So You Want To Get Promoted

 In Articles
0
0

SO YOU WANT TO GET PROMOTED

• THE WRITTEN EXAMINATION

PART 1

Believe it or not, taking a promotional written examination brings on a state of nervousness for most of us.  We all worry about what to study, try to figure out how much time to spend on certain topics, how to develop an effective study program and all the other troubling thoughts that go through your mind.

A different way to approach this whole “fear of testing” anxiety is to take a different approach.  If you think about it, you are really preparing for a new job as well as preparing for the exam.  In fact, if you approach your study program with the intenetion it will help make you a competent and respected Engineer, Captain, BC, etc., the whole study program takes on a new dimension.  The purpose shifts from “passing the exam” to being able to address your new job responsibilities.  While you may find it hard to believe at this point, this approach actually makes studying easier!

Let’s discuss some of the reasons for being apprehensive about the exam.  Is it because you are?

  • Not prepared
  • Feeling a lot of peer pressure
  • Disappointed from previous examination results
  • Not familiar with the testing process
  • Going up against some “good test takers”, something you’ve never considered yourself one of

What’s interesting is that we all got “in shape” for the FD physical abilities test, and continue to prepare our bodies for triathlons, our baseball league, Fire and Police Olympics, so let’s analyze how to overcome the above concerns by developing a plan to get “in shape” for the written examination.  As firefighters, we are good at looking at problems, developing a plan and reaching a solution.  Let’s apply some of those same principles to preparing for an exam.

PREPARING FOR THE WRITTEN

The most important key to success when taking the promotional written exams is preparation. The best way to prepare is by developing a sound study plan. For many of you reading this article, a study plan brings to mind late nights going over all the books in the station library, reading and trying to memorize detail after minuscule detail, highlighting every line until your book is completely yellow, and developing hundreds of 3 x 5 cards with questions and answers.  And of course, there’s always the last frantic rush to cram a mass of facts into your short-term memory in order to be able to regurgitate it on exam day!  And the entire time, you’ve been wondering if you are reading the right material!

Here’s the good news. Studying includes all these aspects and a little more. What the “little more”, we are referring to is an organized approach for studying. This begins with developing a study schedule that is realistic, measurable and not all-time consuming. One of the keys to remember is that it’s more effective to long term retention and ultimate success to study one or two hours a day for one year, rather than cram for eight hours a day right before the exam.

There are four basic steps in a study program.

  • Purpose
  • Selection of the material
  • Effective reading
  • Review

PURPOSE AND SELECTION OF MATERIAL

Although we don’t think we have to remind you again, but you’re real purpose here is to be able to do your new job at a highly competent level.  To accomplish this, you must learn and retain enough material to pass the examination. Purposeful study demands distinguishing the most important material to concentrate on, then planning and organizing your study schedule around those areas.

Analyzing the testing process is also a factor, and will help to define important areas to focus on.  Research the history and trends of past exams and the current focus of your department.  Will the exam be an assessment center, or will it be the traditional written, oral and performance exam?  What have past exams focused on? Is the person or persons responsible for writing the exam a technical person or more focused on general concepts that pertain to the job?  Has the department provided a reading or booklist that the exam will be drawn from?  Do you have a clear grasp of department policies and procedures, especially those that may have been modified or added in the last two years?   And most importantly, have you remained aware of what has been going on in your organization during your career?  Do you read all the memos, special and general orders, department newsletters, and any other official or quasi-official documents?  These types of information sources are as important as the formal texts in the department library.

EFFECTIVE READING

Effective reading is the process of reading material and retaining the important concepts in order to both do well on the written examination and function proficiently at the job.  One of the best ways to accomplish effective reading is to utilize the concept of pre-reading, a technique that allows you to quickly examine the material in order to determine how much thorough reading you want to do.

Here’s how pre-reading works. Most authors write with a universal format of Introduction, body or content and summary. In other words an author will introduce what they are going to tell you (introduction), then they will tell you (body), and then they will tell you what they told you (summary)!  As a side note, if you are required to write an essay as part of your testing process, this is the same format you should use.

When pre-reading, you should read the introduction thoroughly, then read the first sentence of each remaining paragraph until you get to the summary. The final step is to read the summary carefully.  This methodology provides for an efficient means to go through a lot of material in a short period of time, allowing you to focus on the most important items to read thoroughly. 

The concept here is that the introduction provides an overview of the subject.  The first sentence of each paragraph is usually a topic sentence where the main thought of each paragraph is identified.  The remainder of the paragraph supports the main thought of that topic sentence.  Something to be aware of is that the topic sentence can be where a test writer may get material for their questions.  The summary will review the important topics in the material.

Pre-reading provides you with an efficient, effective method of evaluating the selection of study material.  By reading the introduction, topic sentence and summary you will have three exposures to the most important information within the material.  Pre-reading provides you with an advanced sampling of the article or chapter format and content.  This helps you to decide to read, skip or skim through the content.  Pre-reading is also an efficient means to review just prior to the examination.

It is essential to remember that pre-reading is not a substitute for thorough reading once the information that is important to you is identified.  In part two of this topic we will discuss the impact of peer pressure on the candidate, how to improve your test taking abilities and development of good reading habits, an effective study pattern and what to do on test day.