PSI Exams Evaluate Firefighter Employee Candidates

10 February 2020
Capt. Bob Smith

PSI Exams Evaluate Firefighter Employee Candidates

Nowadays, it is difficult for an organization to rely its limited resources in the critical recruitment process to identify top employee candidates.  Many companies rely on a reputable tool called PSI Exams in the initial hiring stage to evaluate a candidate.                                                                  

This method is PSI Exams, whose main purpose is to find out if employee candidates are psychologically competent for the profession they want to pursue.

PSI (also known as Psychological Services, Incorporated) has also made it their specialty to have industry-designated tests for such career fields as firefighters, EMTs, insurance workers, workers in dental and plumbing fields, as well as those in cosmetology, construction, and real estate.

Aside from private companies and corporations, there are now several regulatory government agencies as well as other organizations that rely on PSI Exams to complete their professional licenses and official certificates. In these organizations, it has become mandatory that applicants must pass PSI Exams to qualify for their intended professions.

Evaluation

PSI Exams cover a wide range of skills, in order to assess talent and managerial solutions for employers in both the government and private sectors.

Additionally, they also offer courses and job preparation for employment seekers. Their testing platform is available both online and at physical test centers.

Assessment Tests

To date, five pre-employment assessment tests cover many different aspects of a candidate’s professional skills.

Its true-to-life assessments are situational tests of judgment where the candidates are placed both in virtual situations and in real-life scenarios. This evaluation of different work situations enables employers to assess and predict a candidate’s success in a particular position.

This one is the main features and advantages of using PSI Exams in the recruitment process.

Abilities

PSI Exams measure the candidate’s professional skills, including a basic skills test, employee aptitude survey, professional employment test, and industrial skills test.

Combining the results, these tests will be able to measure and assess the candidates’ language skills, reading comprehension, quantitative problem solving, mechanical principles, form checking, coding, and other characteristics.

Personality

PSI Exams utilize viewpoint for personality and behavioral assessments. This can identify a candidate’s job attitudes and behaviors. Some of the areas being assessed are team building, business continuity, sales force, and customer satisfaction.

Furthermore, there are six sub-assessments in the program, including views on work, service, tenure, sales, professionalism and the general personality survey.

Computer Skills

As more professions and job opportunities require computer aptitude, more employers are assessing a candidate’s computer skills. Whether the career requires proficiency in Chrome, Excel, PowerPoint, Word, Outlook, or Digital Literacy, you will most likely encounter PSI’s computer skills tests in your recruitment process.

PSI likewise administers public safety and civil service assessments for various organizations and government agencies in the U.S. These public safety and civil service tests are widely used because they assess and highlight candidates who demonstrate superior ability to perform in an intense, high-stakes atmosphere.

Firefighter Tests

In the area of firefighting, there are two kinds of firefighter tests offered by PSI. These are the Firefighter Multimedia Assessment (FMA) and the Firefighter Selection Test (FST).

Both tests measure the basic skills that are needed for firefighters. The New York and Los Angeles Fire Departments both use these PSI Exams.

Firefighter Multimedia Assessment

This is a training lesson for an entry-level firefighter based on a video. The videos are about a piece of equipment that is not real but was created specifically for purposes of the assessment.

The FMA measures several cognitive abilities, as follows:

  • Reasoning - the ability to combine separate pieces of information and to form conclusions based on that information.
  • Listening Comprehension - the ability to listen to a spoken passage and answer literal and inferential questions about it.
  • Reading Comprehension – the ability to read written words and understand the meaning and ideas associated with them.
  • Learning Ability – the ability to acquire and apply new information obtained in training.
  • Basic Arithmetic - the ability to perform mathematical computations to solve work problems.

Firefighter Selection Test

PSI has designed the Firefighter Selection Test to be able to measure the core attributes that are required for a top-performing firefighter. This test is mainly designed to assess the reading comprehension and mechanical comprehension of the candidate.

  • Mechanical Comprehension measures the candidate’s ability to understand and be able to work with basic mechanical concepts.
  • Reading Comprehension measures a candidate’s ability to read, interpret and apply various kinds of information that firefighters will encounter on the job often.
  • Report Interpretations determine the ability to interpret and work with charts, tables, diagrams, and other forms of instructional devices available to and used by the organization.

Work Orientation

Some of the PSI Firefighter Tests are combined with a Work Orientation portion. Work Orientation measures workplace behaviors and attitudes, much like a personality test.

The choices include five-point rating scales, from ‘very strong disagree’ to ‘strongly disagree’, ‘never’ to ‘once a week’, or ‘unlikely’ to ‘very unlikely.’

The traits that are highlighted in this portion of the test measure your views on work-related situations. It includes factors like being conscientious, the ability to handle work pressures, interpersonal relations involving co-workers as well as that of the community, safety orientation, drug/alcohol avoidance, and trustworthiness.

These background information exams and behaviors like conscientiousness, handling work pressure, getting along with the others, integrity and trustworthiness alongside other essential job-related skills are critical to scoring well on PSI Exams and future success in the workplace.

PSI Exams Preparation

DM Fire School offer PSI Exams preparation tests, helping job candidates knw what to expect during the testing process.

We offer PSI Exams custom-designed to the test consultant that is giving the exams, instead of the usual generic practice tests, giving firefighter candidates an advantage over other practice test providers.