Your FREE 911 Dispatcher Flashcards 2026 – 100+ Cards

The ability to read and listen for facts, draw conclusions, and write clearly. Measured by Reading Comprehension and Sentence Clarity.

A subtest where a written passage stays visible while you answer questions about its facts, interpretation, and supported conclusions.

The passage remains in front of you, so it tests understanding and reasoning from text, not memory.

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.

On Reading Comprehension, choose only the conclusion the passage supports — never import outside knowledge.

A subtest where you choose the clearer, more correctly written of two versions of the same sentence.

A sentence that can be read more than one way is the weaker choice — clear, single-meaning writing wins.

A descriptive phrase that wrongly attaches to the wrong subject ('After interviewing the witness, the stolen vehicle was located'), creating two readings.

Clarity, not brevity, is the Sentence Clarity standard — a longer sentence or one with a pronoun can still be perfectly clear.

Logs and reports must be acted on by other personnel without confusion, so unambiguous wording is essential.

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.

Policy often requires keeping serious-call callers (e.g., gunshots reported) on the line until officers arrive.

Verbal Ability includes inferring what the passage or policy implies, not only retrieving an explicit fact.

A pronoun isn't automatically wrong on Sentence Clarity — it's only weaker if its reference is ambiguous.

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.

Reading items often require simple arithmetic on stated times (log time + elapsed minutes = dispatch time).

Verbal Ability covers both reading written information and listening to spoken information for facts and conclusions.

A dispatcher relays safety instructions and gathers updates while units are en route, mirrored in the battery's scenarios.

Accurate radio logs and call records support continuity of care and protect the record — clear writing is the underlying skill.

Many items give a written policy and a new caller's facts; the right answer applies the policy as stated to those facts.

The ability to apply rules to specific problems for logical answers and to order actions correctly. Measured by 4 subtests.

Assigning Field Units, Evaluating Facts, Setting Priorities, and Following Oral Directions.

Given written dispatch rules and a list of incidents, decide which units, if any, to assign to each incident.

On Assigning Field Units, the correct answer is sometimes zero units — e.g., a non-emergency call during a declared unit shortage.

On Assigning Field Units, a rule like 'medical emergencies always require two units' overrides a unit's usual non-emergency restriction.

On Assigning Field Units, apply the rules exactly as written — you have no authority to reclassify a non-emergency as an emergency.

Given a block of facts, judge each statement True, False, or Cannot be determined using only the supplied facts.

The given facts, chained together, logically support the statement.

The given facts contradict the statement (e.g., all burglaries were West; the officer was East-only → he didn't respond to one).

The Evaluating Facts answer when the facts neither prove nor disprove a statement — don't fill the gap with assumptions.

The classic mistake is answering True or False from real-world reasoning when the supplied facts actually leave it undetermined.

Given a priority rule set and a group of events (usually three), rank them first, second, and third by urgency.

Immediate threat to life > crime/hazard in progress with no injury > completed, non-urgent event.

A reported drowning (immediate life threat) outranks a shoplifter chase (crime in progress) and a garage burgled last night (completed).

On Setting Priorities, read the supplied rule set first, match each event to its category, then order the set.

Hear an officer's recorded radio request; identify the tasks and carry them out in the exact order given.

'Run the plate first, then send a cover unit, then notify the supervisor' → the first action is to run the plate.

On Following Oral Directions, capture the intersection, name, and time accurately the first time — there is no replay or transcript.

The reasoning skill of arranging actions in the correct sequence — central to Following Oral Directions.

A dispatcher's first action is to confirm and verify the caller's location — units can still respond if the call drops.

After location, determine what's happening — police, fire, or medical — to prioritize and route the incident.

Reasoning subtests give a novel rule set you apply deductively to specific incidents — memorized real-world rules don't apply.

Assigning Field Units hinges on classifying each incident per the rules; the classification drives whether and how units respond.

