The CritiCall is one of the most difficult exams administered for any civil service position. Dispatchers need to be quick-thinking and efficient in their operation in order to serve the general public effectively.
Around 90% of dispatcher applicants nationwide are rejected as a result of failing the CritiCall test. If you fail, your application will immediately be disqualified. Preparation for the CritiCall is essential in such a competitive environment, so here’s our CritiCall Test Prep Course to help you start your preparation today with our free practice test:
Hi, I’m Maureen Laneski. I’ve been a dispatcher for a small department just outside of Detroit for 18 years. I have a master’s degree in teaching and was our department’s first certified communications training officer. For over ten years, anyone who sat in dispatch in our department had some or all of their training from me. The role of a 911 dispatcher, or call taker, comes with a great number of responsibilities, and as such, employers can be meticulous in their recruitment process.
Those working as handlers/dispatchers for the emergency services play a pivotal role in ensuring public safety. As such, a number of fundamental key skills are required in order to effectively carry out this job.
Finding candidates that can display competency in a number of key skills across a variety of different tasks is why assessment programs such as the CritiCall are so highly valued within the public-safety industry.
The CritiCall tests were developed in order to quickly and efficiently screen applicants in order to check for these key skills prior to any training they might receive if they are hired as a dispatcher, so that unqualified individuals may be filtered out prior to the application process. Today, there is fierce competition for the role of a 911 dispatcher. To be a successful candidate, you need to pass the CritiCall test. The CritiCall test is challenging, so you must be prepared and ready to put in the effort.
The test itself measures a variety of skills, each particular skill having a section dedicated to it. In order to become eligible to apply for a 911 dispatcher position, one must achieve the CritiCall ‘pass’ score.
The CritiCall assessment is broken down into a number of different modules, each designed to assess your competency in a number of skills relevant to the everyday duties of a 911 dispatcher. Some of these modules are more role-specific than others, like Map Reading and Decision Making, for example, whereas others are a more basic test of your reading, spelling, and math skills. But regardless of their apparent workplace relevance, you must achieve the pass mark in each of them to successfully complete the assessment.
At PrepTerminal, we want you to realize your ambition of becoming a 911 operator, and that’s why we are here to help. We provide you with a free CritiCall practice test to assess your current testing level.
The CritiCall practice test is timed. There are ten questions, and you will have 5 minutes to complete the test.
The CritiCall Test is an extensive work sample assessment managed by Test Genius, created to reduce the attrition rate of 911 dispatchers as new hires often struggle with the high-pressure demands of the job. The CritiCall test contains 23 modules but these 10 are the most important modules.
