South Australia’s Metropolitan Fire Service splits its physical aptitude test in two. PAT 1 is the multi-stage shuttle run — the beep test — to Level 9.6. PAT 2 is a functional firefighting task circuit conducted in supplied PPE. Both are pass-fail. Both are sat once per campaign. Candidates who treat them as one combined “fitness test” and train for them as a single block tend to under-prepare for one of the two, because the two tests reward different things and respond to different training. This post breaks down what each test is, what passes and fails, and what an honest training split looks like for a candidate with a normal gym base.
The MFS Fitness Training Guide is the authoritative source for the published standards. Download it from the MFS recruitment site — it’s free — and read it before you start training. This post complements it; it doesn’t replace it.
A note on the SA MFS cycle
SA MFS does not run an annual recruit campaign. Campaigns open when MFS workforce planning identifies a need, typically every eighteen to twenty-four months, with cohort sizes in the tens to low hundreds. The most recent full-time campaign has now closed and candidates who applied are awaiting outcome communications. For prospective candidates, the right play is to subscribe to the MFS careers notifications and check the site monthly — when the next campaign opens, the window from announcement to assessment is short, and PAT preparation cannot be done in two weeks.
PAT 1: the beep test, to Level 9.6
The first physical stage is the multi-stage shuttle run. The published standard is Level 9.6.
The rules are the standard ones: a 20-metre track between two parallel lines; you run in time with the recorded beeps; pace increases progressively as the test moves through levels; a single beep ends a shuttle, a triple beep ends a level. One foot must touch on or over the blue 20-metre line before you turn. Yellow card warnings are issued for short shuttles or early starts. Four yellow cards ends the test.
You will be invited via email to attend PAT 1, and you get only one attempt per recruitment campaign. Fail PAT 1 and you cannot progress and cannot retest within the campaign. You can re-apply in the next campaign, whenever that is.
What Level 9.6 actually demands
Level 9.6 sits in the middle of the published beep test scale. It’s a meaningful aerobic standard — meaningfully above what an untrained adult can run cold — but it’s not elite. For most candidates with eight to twelve weeks of structured aerobic training from a moderate base, it is reachable.
The common failure mode is not aerobic capacity; it’s pacing. Candidates with strong cardio routinely fail Level 9.6 by racing the early levels, blowing up at a level boundary where the cadence step-changes, and then taking shuttle-shortening yellow cards because they’re trying to recover at the line. The beep test rewards even pacing and the discipline to turn cleanly at every line. If you are gasping at Level 4, you have already failed.
Training for PAT 1
The pattern that works for most candidates:
- One specific session a week. Run the actual beep test, on an actual 20-metre track, with an actual audio file. Free apps and audio files are widely available. Treat it as a rehearsal, not a fitness test. Log your level honestly each week.
- Two aerobic sessions a week. Steady-state running, 30 to 50 minutes, at conversational pace. This is the engine work that makes Level 9.6 sustainable.
- One interval session a week. 400-metre repeats at faster-than-beep-test pace. The turn-and-go pattern at the line is a meaningful part of what’s being measured, so do these on a track or shuttle if you can, not on a treadmill.
- Recovery and sleep. Don’t peak the week before. Taper slightly so you arrive at the test rested but not detrained.
Run on the same kind of surface you’ll test on if you can — outdoor track running differs from treadmill running, and the difference is enough to matter on a tight standard.
PAT 2: the functional circuit
PAT 2 is a job-task simulation circuit conducted in supplied PPE. It assesses whether you can perform the actual physical work of structural firefighting under realistic load and time pressure.
The task elements vary by cycle but the published shape is consistent: equipment carries, hose drag and hose advance, ladder lift and extension, casualty drag with a manikin, stair climb under load, and a tool or forcible-entry simulation. The exact protocol — distances, weights, time cut-off — is detailed in the candidate information for each cycle.
Pass-fail against a strict cut-off time. There is no graded score. You complete the circuit inside the time or you do not.
The grip problem
The single most common PAT 2 failure mode for candidates with otherwise solid aerobic and lower-body strength is grip. The hose drag is one-handed in the working hand. The ladder extension is a hand-over-hand rope haul. The equipment carry is held, not slung. By the third or fourth task in a continuous circuit, candidates discover that their forearms are pumped and the rope is slipping. From there, no amount of leg drive recovers the lost time.
Grip is also one of the most under-trained components in a typical gym programme. Strong squatters and deadlifters often have surprisingly weak grip endurance because their straps and belts have been doing the work.
Training for PAT 2
Inside an eight-week build, the right shape for most candidates is:
- Two specific PAT-style sessions a week. One on circuit form — sled drag, weighted hose-style pull, loaded carries, stair climbs, back to back, under a weighted vest. One on the individual task that scared you most in the last rehearsal.
- Two strength sessions a week. Lower-body focused. Trap bar deadlift, front squat, single-leg work, weighted carries. Keep volume moderate — you are building structural capacity, not chasing personal bests.
- Dedicated grip work twice a week. Pull-ups, dead hangs, hand-over-hand rope pulls anchored to a sled or weighted plates, farmer’s carries with no straps. The closer the pattern to the test, the better the transfer.
- Loaded stair climbing once a week. A 20kg weighted vest, walked up stairs. The closest gym replication of actual PAT demands, and a session that exposes pacing problems before they cost you on test day.
- Heat tolerance. Train in long sleeves and pants once a week to acclimate to working under PPE. Adelaide is warmer than candidates in southern states sometimes prepare for.
The pacing principle from PAT 1 applies here too. Sprinting the early tasks burns out grip and legs for later tasks. Consistent moderate pace beats peaked early effort. Watch any video of a successful candidate completing a functional circuit and you’ll see this: they move with control, they breathe deeply, they don’t waste motion between stations.
How to think about the gap between the two tests
PAT 1 and PAT 2 are scheduled in sequence inside the campaign timeline. You don’t have to peak both on the same day, but you can’t completely de-train one to peak the other. The structure that works is to maintain your aerobic base throughout (the engine takes weeks to lose meaningfully but only days to maintain) and shift the volume of your specific work — beep test simulations versus functional circuits — as your test dates approach.
If you fail PAT 1, PAT 2 doesn’t happen. So in the first half of your build, when you don’t yet know your test dates, prioritise the beep test. Functional circuit work doesn’t help you against PAT 1.
A note on the gap between training and testing
One of the quieter PAT failure modes is the gap between gym numbers and test performance. A candidate who can squat 140kg and run 10km comfortably should pass PAT 2 — and frequently doesn’t, because gym strength and steady-state cardio aren’t quite the right shape for a circuit that mixes loaded carries, grip-limited pulls, and stair work under PPE. The fix is specificity: train movements, not muscles. Loaded carries beat barbell squats for PAT-readiness, even though squats build the underlying strength. Stair climbs in a vest beat treadmill runs. The closer your training pattern is to the actual test pattern, the smaller the gap on the day.
Where this fits
For Tasmania candidates, the TFS shuttle run post covers an even more screen-focused beep test stage with a specific 12-month rule on the cognitive assessment that materially affects how candidates sequence preparation. For NSW candidates working on a more integrated single-day PAT, the FRNSW PAT minimums post walks through each task on the FRNSW circuit with the same failure-mode framing used in this post.
When you’re ready, the free 15-minute readiness check will give you an honest read on where you currently stand against PAT 1 and PAT 2 separately, and which to prioritise — and the AI coach builds a personalised preparation plan around each from there.