- POST dispatcher test
- The California POST Entry-Level Public Safety Dispatcher Selection Test Battery — a standardized aptitude test most CA agencies require to hire entry-level dispatchers.
- Test battery
- A set of separate tests scored together; the POST dispatcher battery is 11 short tests, each about 5–15 minutes long.
- Number of subtests
- 11 short tests, ranging from roughly 5 to 15 minutes each.
- Two answer formats
- 6 written multiple-choice tests + 5 audiotape tests; every one is answered in a written multiple-choice form.
- Written multiple-choice tests
- Reading Comprehension, Sentence Clarity, Evaluating Facts, Assigning Field Units, Setting Priorities, Checking Coded Information.
- Audiotape tests
- Public Safety Bulletin, Recalling Facts & Details, Call-Taking, Following Oral Directions, Checking & Listening.
- T-score
- The score scale the battery uses: mean = 50, standard deviation = 10. Higher is better; there is no fixed statewide passing score.
- Passing score
- There is no fixed statewide cutoff — each hiring agency sets its own minimum T-score. A 50 is exactly average by design.
- Commission Regulation 1957
- The POST regulation requiring entry-level dispatcher selection to demonstrate Verbal, Reasoning, Memory, and Perceptual abilities.
- Four abilities measured
- Verbal Ability, Reasoning, Memory, and Perceptual Ability — each of the 11 subtests maps to one of these.
- Selection test vs certification
- The POST dispatcher battery measures aptitude to do the job; it is NOT a certification of dispatch protocol knowledge.
- Instructions on the tape
- For all tests, instructions and timed start/stop points are read aloud on the audiotape.
- CritiCall
- A separate third-party dispatcher selection test some agencies use instead of the POST battery — always confirm which test your agency requires.
- Verbal Ability
- The ability to read and listen for facts, draw conclusions, and write clearly. Measured by Reading Comprehension and Sentence Clarity.
- Reading Comprehension
- A subtest where a written passage stays visible while you answer questions about its facts, interpretation, and supported conclusions.
- Reading Comprehension — passage visibility
- The passage remains in front of you, so it tests understanding and reasoning from text, not memory.
- Locating & combining details
- A Reading Comprehension skill: e.g., if an alarm logs at 11:42 p.m. and a unit is dispatched 2 minutes later, the dispatch time is 11:44 p.m.
- Supported conclusion
- On Reading Comprehension, choose only the conclusion the passage supports — never import outside knowledge.
- Sentence Clarity
- A subtest where you choose the clearer, more correctly written of two versions of the same sentence.
- Ambiguity (Sentence Clarity)
- A sentence that can be read more than one way is the weaker choice — clear, single-meaning writing wins.
- Dangling modifier
- A descriptive phrase that wrongly attaches to the wrong subject ('After interviewing the witness, the stolen vehicle was located'), creating two readings.
- Clarity vs brevity
- Clarity, not brevity, is the Sentence Clarity standard — a longer sentence or one with a pronoun can still be perfectly clear.
- Why dispatchers need clear writing
- Logs and reports must be acted on by other personnel without confusion, so unambiguous wording is essential.
- Gunshot-call policy (reading item)
- A reported gunshot is typically kept on the line until officers arrive, regardless of whether the caller sees the source — apply the stated policy to the facts.
- Reasoning
- The ability to apply rules to specific problems for logical answers and to order actions correctly. Measured by 4 subtests.
- Reasoning subtests
- Assigning Field Units, Evaluating Facts, Setting Priorities, and Following Oral Directions.
- Assigning Field Units
- Given written dispatch rules and a list of incidents, decide which units, if any, to assign to each incident.
- Assign no unit
- On Assigning Field Units, the correct answer is sometimes zero units — e.g., a non-emergency call during a declared unit shortage.
- Special rule overrides default
- On Assigning Field Units, a rule like 'medical emergencies always require two units' overrides a unit's usual non-emergency restriction.
