Employment Testing for Firefighters

In the United States, vocations within the public safety sector often require Industrial and Organizational Psychology employment testing for initial employment and advancement throughout the ranks.

These include such professionals as firefighters, sheriffs and police officers, correctional officers, emergency medical services personnel including emergency medical technicians.

NFSI/IOS

The IOS National Firefighter Selection Inventory practice test, an entry-level examination, was developed as an alternative to conventional firefighter written entrance examinations.

It was developed by IOS, Inc. (Industrial/Organizational Solutions). Afterwards,  psychological testing became a standard practice done by many fire departments throughout the United States.

This screening IOS National Firefighter Selection Inventory practice test aims to focus on the cognitive skills and the behavioral characteristics of candidate examinees.

The test

The IOS National Firefighter Selection Inventory practice test has been shown to accurately predict the capacity and willingness of the candidates to succeed as firefighters.

Also, the NFSI is well-suited to predict the success all entry-level firefighter positions. The tests are all in strict compliance with all federal, state and local testing guidelines and regulations.

Here are the sections and the format.

Cognitive Skills

This section is made up of 105 questions spread out in over 8 different areas.

In Verbal Comprehension, the measurement is on your ability to read a scenario and what took place. The job-related passages are long with questions and alternative responses. The items involve information, analysis or conclusions from the scenario.

Verbal expression assesses your ability in bringing ideas through language, the highlights are on capitalization, vocabulary, punctuation, grammar, and English use. Select the (underlined) correct alternatives and select those spelled incorrectly.

In Problem sensitivity, you are tested for the ability to recognize a problem or the most serious problem through questions requiring you to identify the difficulty in a given scenario.

There are questions in Deductive reasoning that assesses this skill requiring the application of a rule or procedure to a set of circumstances.

Inductive reasoning presents a set of events or objects to the examinee. The task is to determine the rule or the connection that exists between the set’s individual elements. You will be asked to draw conclusions, or find the connecting link.

In Information ordering, the rules or procedures are provided. Apply them to statements to correctly sequence the sentences. The questions require the selection of the procedure to attend to first/last and sequencing of all statements, and selecting the alternative correct sentence sequence.

Mathematical reasoning includes encounter charts, tables, diagrams, pictures and math word problems. You carry out basic mathematical functions to answer the questions using the information in the charts.

In Number facility, the examinee calculate answers to mathematical word problems using fundamental math functions such as addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, percentages, ratios, decimals, averaging and square measures.

Personality Attributes

This has 50 multiple-choice, five-point rating scale questions. The rating is from “Strongly Agree” to Strongly Disagree.”

Like the other pre-employment personality tests, your choices will reflect your thoughts, actions and preferences in regards to work-based characteristics. The main characteristics assessed include stress tolerance (handling extreme work pressures), team orientation (essential characteristic), and motivation/attitude (main traits that establish outstanding of firefighters). 

Some Test Configurations

 

The FCTC study guide is actually a set of guidelines on the subject/theme of each question. Sometimes, it includes specific instructions on how to answer the questions and some practical advice.

There are no sampler questions, however, for each subject, just the guides on how to approach them accordingly. The rationale is that there are no set questions prepared for the practice test (even on a fctc study guide) but only on the real test proper itself.

The examinees are then advised to be alert and to recognize that each set is different from one another and to be able to adjust their mindsets accordingly.

RAP

RAP (reading ability procedure) is sometimes placed in the context and questions. The intention is for you to demonstrate how well you understand what you read. Firemen will have to read and interpret volumes of information.

How well you use your ability relates well with your job.

Memorization

You need to memorize the written information, pictures, and diagrams in the pre-text fctc study guide booklet in order to answer questions later. The ability to remember details, of what was seen or heard is a good trait of a firefighter.

This is the first material that you will be tested for in the exam. Practice memorizing other materials before the test.

Math

These question types involve mathematical reasoning to understand a word problem. It is also to figure out what information the word problem is trying to bring out.

You have to be able to manipulate the numbers to generate for you the right answer. There will be no calculator for you to use.  

The operations used generally are addition, subtraction, multiplication, divisions, percentages, fractions and some simple algebra. Sometimes, some data is presented and the examinee must perform some given mathematical computations.

Mechanics

The test-takers are asked questions on basic physical and mechanical principles. These would involve pulleys, gears, energy, motion, fluidity, and resistance.

For firefighters, mechanical reasoning is important because they must be able to understand how some tools and pieces of equipment work.

Shapes (spatial questions)

Test-takers are presented with various shapes and are required to mentally rotate and re-arrange things according to given specifications.

The objects that are to be mentally assembled appear at the start of each item and often are marked. This will identify them to some particular place on the object.

The candidate must choose the correct choice from the presented arrangements. The given objects may need to be flipped, turned, or rotated.

Maps

Directional orientation is one good trait for good firefighters. This ability helps them respond to urgent situations and go from one point to another more efficiently and quickly.

In the exam, you will be presented with a map or plot diagram. Based on this, you will answer questions related to the most direct route from one point to the next.

Closures

In this question type, an image of something related to fire suppression is presented with four possible pictures. Three of the pictures are slightly altered.

The question is identifying which of the images is the same as the original picture.