How many books on your list?

[JT_Fire_2000]

How many books are on a reading list for your department? I had 7 books on my reading list for lt. and Capt. I've heard of a couple of places having 12 books with a 6 month window. Just curious if anyone here has to study that kind of volume.

[DeputyMarshal]

6 weeks notice; 8 books (none of which were in the firehouse prior to the exam announcement.) In other words, a.complete joke.

[ffmedcbk1]

my guys are studying now....
safety and survival on the fire ground
building construction for the fire service
street smart fire officer
customer service
effecive municiple management

lt's test in 6 weeks, 2 weeks in so far.

[CaptBob]

The written test can account for 30% to 50% of the total weight of the test. Getting a solid written score can give you a strong position going into the assessment center.

Many of the suggested books for the promotion written test have study guides available. Many of the questions on the test will be word for word right out of those study guides.

I took a written test for Captain. The top score was 135. I got a score of 112. I thought I failed. I was in second place. The guy in number one slot was a book smart person. We caught up with him in the rest of the assessment center because he didn’t have good presentation skills. He ended up third.

You can check on available study guides at the Alabama Fire College Book Store here: http://www.alabamafirecollege.org/davispubs.htm

[CaptBob]

Many have had this experience after jamming through all the study material:

While taking the written test, you can’t believe your agency, or the testing firm they hired for big bucks, could know so little about the fire service and put together such an irrelevant test. The major areas that were listed as material to study on the announcement didn’t have one question on the test. Talk about a dog and pony show.

Several candidates, including you, protest test questions. One you protest, you already had right. Weeks pass. Even though the Personnel Department knows the test scores within days of the test they finally release the results three weeks later. You’re not number one. You’re not at the bottom either. You are in the upper end of the pack in the middle. You’re in the Olympic camp. All you have to do is make the cut.

After investing all this time and money for the written test that can be weighted only thirty or forty percent of the total score, most candidates do little or nothing preparing for the remaining sixty percent in the assessment center interview process.

[paulLepore]

I had twenty books or policy manuals on my Captains test at a big city metro department. I studied for one solid year. I highlighted the material and then made index cards from my highlights. What I learned is that if I did not highlight the fact or figure I never saw it again as I only studied my index cards. This was a mistake. Another challenge for me is that the exam got postponed twice. I peaked too early with my studying. After the second postponement I just wanted to be done with the exam. You needed to be in the top 50% of the people who took the exam.

Recently I took an outside Division Chief exam (my current job). We were given ten days to study 4 books - Fire Chiefs handbook, the FOG (field operations guide), Brunacini Fire Command, and IFSTA Company Officer. You needed to be in the top 10 out of 35 who applied. I purchased the Rapid Fire and studied 200 questions per day for 10 days. Although none of the exact questions were on the test, I found it a good way to retain the information.

[JT_Fire_2000]

20 books is really high volume. It seems that the average is about 5-10 from the people I talk to. Thanks for the input, it appeased my curiosity.