What Are Civil Service Tests? The term 'civil service test' are tests you take in order to qualify for a government job. These positions may be at the city, county, state, or federal level. Civil service jobs encompass a wide variety of occupations, in every field from administration to zoology. However, not every government job is a civil service job. For some government positions, a person must run for office and win an election. For others, a person must be appointed or recommended by someone in office, and in many cases he/she must be approved or confirmed by an official government agency or board before moving into the position.
Most government jobs, though, are filled through a regular hiring process. When a job opening comes up, it is made public, on government bulletin boards and websites and possibly in local newspapers. In most cases, the job listing will provide an idea of the salary or wage the job offers, and it will also list the minimum requirements a person must have to apply. If an exam is required as part of the application process, this information will also be included. These exams are also known as civil service tests.
You should know that not all civil service positions are referred to as civil service jobs. Sometimes these positions are simply known as 'municipal jobs,' 'state jobs,' 'county employment,' etc. No matter the title, all civil service jobs have two things in common—they are government jobs, and taking some sort of exam is part of the application process.
There are two broad categories of civil service exams—competitive and noncompetitive. On noncompetitive tests, everyone who achieves the minimum passing score or higher will be placed into a pool of people eligible to be hired, on an equal ranking. In other words, if you score a 95 on an exam that requires a passing score of 70, and the person next to you scores a 75, you will both be placed on the eligibility list on an equal footing. Your 95 won't give you an advantage over the person with the 75. On competitive exams, the opposite is true—people who score higher are ranked above those with lower scores. Those with the highest scores are first in line for the next step in the hiring process.
Why Do We Have Civil Service Tests? Why do people applying for government jobs have to take a test? There are several good reasons for civil service exams. One of the main ones is to prevent 'cronyism,' or government officials using their power to give jobs to friends, family members, or anyone else they choose. Cronyism is bad because it's unfair; only people who know the right people have a chance to get a government job. It's also corrupt, because it often leads to hiring in exchange for bribes.
Another negative effect of cronyism is that jobs are staffed with people who aren't very qualified for the position (or even qualified at all). To have good government, it is imperative that only qualified people are hired for government jobs. Preventing cronyism is the reason the civil service exam system was originally developed in the United States.
Besides preventing cronyism and making sure that only qualified people are hired, civil service testing provides another valuable function for government agencies. Government jobs are highly sought after; in many cities it's not unusual to have thousands of applicants for a government job. By requiring people to achieve minimum scores on civil service tests, governments save countless man-hours that would otherwise be spent reviewing resumes and interviewing people who turn out to be unqualified.
What Are Civil Service Tests Like? Like the jobs they test for, civil service exams come in many different forms. Some exams are very job specific, designed and written to test for advanced levels of knowledge and skills in a particular area. Others are much broader, measuring a person's general skills and knowledge in subjects such as language, math, reading comprehension, writing, making decisions, etc.
Most civil service exams fall into the latter category, and those are the tests this guide is focused on. Of course, if you're taking a more specialized exam, this guide can also be very helpful, because it's likely that some portion of the test will be on general subjects.
Even on the general knowledge exams, the degree of difficulty can vary widely. Reading comprehension portions, for example, can range from tests that simply measure a person's ability to understand basic, written information to exams that require the test taker to have a highly advanced vocabulary and to be able to make well-reasoned, logical inferences based on the text. Of course, no matter how hard the civil service test is, you can significantly improve your chances of achieving a high score by relying on this guide to help you prepare.
The civil service test format will almost always be multiple-choice. This is because anywhere from dozens to thousands of people will take the same test, so government agencies need an exam that doesn't require each test form to be reviewed and scored by hand. Multiple-choice tests are easily scored, making the task easier, faster, and less expensive.
On the majority of civil service exams, there is only one answer for each question, but that's not always true, so you need to read the instructions carefully. On occasion the instructions will tell you to 'select all that apply,' which means there might be more than one correct answer.
On most tests, applicants will be told to select 'the correct answer,' which means that one answer will clearly stand out from the others as being the only correct one. However, some tests will require the test taker to select 'the best answer,' which does not mean the same thing. On these questions, one or two of the wrong answer choices will be close to being correct, or even partially correct, but they won't be quite as satisfactory as the correct answer. On these kinds of questions, you'll want to spend a bit more time weighing the choices before making your selection.
Another thing to keep in mind is that on most civil service exams, the test taker will have four answer choices to choose from, while a few tests will offer five answer choices. Those with five choices aren't necessarily harder than those with only four, so if you encounter one of the exams with five answer choices, there's no need to worry. Even on tests with only four answer choices, it's difficult for test designers to come up with four different answers that sound right. Usually at least one answer is clearly wrong to anyone who has any familiarity with the subject. On tests with five choices, there will usually be two answers that are obviously wrong. This won't always be the case, but most of the time, no matter how many answer choices each question has, there will only be two or three that are actually plausible.
Many civil service exams are taken the old-fashioned way, with pencil and paper, but a growing number are now taken on a computer. You don't need any special computer skills to take a general civil service test electronically, as you'll be given all the instructions you need at the test center. Of course, if the job you're applying for requires advanced computer skills, this may not be true. Be sure to read the test details carefully before applying to take any civil service exam.
There are two kinds of computer-based exams. Most are simply electronic versions of the pencil and paper version, with no other differences.
There's another kind, though, called computer adaptive tests, and there are major differences between these and the pencil and paper tests. On these exams, the first question you see is one of medium difficulty; test designers will make sure it's neither very easy nor very hard.
