OT - Civil service exam

[Cigarskunk]

Well, I'm scheduled to take the civil service exam in on Sept 12 and was wondering if anyone here could give me an idea was what I'll be dealing with?

I've seen way too many idiots working for the government, so I figure if these yahoos can do well enough to pass, then I should totally ace this thing.

This is for the state of PA if that has any bearing.

[Chenier]

No idea, Cigar, but I wish you the bestest! =)

[Dhomal the Scavenger]

Hello-

I too do not have much input. However - I do know that there are books made that give you practice questions/exams. Some of the books are specific to certain sub-tests (from what I know - there are a number of CS exams - designated by the type of work involved in the job) And some are more general. Check into it. Heck - you could even just go to one of the large bookstores and browse it - and have some coffee too! Just dont spill the coffe in the book - or fall asleep in one of the chairs - we hate that!

Dhomal the Scavenger

"Aye - I moonlight as a bookseller - You gotta problme with that?"

[karisun]

I don't know how similar the civil service exam is, but I took the postal service exam a few years ago and it was pretty easy (for me).

There are prep books available for the tests. It is probably worth your time to take an hour or two to go to the library or book store to get an idea what kinds of questions they will be asking. Once you see samples, you will have an idea of how easy or hard the exam will be for you.

Good luck!

K

[Telaeth Everdark]

Civil Service Exams

How hard or easy the civil service exam you are taking is depends greatly on what exam, exactly, it is. There are several different ones depending on what the job you are applying for is. I highly recommend heading to the library and asking the reference librarian for study material; most libraries have a separate section just for civil service books.

From what I've seen, most of the exams aren't terribly hard as long as you know what you'll be doing once you have the job. For instance: Six months ago I took the Messenger Clerk exam for the LA city library system. Messenger clerks are the poor saps who put away books at libraries, sometimes also called pages. It basically tested whether I was dyslexic, whether I knew how to put decimals in order, and whether I could alphabetize.

Your civil service exam should be strongly related to the job you are going to be doing. If you already know how to do the job, it should be a snap. (After all, haven't you seen 'way too many idiots work for the government'?) If you -don't- know exactly what you'll be doing, head to the library and look it up. You shouldn't necessarily trust any information you find online unless you know the source, a hard copy is always better!

(I swear, not an intentional advertisement...really.)

[caena]

When I took the clerk's exam for the County in which I live, the test was primarily general knowledge/customer service/ethics stuff. Alphabetization. Find the spelling errors. What would you do if someone wanted to wait for the boss in her office. How many paperclips can you acceptably steal from the County.

There were a few specific accounting questions (people applying for account clerk positions had to take the test), but I think that those questions were weighted less for non-accounting-applicants.

It was all multiple-choice.

A reasonably smart, observant person would have no trouble with the questions asked on that test.

I personally finished in an hour and a half (they allowed three) and I think my score was 97/100. Probably biffed the accounting ones.

[Unidin]

when i applied to work for the census i took the civil service exam, and it was really really easy. I scored like a 98%, and it was all very basic math and general knowledge questions.

[Kirstin Thornhill]

How did it go?

[Cigarskunk]

A bit uncertain -

First part was cake - basic math and english problems that reflected the job I was applying for.

Second section was equally as easy - basic reading comprehension, again, focused on the job that I would be doing - read these pages and then interpret the rules to the situations given.

The final part seemed too subjective for me to make a call on how I did though. This section was all people interaction style questions and was therefor rather subjective IMO. There was always one touchy, feely, idiot answer; one hardcore, no nonsense burocrat answer and sometimes even a practical answer that wasn't either of the above flavors.

Not knowing the bias of the person who wrote the test, I decided to just go with what I thought was the practical answer for each situation presented - that resulted in about 1/3 liberal, 1/3 burocrat and 1/3 other.

Even though the test was computerised and multiple guess, seeing as how it's being done by the government, it's going to take 2-4 weeks for me to get my results back - gotta wonder why they couldn't have had the computer take the nano-second to grade me when I hit the finished button and give me my results imediately?

[merkell]

I did this once.

Was in the top and only had to compete after the test against 5 other people and knew I was a shoo in because of my exp.

Well as usual my luck kicked in and they city decided to freeze hiring for that position.

[Cigarskunk]

Kinda pleasantly surprised - they got the results back to me in less than a week and a half - scored a 91 - guess I didn't guess some of those touchy/feely questions just right - no biggy - this should be more than enough to get me in.

[Cigarskunk]

Just got the best late Xmas present one could ask for - the job!

Yup, starting this Monday I am officially a beurocrat - anyone wishing to congradulate me please fill out form 19887-9 in triplicate and provide four forms of ID to verify that it's actually you congradulating me.

Now I'll finally be able to afford to upgrade my computer and get an internet service faster then dialup - just think, in another month or three I could be back on EQ and complaining about the lack of troll cultural cooking again.

[Inyidd]

Woohoo! It's been way too quiet here without you.

[Healblade]

What Inyidd said.

[KyrosKrane]

Welcome back in advance, oh Skunkish one!