RISING STAR ! The ultimate source to ace your NYPD Sergeant, Lieutenant, and Captain Exam Visit www.RisingStarPromotion.com to order our questions specifically designed for maximum retention of the Patrol Guide--plus full-length exams!
This notice is being sent to all candidates who took the exam for Sergeant (Police) #3539 in response to concerns that some candidates expressed about the inclusion of research questions and the amount of time provided for the test. Information about these questions and the exam time was delivered before the exam as follows:
The email blast sent by DCAS on 9/30/2013 and the NYPD FINEST MESSAGE sent on 10/03/2013 included the following:
"The multiple-choice test will contain additional questions which will be used for research purposes only. These questions will not count toward your test score and will not be included in the protest review process. However, you should answer all questions in the test booklet. "
Also, the Admission Notice mailed to all candidates on 10/4/2013 included:
"Test Length: ONE SESSION OF 6 HOURS"
"The Test Length includes time for fingerprinting candidates, answering all questions including those that are for research purposes only, and documenting the test material that has been received by all candidates."
Finally, the instructions on the cover of the test booklet on the day of the test (10/19/2013) included:
"Time Allowed: 6 hours"
"TEST BOOKLET: This booklet has 100 questions - all of equal weight and an additional 30 questions distributed throughout the test that are for research purposes only. These research questions will not count toward your test score, and therefore, will not be included in the protest review process. However, you should answer all questions in the test booklet prior to the end of the test."
The above information was given to help you pace yourself in answering all of the questions. Although the research questions do not count toward your Exam #3539 test score, they are important to the development of future Police promotion exams. They were distributed throughout the booklet and not identified so that candidates would answer them with the same level of motivation as any other test question. This is necessary and standard research practice, just as is done in many college and military school entrance exams and professional licensing exams. The time limit of six hours was considered appropriate based on experience with prior Sergeant and other uniformed services exams.
We hope that this information has helped to clarify any questions you may have regarding the administration of this exam.
True wingnut, but what irritates me is the fact that why not include that there was going to be 130 on the first email? This is DCAS way on promoting who they want. But congrats on all that did good on the exam.
PAPERANDPENCIL MULTIPLECHOICE TEST PROTEST PROCEDURES
At the test site, you will be provided with a Candidate's Record of Answers to record, for your own personal use, the responses that you make on your Official Answer Sheet for the test. The Candidates' Record of Answers also contains instructions for requesting to attend the Protest Review Session (PRS), and the procedures for creating and submitting protests. Proposed Key Answers will be published on the Department of Citywide Administrative Services (DCAS) website on the fifth (5th) Monday after the date of your test. The PRS will be held on the fifth (5th) Wednesday following the date of your test. If you wish to attend the PRS, you must submit a request to attend the PRS. A PRS appointment letter will then be mailed to you to confirm the date, time, and location of your PRS. If you do not receive an appointment letter at least four (4) days before your PRS, you must go to the Examining Service Section, 1 Centre Street, 14th Floor, Room 1448, New York, NY 10007.
You are not permitted to enter PRSs with cellular phones, beepers, pagers, cameras, portable media players, or other electronic devices. Calculators are permitted at PRSs; however, they must be hand held, battery or solar powered, numeric only. Electronic devices with an alphabetic keyboard or with word processing or data recording capabilities such as planners, organizers, etc, are prohibited. If you are found to be in possession of any of these devices, your test score may be nullified, you may not receive your test results, and your application fee will not be refunded.
Please bring your PRS appointment letter, your Candidates Record of Answers (or a copy of your Official Answer Sheet), black or blue ink ballpoint pens, and photo identification (e.g., Drivers or NonDrivers License) to the PRS. A copy of your Official Answer Sheet may be obtained from DCAS Record Room, located at 1 Centre Street, 14th Floor, Room 1448, New York, NY 10007. Requests may be made by mail or inperson, but requests should be made as soon as possible, to allow time for processing.
At the PRS, you will be allowed to review the test and its Proposed Key Answers to assist you in submitting protests against the tests Proposed Key Answers. You must appear inperson; you may not bring with you, or have present, any other person at the PRS. You may bring any reference materials you wish, but you may not bring any handwritten notes. In no case will you be allowed to remove from our premises any materials relating to the test content, or any notes that you may make during the PRS. You may not reschedule your PRS.
If you decide to submit a protest to any Proposed Key Answer, you must include a statement explaining why the answer you selected is as good as or better than the Proposed Key Answer. You may also include additional evidence supporting that statement. Protests may be prepared and submitted at the PRS, and/or they may be submitted by mail. Protests will not be accepted inperson after the PRS, but you may mail in protests postmarked within thirty (30) days of the date of your PRS. Those thirty (30) days are known as the protest period.
