Texas City Testing

Tested on saturday. Took 10 hours to take all the tests, caused me to miss my flight too, so I’m not flying back till tuesday morning now. However I think I did extremely well and my scores were pretty high, so my odds of getting hired are pretty good.

We took four tests. There were 100 or so applicants there for the written examination, until the first test.

The first test was Mechanical Reasoning/Knowledge. Basic stuff, how gears turn, etc.. The test had 25 questions. Yours truly got an 84% on the test, missing only 4. About 50+ people failed this portion of the exam, narrowing the candidate list even further.

The second test was the National Firefighter Selection Inventory. This test had basic stuff on it too, math, reading, deduction, etc.. Containing 105 questions, I missed 6, passing with a 94%, one of the highest scores for the section from what I heard people saying about their scores.

The third test was a The Health Occupations Basic Entrance Test (HOBET). It was actually difficult. It was more of a test for seeing knowledge for becoming a medic (Texas City employee requirement). We didn’t get results that day, but I did do my best and think I did really well.

The fourth one was another type of inventory, that I felt was biased. It asked questions like

Which do you agree with more?:

A. Minorities and Ethnics do not perform as well as whites.

B. Firefighters who are scared of fires should not work in the field.

Kind of like that, very very messed up in my opinion. 100 of those later, and I was done.

10 hours of greuling testing, now I wait for a call.

Why I am Moving (to clarify)

Well as of this post I’m sitting in Kemah, Texas. On Saturday March 7th I took a Physical Abilities Test for the Texas City, Texas Fire Department. I passed my PAT with 3 minutes and 24 seconds for all the events, which I might add, sucked. In order, here is how it went down:

 

1. Ladder Climb (Not Timed) – Climb a 100 foot ladder at a 60 degree angle and come down safely. Very Easy.
2. Hoseline Advance (Timed from here on out) – Drag a 200 ft. section of charged 1 3/4″ hose  150 ft. This was not an easy task. A gallon of water weights 8.33 lbs, and there is a lot of gallons in 200 ft of hose.
3. Forcible Entry – Using a 9 pound shot mallet, move a weight on a keiser sled 3 feet. Pretty Easy I thought, but after the hoseline drag I was wearing out.
4. Victim Rescue – Drag a “Rescue Randy” 50 ft. Rescue Randy weighs 165 lbs. My original plan was to get him up and hug him basically, but I was worn down after the previous two events. So I dragged him by the straps instead.
5. Equipment Carry – Carry a K12 saw and a chainsaw 50 feet. Pretty easy.
6. Ladder Carry – Carry a roof ladder 75 feet. Easy.
7. Hoseline lift – Lift a 50ft section of rolled 3″ hose off the ground 20 ft with a rope on a pulley and lower it back without it hitting the ground hard. Easy.

All in all I feel that I did very good, as there were over 100 applicants there that day. Others did do better than me, but alot did slower times too. What matters is the Civil Services test this saturday, the 14th. I have passed every practice question I’ve tried, and all the questions are very easy. I feel confident on being able to pass it with a very high score.

 

Anyway, back to why I’m moving. This job has an amazing starting salary, and it’s actually pretty crappy for the area too. And getting this job would allow me to fulfill the dream of being a firefighter. If I don’t get this job, I will simply try for others.

I ran out of steam for this post, so i’ll have an update post soon with more reasons to clarify my move.

New Car

New car!

Originally uploaded by jamespanzone

Well I’m back. This time around I’ll blog daily. Anyway, I got a new car. It is a 1992 Camaro RS, 25th anniversary package also. It has scratches and some other stuff on it but otherwise it runs amazing, transmission was just rebuilt too. This will be my pimp ride once I move.