- No reclassifying
- On Assigning Field Units, apply the rules exactly as written — you have no authority to reclassify a non-emergency as an emergency.
- Evaluating Facts
- Given a block of facts, judge each statement True, False, or Cannot be determined using only the supplied facts.
- True (Evaluating Facts)
- The given facts, chained together, logically support the statement.
- False (Evaluating Facts)
- The given facts contradict the statement (e.g., all burglaries were West; the officer was East-only → he didn't respond to one).
- Cannot be determined
- The Evaluating Facts answer when the facts neither prove nor disprove a statement — don't fill the gap with assumptions.
- Evaluating Facts trap
- The classic mistake is answering True or False from real-world reasoning when the supplied facts actually leave it undetermined.
- Setting Priorities
- Given a priority rule set and a group of events (usually three), rank them first, second, and third by urgency.
- Priority hierarchy
- Immediate threat to life > crime/hazard in progress with no injury > completed, non-urgent event.
- First-priority example
- A reported drowning (immediate life threat) outranks a shoplifter chase (crime in progress) and a garage burgled last night (completed).
- Read rules then rank
- On Setting Priorities, read the supplied rule set first, match each event to its category, then order the set.
- Following Oral Directions
- Hear an officer's recorded radio request; identify the tasks and carry them out in the exact order given.
- Order of tasks
- 'Run the plate first, then send a cover unit, then notify the supervisor' → the first action is to run the plate.
- Capture spoken identifiers
- On Following Oral Directions, capture the intersection, name, and time accurately the first time — there is no replay or transcript.
- Information ordering
- The reasoning skill of arranging actions in the correct sequence — central to Following Oral Directions.
- Memory
- The ability to store and retrieve facts and details. Measured by Public Safety Bulletin and Recalling Facts & Details — both no-notes.
- Public Safety Bulletin
- Study a shift bulletin for a brief timed period, then answer recall questions about its details after it is removed.
- Shift bulletin
- A briefing sheet of suspect descriptions, vehicle plates, and BOLOs that you must study and recall.
- BOLO
- Be On the LookOut — an alert describing a wanted person or vehicle that officers and dispatchers should watch for.
- Active rehearsal
- The winning Public Safety Bulletin strategy: rehearse specific details (names, plate characters, scars, clothing) during the study window.
- Only stated details
- On the Public Safety Bulletin, select only facts actually stated in the bulletin; plausible-sounding additions are distractors.
- Recalling Facts & Details
- An audiotaped simulated call plays once with no notes, then you answer recall questions about it from memory.
- No notes (memory subtests)
- On Public Safety Bulletin and Recalling Facts & Details, note-taking is not allowed — you answer from memory.
- Plays once, no replay
- On Recalling Facts & Details, the call plays a single time and cannot be replayed — rehearse facts as you hear them.
- Who / what / where / when
- The key facts to rehearse on Recalling Facts & Details: address, description, weapon, vehicle direction, time, callback number.
- Digit-transposition trap
- Memory distractors scramble digits (4127 vs 4172, plate BRT vs BTR) to test exact recall of a number or sequence.
- Paired-detail trap
- Distractors swap or negate one of two related details (red cap vs gray sweatshirt; breathing vs responding) — keep pairs distinct.
- Callback number
- The phone number obtained early in a call to re-establish contact if the line drops — a high-value detail to capture and recall.
- Perceptual Ability
- The ability to quickly and accurately compare letters and numbers and to shift between two sources at once. Measured by 3 subtests.
- Perceptual subtests
- Checking Coded Information, Checking & Listening, and Call-Taking.
- Checking Coded Information
- Hear a letter-number code aloud and find the exact matching code among five printed options.
- Side-by-side matching
- Checking Coded Information is matching, not memory — the printed options stay in front of you.
- Accelerating pace
- Checking Coded Information starts slow and speeds up, pressuring both speed and accuracy as a dispatcher's workload would rise.