After the protest period is over, a Test Validation Board (TVB) consisting of representatives of the employing agency(ies), bargaining unit (i.e., union) and DCAS, Bureau of Examinations is convened to review all protests. The TVB is empowered by Section 50A of the New York State Civil Service Law, to change key answers, allow duplicate or multiple answers, or delete items from the test. After all protests are reviewed, the TVB prepares a report detailing its findings. After the eligible list has been established, all candidates who submitted protests will be called in to read the TVB Reports. The determinations made by the TVB are binding. Therefore, no further changes will be entertained.
IMPORTANT: Unless otherwise indicated, the publishing of Proposed Key Answers, and the administration of Protest Review Sessions (PRSs), will follow the processes described above.
soccerpsyco32 wrote: Actually the time is documented on your certificate of attendance and the seat roster maintained by the proctor.
Fair enough, I hadn't thought about that, but then you have to call into question if they even tracked actually cataloged that AND correlated the scores with completion time and took an average of the times for people that actually passed the exam. Otherwise, you have people that just went in for the free day off and attendance slip and just ABACADABA-ed the exam in under an hour.
Personally, I don't think it was tracked. If it wasn't on your scantron answer sheet, it wasn't tracked. And I don't recall ever seeing a proctor bubbling in a sheet and I don't think they would do this by hand.
Plus this is sort of paradoxical. They allegedly used research/experience from previous exams.... in order to lengthen the exam to conduct...research and get experience?
On a more whiny note, the more I think about how the promotional system is designed in our department, the more I get annoyed. You have DCAS (non-UMOS) people that have never been cops before writing and administering an exam that is nearly 100% responsible for who gets promoted on a job they can't possibly even begin to comprehend until they walk in our shoes... Seriously, that is some MESSED up stuff when it boils down to it.
-- Edited by bngeek on Tuesday 19th of November 2013 09:10:02 AM
Bngeek. You have a great point. Let's pretend for a second that dcas does track the time from previous exams. If 20 percent go in for a free day or from my experience of taking 2 prior sergeants test which I didn't study for at all, I would quickly read the question and just pick an answer. There was no analysis of the questions or answers. on both of those test I was able to do the inbasket in 1 hour and the entire test in less than 4 hours. On this test I studied 2 -3 hours a day for 7 months and it took me 6 hours to answer 105 questions. If dcas factored in all the people that took past sgt exams and said on the average they complete the test in 4hrs then they wouldn't be getting an accurate picture of how long it takes to complete the test if you studied. I spoke to 6 people who scored at least an 80 on the 2011 sgt exam 2 of them took the entire 6 hours. 2 of them took over 5 hours and 1 took 4.5-5 hours only 1 person told me he was able to complete the test in a little over four hours. Doing 130 questions in 6 hours is like doing 100 in 4 hours to 4.5 hours. If dcas does record the time we took to complete the sgt exam I would love to see the statistical breakdown of who scored what and in how much time. I think dcas made an error in telling us that this test was based upon previous exams and they felt that we can answer 130 questions in 6 hours. They should have said that they wanted to make the test more challenging. Dcas also failed to factor in the fact that the longer you read and the more questions you do the more fatigued your brain gets and the less likely your fully concentrating on all the details of the question. I spoke to people who said that on previous exams They would take a 10 minute break every 2 hours to relax their mind. You couldn't do that on this test. I had to hold my piss in for 2 hours because I didn't want to waste a single minute. How the f**k can dcas say this test is equivalent to past sgt exams. This test should not be about time. In the past I never heard of someone saying they didn't have enough time to finish the test. This time around 1/3 of the people in my command felt rushed which lead them to just quickly read the question and answer with minimal analysis or other people who just ran out of time leaving questions unanswered.
-- Edited by jaribu on Tuesday 19th of November 2013 10:20:37 AM
-- Edited by jaribu on Tuesday 19th of November 2013 10:23:05 AM
The time limit of six hours was considered appropriate based on experience with prior Sergeant and other uniformed services exams.
Experience with prior exams? Hmmm... as far as I know, there have never been research questions, so it can't be based off experience on that.
And as far as I know, they do not document/record the amount of time it takes for people to complete the exam. So upon what criteria was it determined that a 30% lengthening of the exam without a corresponding increase in time allotted was appropriate?
see this is misleading unless I'm not reading it correctly because its stating that the protective answer key will be posted online ?
"Proposed Key Answers will be published on the Department of Citywide Administrative Services (DCAS) website on the fifth (5th) Monday after the date of your test."
someone correct me if i am wrong, because on that green paper didn't it say they wouldn't be posting the answer key?
Allycat. The green paper does says that they won't be posting the answer key online. It's all the way at they bottom of our answers. It's says the only way to find out to to attend the protest.
The time limit of six hours was considered appropriate based on experience with prior Sergeant and other uniformed services exams.
Experience with prior exams? Hmmm... as far as I know, there have never been research questions, so it can't be based off experience on that.
And as far as I know, they do not document/record the amount of time it takes for people to complete the exam. So upon what criteria was it determined that a 30% lengthening of the exam without a corresponding increase in time allotted was appropriate?
Actually the time is documented on your certificate of attendance and the seat roster maintained by the proctor.