During a declared shortage a rule may permit only emergency incidents to receive a unit — non-emergencies get none.

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.

A vacant building on fire with no one inside is a property hazard (lower) than an in-progress threat to a person's life.

A crime that already happened and ended (e.g., last-night burglary) is the lowest of three when ranked against active events.

Following Oral Directions tests doing the officer's requested tasks in the stated order, not the order that seems most urgent.

Following Oral Directions is not scored on speed alone — capturing exact names, times, and locations correctly is what counts.

Confirm and repeat the location before gathering the rest of the call, since it's the one fact that lets help arrive.

Across reasoning and memory items, answer from the given rules, facts, or recording — never from real-world guesses.

The ability to store and retrieve facts and details. Measured by Public Safety Bulletin and Recalling Facts & Details — both no-notes.

Study a shift bulletin for a brief timed period, then answer recall questions about its details after it is removed.

A briefing sheet of suspect descriptions, vehicle plates, and BOLOs that you must study and recall.

Be On the LookOut — an alert describing a wanted person or vehicle that officers and dispatchers should watch for.

The winning Public Safety Bulletin strategy: rehearse specific details (names, plate characters, scars, clothing) during the study window.

On the Public Safety Bulletin, select only facts actually stated in the bulletin; plausible-sounding additions are distractors.

An audiotaped simulated call plays once with no notes, then you answer recall questions about it from memory.

On Public Safety Bulletin and Recalling Facts & Details, note-taking is not allowed — you answer from memory.

On Recalling Facts & Details, the call plays a single time and cannot be replayed — rehearse facts as you hear them.

The key facts to rehearse on Recalling Facts & Details: address, description, weapon, vehicle direction, time, callback number.

Memory distractors scramble digits (4127 vs 4172, plate BRT vs BTR) to test exact recall of a number or sequence.

Distractors swap or negate one of two related details (red cap vs gray sweatshirt; breathing vs responding) — keep pairs distinct.

The phone number obtained early in a call to re-establish contact if the line drops — a high-value detail to capture and recall.

The Public Safety Bulletin measures short-term retention of briefing information after the bulletin is removed.

Retain precise descriptors — scars, marks, height, clothing — exactly as briefed on the Public Safety Bulletin.

A bulletin can question any detail type (suspect descriptions, plates, a BOLO), so don't ignore any category while studying it.

Recalling Facts & Details is a pure auditory-memory task — remembering what you heard with nothing written down.

House numbers and unit identifiers (3B not B3) are common recall items — retain both the number and the letter in order.

A suspect vehicle's heading (e.g., 'north toward the freeway') is a frequent recall item; keep the bearing exact.

Memory distractors confuse a count (three vehicles) with a nearby detail (one driver trapped) — keep them separate.

If a caller says 'armed with a knife, not a gun,' the gun is a deliberate trap — recall the detail the caller affirmed.

Retain both the time and its a.m./p.m. designation (9:45 p.m.) — distractors flip the period or shift the minutes.

A plate's leading letters (BRT) must be held in exact order; distractors reorder the letters.

The ability to quickly and accurately compare letters and numbers and to shift between two sources at once. Measured by 3 subtests.

Checking Coded Information, Checking & Listening, and Call-Taking.

Hear a letter-number code aloud and find the exact matching code among five printed options.

Checking Coded Information is matching, not memory — the printed options stay in front of you.

Checking Coded Information starts slow and speeds up, pressuring both speed and accuracy as a dispatcher's workload would rise.

How quickly and accurately you can compare and match symbols such as letters and numbers.

Compare a list against a HOT SHEET and flag matches while simultaneously keeping a radio log of unit-status broadcasts.

Doing two tasks at once (radio log + HOT SHEET check) without losing accuracy on either — the core of Checking & Listening.

A printed list of stolen-vehicle plates and wanted persons that you compare incoming entries against on Checking & Listening.

A written record of each field unit's changing status as broadcasts come in; kept during the Checking & Listening subtest.

