Because of my severe test anxiety (I cried and dry-heaved when my professor handed out the Art History Comp Testout in grad school), I took a prep course that allowed anyone planning to take the test to study and take pre-tests. It went great-I was aceing the tests and felt pretty confident-but I know myself and my issues with test performance under pressure.
I went to the exam early, left my completely untouched latte in my car in the sun for afterwards, double/triple checked my purse for earplugs and a #2 pencil, and waited outside of the testing site listening to Journey's "Don't Stop Believing" on my ipod. Two nervous girls were chittering about how they failed the test last time by 1%... meaning they had gotten 69% on the test (and consequently 31 questions wrong). I looked around nervously for my barista buddy that was planning on taking it as well, and saw him come in the door right at the end. **sigh of relief** Everything was gonna be okay.
On the 100-question test, about half of it was reading comprehension and summarization. Unlike the practice exams, the caliber of the language and complexity of the material to summarize was significantly higher. I started to panic just a little bit when I got to the section on Ethics, which was something not mentioned in the course. Upon further thought, you can't practice street smarts in a way that will effectively make you better at it... you either get it, or you don't. If you are socially incompetent, you would probably fail this section.
Some of the test was simply choosing the correct definitions of very uncommon words, such as "apprise" and "corroborate." Some questions were just on spelling and grammar. The last portion was probably the biggest brainbender, measuring our logical reasoning abilities. The multiple choice question answer choices would be pictograms with shapes, and the question would be something like "Which picture shows a hexagon to the left of the square, underneath a circle, surrounded by an oval, with a triangle above the square?" After answering 50 comprehension questions and being quizzed on finding grammar mistakes, I assure you... my brain was tired. I finished my test first, panicked because I was the first one done, and re-checked my answers twice before finally turning it in.
I was awarded a 90% on my test! I guess that makes all of the headaches worth it.
Now I must wait for the next phase of the hiring process, which is some sort of a personality questionnaire that I have not yet received. Hiring to get to the Academy portion of being a Police Officer is a 12 step process, so if this is all conducted on Hawaii time (which it seems to be), it could be a while. I'll be sure to keep everyone posted.
<3
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