost (outer arrows against minus with) and the part 1 vs part 2 speeds are reported. Best score, run count and last ten scores are kept per exercise and run length.

Top

Challenge leaderboard The Challenge runs rows with the red cues until the first row you lose: the wrong key, a key before the row, or no key within a second. That row scores 0 and ends the run (no 999 on top: it already cost you the run). It scores points rather than rows, and its points go on the Top Scores board, which keeps each player's best run.

Only the Challenge has a leaderboard. In the other exercises the target is a clean run with a median reaction under 400 ms, a flanker cost under 100 ms, no rows lost early or late, and a part 2 faster than part 1. The block-by-block review shows every row of the run, small, with the reaction time under it, so you can see whether errors sit on the rows where the outer arrows point the other way, follow a red flash, or cluster late in the run. The Full run shows accuracy for part 1 and part 2 separately, on the results screen and on the History tab. Finish early ends a run and shows the results for the rows so far; those runs are logged but never count as your best. Before the assessment, do each exercise a few times, then the full run; and read the instructions in the test itself carefully, because the exact symbols and the points scale can differ from ours.