- Perceptual speed
- How quickly and accurately you can compare and match symbols such as letters and numbers.
- Checking & Listening
- Compare a list against a HOT SHEET and flag matches while simultaneously keeping a radio log of unit-status broadcasts.
- Time-sharing
- Doing two tasks at once (radio log + HOT SHEET check) without losing accuracy on either — the core of Checking & Listening.
- HOT SHEET
- A printed list of stolen-vehicle plates and wanted persons that you compare incoming entries against on Checking & Listening.
- Radio log
- A written record of each field unit's changing status as broadcasts come in; kept during the Checking & Listening subtest.
- Lapse on either task
- On Checking & Listening, a lapse on either the radio log or the HOT SHEET comparison lowers your score.
- Call-Taking
- Take notes on three simulated emergency calls, then answer about 25 fact and interpretation questions about them.
- Notes allowed (Call-Taking)
- Unlike the memory subtests, Call-Taking permits written notes during the three calls.
- Keep calls distinct
- On Call-Taking, organize notes call-by-call so details stay separate and quick to find — any of the three calls can be questioned.
- Interpretation items
- Some Call-Taking questions ask you to interpret (e.g., the caller is a bystander with no prior connection), not just recall a fact.
- Note-taking format trap
- Memory tests forbid notes; Call-Taking allows them. Practicing each the right way avoids a costly test-day habit.
- Location first
- A dispatcher's first action is to confirm and verify the caller's location — units can still respond if the call drops.
- Stay on the line
- Policy often requires keeping serious-call callers (e.g., gunshots reported) on the line until officers arrive.
- Call type / problem nature
- After location, determine what's happening — police, fire, or medical — to prioritize and route the incident.
- Clear unit description
- Broadcast accurate suspect/vehicle descriptions so responding units act on correct information.
- Unit-status tracking
- The real-job basis of Checking & Listening: a dispatcher tracks each unit's changing status while handling other work.
- Standard deviation (T-score)
- On the T-score scale, the standard deviation is 10, so a score of 60 is one SD above the mean and 40 is one SD below.
- Mean T-score
- 50 by definition — the center of the distribution and the score of an average candidate.
- Score above 60
- More than one standard deviation above the mean — roughly the top 16% of candidates.
- Raw score vs T-score
- You aren't given a raw count of correct answers; performance is converted to and reported on the T-score scale.
- Agency-set cutoff
- Each hiring agency chooses its own minimum T-score, so the same score may pass at one agency and not another.
- Entry-level focus
- The battery is designed to predict aptitude for entry-level public-safety dispatcher work, not prior experience.
- Why audiotape format
- Five subtests use audio because real dispatch work is heavily auditory — listening accurately under time pressure is the job.
- All answers written
- Even the audiotape subtests are answered by marking a written multiple-choice response form.
- Drawing conclusions (verbal)
- Verbal Ability includes inferring what the passage or policy implies, not only retrieving an explicit fact.
- Pronoun clarity
- A pronoun isn't automatically wrong on Sentence Clarity — it's only weaker if its reference is ambiguous.
- Misplaced modifier vs dangling
- Both attach a phrase to the wrong word; the fix is to put the real doer of the action right next to the opening phrase.
- Passage-based time math
- Reading items often require simple arithmetic on stated times (log time + elapsed minutes = dispatch time).
- Listening + reading
- Verbal Ability covers both reading written information and listening to spoken information for facts and conclusions.
- Deductive application
- Reasoning subtests give a novel rule set you apply deductively to specific incidents — memorized real-world rules don't apply.
- Emergency vs non-emergency
- Assigning Field Units hinges on classifying each incident per the rules; the classification drives whether and how units respond.
- Unit shortage rule
- During a declared shortage a rule may permit only emergency incidents to receive a unit — non-emergencies get none.
- Code-based priority
- A rule set may rank by codes (Code 1 life threat, Code 2 property hazard, Code 3 non-urgent); apply the full hierarchy to the triad.
