Firefighter Test Tosses Hopefuls A Few Curves

By GINGER ADAMS OTIS

The Department of Citywide Administrative Services altered its long-standing policy of allowing civil service job applicants to leave exams with copies of their answers during the Jan. 20 test for the job of Firefighter.

According to several applicants who took the exam, it also added a section of questions that sought to establish how a candidate would respond to a given situation - applicants were asked to rate possible responses with variations of agreeing, disagreeing or in some cases strongly disagreeing.

Will Mail Test Keys

DCAS officials didn't explain why candidates weren't allowed to take copies of their exam responses home with them, but confirmed that a record of their answers would instead be mailed directly to applicants' home addresses.

Along with a copy of a proposed master answer key, applicants will get a letter explaining how to file answer protests, and the deadline for registering complaints. DCAS officials said letters will be mailed at the end of February.

Candidates will have the opportunity to appear on a specific date to review exam questions. By law, all protests must be reviewed by a panel of subject-matter experts.

Traditionally DCAS has permitted applicants for civil service positions to bring copies of their answers home so they can get a sense of how they performed.

DCAS officials didn't clarify whether the new procedure would be implemented for all future civil service exams or pertained only to the Firefighter test that was given Jan. 20.

DCAS spokesman Mark Daly said the Firefighter exam was administered at 15 sites around the city and that thousands lined up for both the 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. sessions.

Big Change of Pace

The altered protest procedure was one of many new developments Firefighter candidates discovered as they sat down to answer the approximately 190 questions.

Several applicants contacted this newspaper to talk about a set of questions-and-answers that was significantly different from what they'd been led to expect.

"I'd say that of the nearly 200 questions, only about 45 covered the topics I expected to see based on what I'd been told in the study sessions," said one young hopeful, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

"The memorization part was exactly what I'd been told it would be, and the 45 other questions were fairly straightforward. But there was a speed section that we hadn't been told about, and then about 100 questions that seemed to have more than one answer - they were behavioral-type questions, is how I would describe them," the candidate added.

Grading Concerns

Applicants expressed confusion about how the tests would be graded. Since the FDNY last summer announced that it was adopting a new physical exam - the Candidate Physical Ability Test - which scores applicants as a pass/fail, the final ranking on the hiring list is determined solely by the written exam.

In its notice of examination, DCAS indicated that it had included new content. It contained the expected topics of written comprehension, memorization, deductive and inductive reasoning, information ordering, spatial orientation, visualization and problem sensitivity.

But new sections also contained questions testing number facility, conceptual speed, adaptability, tenacity, integrity, work standards, resilience, coordination, and "establishing and maintaining personal relationships."

Examples of questions provided by applicants included one involving a Probationary Firefighter who didn't properly clean a tool after responding to a fire.

Gauging Responses

"The possible answers were things like, 'Would you scream at the Firefighter? Would you try and talk to the Firefighter? Would you report the Firefighter? Would you clean the tool yourself?''' recounted one candidate.

He continued: "But you didn't just select the answer you thought best - you had to grade each possibility with Strongly Agree, Agree, Am Neutral, Disagree, or Strongly Disagree. What's the difference between Disagree and Strongly Disagree, for example? Am I going to receive a couple of points less because I didn't strongly disagree with something?"

Another scenario involved a firefighter being sent into the street to close down a hydrant on a hot summer day. Candidates were asked to rate possible interactions with community residents. Choices included waving tools in a threatening manner, ignoring the command because the residents would only turn it back on anyway, or explaining that keeping hydrants closed was crucial in maintaining adequate water flow in all parts of the city.

DCAS Not Explaining

DCAS officials didn't respond to requests for comment on how the testing material had been developed or how it would be graded. FDNY officials said they had no knowledge of the test's questions.

One agency source suggested, however, that queries about the test content - as well as complaints about unprofessional proctoring and logistical delays that left candidates waiting outside for hours after scheduled exam start times - were coming from candidates who felt they hadn't performed well and were hoping to discredit the process so tests would be held again.

An FDNY official also theorized that the new material was designed to better evaluate a candidate's communication skills. Such skills are increasingly relevant in a firefighting force that spends far less time fighting fires than it did 30 years ago and much more time handling medical and other emergency calls that require interaction with the public.