Out of State Testing

I am from Cleveland, Ohio and I am interested in finding a firefighter career in either Vermont, Washington State, Oregon, or Utah.

My question is, "Must I be present at the testing area for the written exam?"

In other words, "Do I have to travel to where the test is being held to take it? Or can i arrange a test (from out of state) to be held here in Ohio?"

My concerns are more with Washington, Oregon, and Utah since that is pretty far away from Cleveland, Ohio.

I plan on working here in Ohio first to build up experience before I try to go out of state. I really could care less about traveling for the job interview/physical portion after the written exam. I am afraid to spend big bills and time on traveling just to take an exam.

Past experience would be very helpful! Any knowledge / tips are also appreciated.

"Do I have to travel to where the test is being held to take it?"

Yep. Try National Testing Network or one like it. They may have locations closer to you, but there are only the departments that use them available. Start saving your money for travel if you really want to work out west.

Yep get the travel budget going

Some will let you to both written an physical same day/weekend

I just got hired in Washington state from Arizona. NTN has a testing site in Columbus which is just a bit closer for you than WA. You can do the "written" & CPAT at the testing center and then send the results out to whichever departments happen to be accepting applications at the time, although I believe you might have to pay a bit extra for multiple applications being sent out. I ended up flying up to WA 4 times to finally solidify the job, for oral boards, background investigations, physicals & psych exams. That mostly depends on the department, but they might try to work with you, and schedule multiple events during a single trip for you.

Look into "Couch Surfing". It's a nation-wide network of people willing to give you the couch or sometimes a bed in their home for the evening. Pretty cool community, and saves a ton of money in hotel costs.