On Checking & Listening, a lapse on either the radio log or the HOT SHEET comparison lowers your score.

Take notes on three simulated emergency calls, then answer about 25 fact and interpretation questions about them.

Unlike the memory subtests, Call-Taking permits written notes during the three calls.

On Call-Taking, organize notes call-by-call so details stay separate and quick to find — any of the three calls can be questioned.

Some Call-Taking questions ask you to interpret (e.g., the caller is a bystander with no prior connection), not just recall a fact.

Memory tests forbid notes; Call-Taking allows them. Practicing each the right way avoids a costly test-day habit.

Broadcast accurate suspect/vehicle descriptions so responding units act on correct information.

The real-job basis of Checking & Listening: a dispatcher tracks each unit's changing status while handling other work.

On Checking Coded Information you must find the single option that exactly matches the spoken code — a near-match is wrong.

Checking Coded Information is a speeded test — accuracy is measured as the rate of presentation increases.

The accelerating perceptual subtests model the dispatcher's need to stay accurate as call volume and workload rise.

Perceptual Ability includes shifting back and forth between two information sources — the basis of time-sharing.

On the checking task of Checking & Listening, you compare each working-list entry to the HOT SHEET and flag any that appear on it.

On Checking & Listening the HOT SHEET check and the radio log run at the same time — they are not done one after the other.

Call-Taking presents three back-to-back simulated emergency calls before its ~25 questions.

On Call-Taking, being able to find a noted detail fast under time pressure is part of the perceptual-speed demand.

Call-Taking mixes straight fact recall from your notes with interpretation/conclusion items about the calls.

An interpretation answer drawn directly from what the caller said (e.g., 'I don't know him, just walking past') — not an assumption.

The California POST Entry-Level Public Safety Dispatcher Selection Test Battery — a standardized aptitude test most CA agencies require to hire entry-level dispatchers.

A set of separate tests scored together; the POST dispatcher battery is 11 short tests, each about 5–15 minutes long.

11 short tests, ranging from roughly 5 to 15 minutes each.

6 written multiple-choice tests + 5 audiotape tests; every one is answered in a written multiple-choice form.

Reading Comprehension, Sentence Clarity, Evaluating Facts, Assigning Field Units, Setting Priorities, Checking Coded Information.

Public Safety Bulletin, Recalling Facts & Details, Call-Taking, Following Oral Directions, Checking & Listening.

The score scale the battery uses: mean = 50, standard deviation = 10. Higher is better; there is no fixed statewide passing score.

There is no fixed statewide cutoff — each hiring agency sets its own minimum T-score. A 50 is exactly average by design.

The POST regulation requiring entry-level dispatcher selection to demonstrate Verbal, Reasoning, Memory, and Perceptual abilities.

Verbal Ability, Reasoning, Memory, and Perceptual Ability — each of the 11 subtests maps to one of these.

The POST dispatcher battery measures aptitude to do the job; it is NOT a certification of dispatch protocol knowledge.

For all tests, instructions and timed start/stop points are read aloud on the audiotape.

A separate third-party dispatcher selection test some agencies use instead of the POST battery — always confirm which test your agency requires.

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.

50 by definition — the center of the distribution and the score of an average candidate.

More than one standard deviation above the mean — roughly the top 16% of candidates.

You aren't given a raw count of correct answers; performance is converted to and reported on the T-score scale.

Each hiring agency chooses its own minimum T-score, so the same score may pass at one agency and not another.

The battery is designed to predict aptitude for entry-level public-safety dispatcher work, not prior experience.

Five subtests use audio because real dispatch work is heavily auditory — listening accurately under time pressure is the job.

Even the audiotape subtests are answered by marking a written multiple-choice response form.

The battery predicts whether you can learn the job, so it tests core skills rather than EMD protocols or agency codes.

With no fixed cutoff, a single weak ability can sink a strong T-score — drill the subtests you miss most.