What is on
the NYC Police Communications Technician exam?

The short answer

Seven abilities, and nothing is drawn anywhere in this exam — no maps, no figures, and no arithmetic. Everything arrives as words, at speed.

Our practice exam runs 140 questions in 168 minutes, in the order below.

What makes this title different

Memorization here is what a caller told you two minutes ago, while a second call is coming in.

Nothing in this exam is drawn and nothing is calculated. It is all words arriving faster than you would like, which is the console.

What each section is asking for

Written Comprehension is reading a rule or an order and saying what it does and does not cover. Deductive Reasoning is taking a rule you were handed a moment ago and applying it to one case. Inductive Reasoning is several incidents, and the pattern that fits all of them. Information Ordering is the order a job is created, updated and dispatched in. Problem Sensitivity is noticing something is wrong before anybody tells you it is. Written Expression is writing it down so the next person reads it the way you meant it. Memorization is what a caller told you two minutes ago, while a second call comes in.

None of it is a knowledge test. You do not need to arrive knowing the radio codes, the dispatch protocol or the boroughs by heart. Everything the question needs is on the page. What is being measured is whether you can use it with the clock running.

What the City publishes, and what is ours

DCAS names 7 abilities for this title, in Notice of Examination 6309, 6329. What the notice does not give is a question count or a time limit, for this title or any other. Nobody outside the City has those two numbers, so a site quoting them is quoting a guess.

The 7 sections above are the City's. The 140 questions and the 168 minutes are ours. We picked them so the practice sitting feels like the real thing, and we would rather tell you that than let you assume the City set them.