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Free NYC Probation Officer Exam Practice Questions

Ten questions from our Probation Officer practice exams, covering the written reasoning and comprehension abilities in the title's notice.

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Read this, then answer the questions about it.

A person under supervision reports as their level requires and produces photographic identification at each office report. Identification is not required at a field contact.

A person may travel within the state without permission unless a condition of the sentence says otherwise. Travel outside the state requires written permission obtained before departure, and permission is specific to the dates requested.

Where travel is for employment, permission may be granted for a period rather than for single dates. The employer's written confirmation is placed on the file. Where the employment ends, the permission ends with it, whether or not the period has run.

An officer who learns of travel outside the state without permission records it the same day and reports it. Travel undertaken in an emergency is reported in the same way; the emergency is recorded and does not remove the requirement to report.

Question 1

A person arrives for an office report without photographic identification. According to the passage, this
  1. A. does not matter, because identification is required only at a field contact
  2. B. is acceptable if identification is produced at the next report instead
  3. C. is acceptable where the officer already knows the person by sight
  4. D. is a breach of the requirement, which applies at every office report
Show the answer

The answer is D. The passage requires photographic identification at each office report and says expressly that it is not required at a field contact, which is the reverse of the first option.

  • A is wrong: The passage puts the requirement at the office report and lifts it at the field contact, which is the other way around.
  • B is wrong: Nothing in the passage lets the requirement be met at a later report.
  • C is wrong: The passage makes no exception for a person the officer recognizes.

Question 2

A person with no travel condition in their sentence drives to another city within the state for a weekend. According to the passage, they
  1. A. need written permission from the officer obtained before they leave home
  2. B. need to tell the officer on their return
  3. C. need nothing, because travel within the state is unrestricted here
  4. D. need permission only if they stay overnight
Show the answer

The answer is C. The passage allows travel within the state without permission unless a condition of the sentence says otherwise, and this sentence carries no such condition.

  • A is wrong: Written permission is what the passage requires for travel outside the state.
  • B is wrong: The passage sets no reporting duty for travel it does not restrict.
  • D is wrong: The length of the stay is never part of the rule the passage gives.

Question 3

Permission was granted for travel out of state for a job, for a period of six months. The job ends after two. According to the passage, the permission
  1. A. runs for the remaining four months, since it was granted for a period
  2. B. continues until the officer withdraws it in writing
  3. C. ends when the employment ends, whatever remains of the period
  4. D. converts to permission for single dates on request
Show the answer

The answer is C. The passage says that where the employment ends, the permission ends with it, whether or not the period has run.

  • A is wrong: The passage answers exactly this and ends the permission with the job.
  • B is wrong: No act by the officer is needed; the passage ends it with the employment.
  • D is wrong: Nothing in the passage turns one kind of permission into the other.

Question 4

A unit rule says: an officer may close a case only where restitution is paid in full AND the supervision period has ended. A case has restitution paid in full, and four months of the supervision period remain. Applying the rule, the officer
  1. A. may close the case, restitution being the substantial part
  2. B. may close the case if a supervisor agrees to it in writing
  3. C. may not close the case, because both conditions must be met
  4. D. may close the case and reopen it if anything arises later
Show the answer

The answer is C. The rule joins the two conditions with AND, so meeting one of them leaves the case open.

  • A is wrong: The rule does not weigh the two conditions against each other; it requires both.
  • B is wrong: A supervisor's agreement is not written into the rule as an alternative.
  • D is wrong: Reopening later is not a way of meeting a condition that has not been met.

Question 5

A rule says: a home visit is made where the person lives alone OR where a child under twelve lives at the address. A person lives with two adult roommates and a nine-year-old child. Applying the rule, a home visit
  1. A. is required, because a child under twelve lives at the address
  2. B. is not required, because the person does not live alone
  3. C. is required only if the roommates consent to it
  4. D. is at the officer's discretion
Show the answer

The answer is A. The rule is an OR, so either limb on its own is enough, and the child under twelve satisfies the second.

  • B is wrong: That reads the rule as requiring both limbs, when either will do.
  • C is wrong: Consent from anybody else is not mentioned in the rule.
  • D is wrong: One limb is fully met, so nothing is left to discretion.

Question 6

A person under supervision has kept every appointment for eight months, is employed, and has paid restitution monthly. At the last appointment they mention that their employer is closing the site in three weeks and they have no other work lined up. Which of these should the officer treat as the problem to act on now?
  1. A. The eight-month record, which will be broken
  2. B. The reporting schedule, which may need to change
  3. C. The restitution schedule, which the wage pays
  4. D. The employer, who should be asked to reconsider
Show the answer

The answer is C. Every other part of the case is holding; the closure removes the income that the monthly payments come out of, so that is what fails first and it fails on a known date.

  • A is wrong: A record of attendance is a description of the past, not something that breaks.
  • B is wrong: Nothing about the closure changes how often the person is required to report.
  • D is wrong: The employer's decision is outside the case and outside the officer's reach.

Question 7

A program provider sends monthly attendance reports. For three months they have arrived on the second of the month. This month one arrives on the second, but it covers the same weeks as last month's. What is the problem?
  1. A. The report may be a duplicate, so this month's attendance is unknown
  2. B. The report is late, whatever it says on the front
  3. C. The provider has quietly changed the period the reports are meant to cover
  4. D. The person has stopped attending the program
Show the answer

The answer is A. The report arrived on time and looks routine, and the dates inside it say it is not this month's information, so the officer has no record for the current month at all.

  • B is wrong: It arrived on the second, exactly when the previous three did.
  • C is wrong: Nothing in the situation says the provider announced or intended a change.
  • D is wrong: Attendance may be perfect; what is missing is the report, not the attendance.

Question 8

A pre-sentence investigation is completed in this order: (1) read the court referral, (2) interview the defendant, (3) obtain records named by the defendant, (4) verify what the records say against the interview, (5) write the report. An officer has just finished obtaining a school record the defendant named. The next step is to
  1. A. write the report
  2. B. verify the record against the interview
  3. C. interview the defendant again
  4. D. read the court referral once more
Show the answer

The answer is B. Obtaining records is step 3, so step 4, verification against the interview, comes next.

  • A is wrong: Writing the report is step 5, and step 4 has not been done yet.
  • C is wrong: The interview is step 2 and is behind, not ahead.
  • D is wrong: The referral is step 1 and nothing sends the officer back to it.

Question 9

Which sentence states most clearly, for a report, that the officer saw the damage and the person described it?
  1. A. The window was broken according to the person and I observed it
  2. B. I observed the broken window; the person described the break
  3. C. The person said the window was broken and it was
  4. D. Observing the window, the person described the break to me
Show the answer

The answer is B. The two sources are separated and each is attached to the person it came from, which is what a reader has to be able to tell apart.

  • A is wrong: It leaves unclear whether the officer observed the window or the account of it.
  • C is wrong: It confirms the account without saying what the officer actually saw.
  • D is wrong: The opening phrase attaches the observing to the person rather than to the officer.

Question 10

A note reads: "After failing to appear twice, I scheduled a home visit." What is wrong with it?
  1. A. It reads as though the officer failed to appear
  2. B. It does not give the dates of either of the two absences
  3. C. It uses the first person, which reports avoid
  4. D. It puts the visit before the absences
Show the answer

The answer is A. The opening phrase attaches to the subject of the sentence, and the subject is the officer.

  • B is wrong: Missing dates would be a separate gap and are not what makes this sentence read wrongly.
  • C is wrong: First person is ordinary in a contact note and causes no confusion here.
  • D is wrong: The order of events is stated correctly; it is who did what that is not.
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