Guys, there is too many rumors going around, anybody here reliable can update us on what is going to really happen?? We have to definitely do something about this, there is a reason why they send this CYA letter, something is happening that we don't know...
Guys, there is too many rumors going around, anybody here reliable can update us on what is going to really happen?? We have to definitely do something about this, there is a reason why they send this CYA letter, something is happening that we don't know...
I couldn't agree more! Sad part is that we have to trust DCAS that the 30 questions were predetermined x amount of time ago.
Bosses from the job write a pool of questions and dcas picks questions from that pool. Dcas does not WRITE the exam. They ADMINISTER the exam.
Yeah, OMAP writes it I suppose but the effect is the same. DCAS gets the final say on what goes into the exam and chooses how to administer the exam. That's a lot of influence and power over our department granted to an outside agency with no policing experience.
I would love to see how many questions will be on the captains test this Saturday . If they get 100 questions in 6 hours I see a judge easily throwing out this test
First off, most of you guys are spewing garbage and lies. I can't believe you guys are still bitching and moaning, get over it ! This test will NOT be thrown out.The capts test could have 10 questions it doesn't matter ! DCAS covered their ass end of story. Get over it ! This test will not be held up, get over it ! Next time read the instructions. This job is amazing with the amount of cops that bitch over everything. Was it fair ? No. Did they do something wrong, no! Get over it !
Approximately two minutes and 47 seconds per multiple choice question is not unreasonable.
The in-basket took me two hours alone as I went painstakingly slow through the documents. I took three bathroom/stretch breaks, stopped to eat a PB&J sandwich, stopped again for a snack, and went thoroughly over the 32 questions I was less than sure about, and finished in about 5:05.
Every document DCAS put out to us was correct. They went above and beyond to reiterate what the instructions stated by sending out yesterday's e-mail.
That Email wAs basically DCAS' way of telling you
A)nothing will change... The test is not getting thrown out, you can't protest that there were 30 extra questions, etc
B)man up and get the sand out of your vaginas
I took the key class taught by a two star chief, a person in charge of all police training and the academy. When asked about the additional questions he seemed clueless and says the research questions should be survey style And should be at the begining or end of the test. If he didn't have a hand in this who then. Who from the Nypd would have know about 30 extra questions and sanctioned them.
-- Edited by jaribu on Wednesday 20th of November 2013 11:14:05 PM
That Email wAs basically DCAS' way of telling you A)nothing will change... The test is not getting thrown out, you can't protest that there were 30 extra questions, etc B)man up and get the sand out of your vaginas
That Email wAs basically DCAS' way of telling you A)nothing will change... The test is not getting thrown out, you can't protest that there were 30 extra questions, etc B)man up and get the sand out of your vaginas
Stig where the hell ya been? you get promoted yet?
FOR ALL OF YOU THAT DONT KNOW THIS DUDE HE IS THE VOICE OF TRUTH HE MAY COME OFF ASS A JERK BUT HE KNOWS HIS SHYT.
man o man.. that would make sense in a perfect world. I just looked at my shield and noticed it said CITY OF NEW YORK, we all know not a damn thing makes sense in this city.
Just spoke to someone at dcas and she said it was the NYPD decision to give 130 questions in the 6 hours
Both NYPD and DCAS must agree on it.
ABSOLUTELY NOT TRUE. NYPD has nothing to do with how DCAS administers the exam. I guarantee you that this job was just as surprised as everyone who took this exam
It is absolutely true. ask anyone from DCAS at the protest. They both have to agree on it.
What are you expecting from the DCAS people at the protest?
What you are going to get are clueless, tooth sucking, workfare minimum wage city employees, who most likely hates you and voted for Warren Wilhelm DeBlasio.
does anyone know if dcas will post the exam answers on there website? I heard that it will be posted the 5th Monday following the exam. did anyone else hear that?
does anyone know if dcas will post the exam answers on there website? I heard that it will be posted the 5th Monday following the exam. did anyone else hear that?
NYPD Captains exam : 100 questions in 6 hours. Can anyone explain to me how dcas thought it was appropriate to tell police officer that The time limit of six hours was considered appropriate based on experience with prior Sergeant and other uniformed services exams, when in the last 25 years of about 25 promotional exams with the nypd, all being 100 questions and 6 hours they give us an exam where we basically have a test that is 1/3 longer or another way of looking at it is we had 1/3 less time to complete the exam based on the number of questions. Then just 1 week after sending us that bullsh**t email they go and give the Lieutenants an exam where they have 6 hours to do 100 questions. Any reasonable person or judge would find what DCAS did as completely unfair.
What we need to start realizing is that in the world of the NYPD and the City of New York, we, the rank of POLICE OFFICERS are bottom feeders and they will treat us like that. Our treatment is very different then those of higher ranks..To the NYPD and City of New York we haven't earned anything cause are lips are not on the upper echelons and City's Johnsons. DCAS knows this. They used us as lab rats because the rank of Police Officer is detested by all.
hopefully they hand out a key and someone reliable posts it up... 