The next question you see will depend on your answer to the first question. If you answer incorrectly, you'll get an easier question. If you answer correctly, you'll get a harder question. (However, you won't know if you answered a question correctly or not.) This process continues for the entire test—correct answers lead to harder questions, while incorrect answers lead to easier questions. In other words, the computer adapts the test to your responses. Naturally, the harder questions count more when it comes to scoring the test.
How Do I Take a Civil Service Test? How you'll go about taking a civil service exam depends on many factors. There are thousands of different civil service tests given every year in America at the federal, state, and local levels. They are given throughout the year and in hundreds of locations. Some are given only when the pool of people who are eligible to be hired drops below a certain point. Others are given on a regular basis, usually once or twice a year. You'll need to go online and look up the exact information for the positions you're interested in.
Civil Service Job Sites Almost all civil service job openings are listed online now, usually on a page of the official site of the government entity. We haven't listed the official civil service webpage for every city and county government in the US in this guide, because this would take hundreds of pages. You can find the online list of civil service jobs, salaries, requirements, test dates, etc., in your area by simply going to a search engine and entering the phrase 'government jobs' along with the name of the county or city you're interested in working for. If you don't have access to a computer, simply call or visit the county courthouse or municipal building to find out where you can view the information in person.
Keep in mind that there are federal jobs all over the country, not just in Washington, D.C. Also, if you live close to the border of another state, and you're willing to drive (or move) for the right job offer, you should consider taking civil service tests in that state, too. A few states require civil service employees to actually live in the state, but most do not.
Also, some states break down job listings by region. In this case, make sure you're applying for jobs only in regions where you want to work.
Finally, if you're planning on applying for more than one job, in the same state or in different states, don't forget that civil service exams are not all alike. They can vary widely, job by job or state by state.
Don't assume that if you're applying for a secretarial position in two states that the civil service exams will be identical. They might be quite similar, but they might be quite different, too. The same holds true if you're applying for two different maintenance positions in the same state—the tests could be exactly the same, but that's not necessarily the case. Always check the official job listings for more information about the required test.
Here are the websites for civil service jobs for all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and the federal government: Federal Jobs - https://www.usajobs.gov/ Alabama - https://joblink.alabama.gov/ada/ Alaska - http://jobs.alaska.gov/statejobs.html Arizona - http://www.hr.az.gov/AZStateJobs/ Arkansas - https://www.ark.org/arstatejobs/index.php California - http://jobs.ca.gov/ Colorado - http://agency.governmentjobs.com/colorado/default.cfm Connecticut - http://das.ct.gov/cr1.aspx?page=13 Delaware - http://delawarestatejobs.com/ District of Columbia http://dchr.dc.gov/page/careers Florida - https://peoplefirst.myflorida.com/peoplefirst Georgia - http://team.georgia.gov/careers/ Hawaii - http://agency.governmentjobs.com/hawaii/default.cfm Idaho - - https://dhr.idaho.gov/JobSeekers/StateJobOpenings.html Illinois - http://work.illinois.gov/ Indiana - http://www.in.gov/spd/2334.htm Iowa - - https://das.iowa.gov/human-resources/state-employment Kansas - http://da.ks.gov/ps/aaa/recruitment/ Kentucky - https://careers.ky.gov/Pages/default.aspx Louisiana - http://www.civilservice.louisiana.gov/ Maine - http://www.maine.gov/bhr/state_jobs/index.htm Maryland - http://www.dbm.maryland.gov/jobseekers/Pages/JobSearch.aspx Massachusetts - https://massanf.taleo.net/careersection/ex/joblist.ftl Michigan - http://agency.governmentjobs.com/michigan/default.cfm Minnesota - https://mn.gov/mmb/careers/search-for-jobs/ Mississippi - http://www.mspb.ms.gov/ Missouri - https://www.mo.gov/work/job-seekers/state-job-openings/ Montana - http://mt.gov/statejobs/default.mcpx Nebraska - http://statejobs.nebraska.gov/ Nevada - http://nv.gov/employment/ New Hampshire - https://das.nh.gov/ New Jersey - http://www.state.nj.us/nj/employ/ New Mexico - http://www.spo.state.nm.us/ New York - http://www.labor.ny.gov/jobs/regional.shtm North Carolina - http://www.osp.state.nc.us/jobs/ North Dakota - http://www.nd.gov/category.htm?id=95 Ohio - - https://www.governmentjobs.com/careers/ohio Oklahoma - http://www.ok.gov/opm/State_Jobs/ Oregon - http://www.oregon.gov/DAS/STJOBS/Pages/index.aspx Pennsylvania - http://www.employment.pa.gov/Pages/jobopportunities.aspx Rhode Island - http://www.dlt.ri.gov/jobsri/ South Carolina - http://www.jobs.sc.gov/OHR/OHR-jobs-portal-index.phtm South Dakota - http://sd.gov/employment.aspx Tennessee - https://www.tn.gov/hr/section/employment Texas - - http://www.twc.state.tx.us/jobseekers/job-search Utah - - https://agency.governmentjobs.com/utah/default.cfm Vermont - http://humanresources.vermont.gov/ Virginia - http://jobs.virginia.gov/ Washington - http://www.careers.wa.gov/ West Virginia - http://www.personnel.wv.gov/job_seekers/Pages/default.aspx Wisconsin - http://wisc.jobs/public/index.asp Wyoming - http://wyoming.gov/
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