- Property-only fire
- A vacant building on fire with no one inside is a property hazard (lower) than an in-progress threat to a person's life.
- Completed crime priority
- A crime that already happened and ended (e.g., last-night burglary) is the lowest of three when ranked against active events.
- Sequencing spoken tasks
- Following Oral Directions tests doing the officer's requested tasks in the stated order, not the order that seems most urgent.
- Accuracy over speed (oral)
- Following Oral Directions is not scored on speed alone — capturing exact names, times, and locations correctly is what counts.
- Short-term retention
- The Public Safety Bulletin measures short-term retention of briefing information after the bulletin is removed.
- Descriptor recall
- Retain precise descriptors — scars, marks, height, clothing — exactly as briefed on the Public Safety Bulletin.
- Multiple detail types
- A bulletin can question any detail type (suspect descriptions, plates, a BOLO), so don't ignore any category while studying it.
- Auditory memory
- Recalling Facts & Details is a pure auditory-memory task — remembering what you heard with nothing written down.
- Address recall
- House numbers and unit identifiers (3B not B3) are common recall items — retain both the number and the letter in order.
- Direction-of-travel recall
- A suspect vehicle's heading (e.g., 'north toward the freeway') is a frequent recall item; keep the bearing exact.
- Count vs related detail
- Memory distractors confuse a count (three vehicles) with a nearby detail (one driver trapped) — keep them separate.
- Negated detail
- If a caller says 'armed with a knife, not a gun,' the gun is a deliberate trap — recall the detail the caller affirmed.
- Time-of-day recall
- Retain both the time and its a.m./p.m. designation (9:45 p.m.) — distractors flip the period or shift the minutes.
- Letter-string recall
- A plate's leading letters (BRT) must be held in exact order; distractors reorder the letters.
- Exact match required
- On Checking Coded Information you must find the single option that exactly matches the spoken code — a near-match is wrong.
- Speeded measure
- Checking Coded Information is a speeded test — accuracy is measured as the rate of presentation increases.
- Stay correct under load
- The accelerating perceptual subtests model the dispatcher's need to stay accurate as call volume and workload rise.
- Two sources at once
- Perceptual Ability includes shifting back and forth between two information sources — the basis of time-sharing.
- Flag matches
- On the checking task of Checking & Listening, you compare each working-list entry to the HOT SHEET and flag any that appear on it.
- Concurrent tasks
- On Checking & Listening the HOT SHEET check and the radio log run at the same time — they are not done one after the other.
- Three calls (Call-Taking)
- Call-Taking presents three back-to-back simulated emergency calls before its ~25 questions.
- Locate notes quickly
- On Call-Taking, being able to find a noted detail fast under time pressure is part of the perceptual-speed demand.
- Fact vs interpretation
- Call-Taking mixes straight fact recall from your notes with interpretation/conclusion items about the calls.
- Verify before other details
- Confirm and repeat the location before gathering the rest of the call, since it's the one fact that lets help arrive.
- Pre-arrival instructions
- A dispatcher relays safety instructions and gathers updates while units are en route, mirrored in the battery's scenarios.
- Documentation / logging
- Accurate radio logs and call records support continuity of care and protect the record — clear writing is the underlying skill.
- Bystander caller
- An interpretation answer drawn directly from what the caller said (e.g., 'I don't know him, just walking past') — not an assumption.
- Apply policy to facts
- Many items give a written policy and a new caller's facts; the right answer applies the policy as stated to those facts.
- No outside assumptions
- Across reasoning and memory items, answer from the given rules, facts, or recording — never from real-world guesses.
- Aptitude, not protocol
- The battery predicts whether you can learn the job, so it tests core skills rather than EMD protocols or agency codes.
- Budget by weakness
- With no fixed cutoff, a single weak ability can sink a strong T-score — drill the subtests you miss most.