Fire service exams

[hairykrishna]

A good mate of mine mentioned at the weekend that he really wants to get into the fire service. He's in pretty good shape so I don't think the physical stuff will be an issue but basically he's convinced himself that his shoddy maths and science knowledge will rule him out. He's in no way thick but fked about continually at school and basically has no GCSEs. I've managed to persuade him that if he really wants to do it he should work towards it, and I'll tutor him in maths and any science related stuff that I can help with. Does anyone have a link to sample fire service exams? Or experience of what they're like? I've ordered a 'prep yourself for fire service exams' type book but past papers are always the best preparation for any exam in my experience.

[E36Rob]

I passed all the exams about 4 years ago now,

The practice paper that they will send to you will give you a great idea of what the exam includes.

I didnt do great at school but had no problems with the exams at all although alot of people in my exam seemed to not pass. Just practice, practice and more practice.

I belive the maths exam is the same straight across the country although physical exams and requirements differ massively between countys.

The best bet is to get him on fireservice.co.uk and get chatting to current serving officers. I was lucky that a chap at a local station setup evenings for a couple of us to come along once a week to practice the drill and hose running. I passed all my physical and mental exams for the Royal Berkshire Fire and Rescue Service.

Out of everything i found the hose running the hardest, although in my final exam finished with 1min to spare. The trick is practice and getting a technique. Some just try to run with the hose and end up dragging it and in the final exam it is a fail if its dragged so far. It is quite difficult at first getting used to unrolling it fast and effectivly then rolling it up straight and tight while fully bent over moving.

I found the confiend area exam the most interesting although quite a few others panic'd as soon as they was directed into a small black box and asked to navigate through with full BA gear on and not being able to see. Oh and was interesting to hear how many fell down the hole inside the unit.

One thing to bare in mind is that places are usually very tight so applying should be done but with no expectation of actually walking in. The year i applied 10K applications was made, and i made it too the last 100 after passing all the exams.

Plenty of planning and practice is needed. Also bare in mind that part time fire officers have to re apply to become whole time officers so he could well be battling it out with current standing officers.

Also try to apply to a few countys, as many others do. In one of my exams we had some from Scotland trying to apply because they couldnt get into anything local to them.

I have a box somewhere with all paperwork and practice docs that i used that i will try to dig out. Im off away on monday for Le Mans so the chances are i will look once back.

Hope that is of some help, although there is many different storys to the entry process.

Again check out fireservice.co.uk as it will provide lots of information.

[E-one]

E36Rob said:

. Also bare in mind that part time fire officers have to re apply to become whole time officers so he could well be battling it out with current standing officers.

Slightly OT, but in our brigade at least, retained guys not in development can bypass this and transfer to WT IIRC.

On to exams, remembering back, i had a dictation test (person reads out a paragraph and you write it down, legibly), maths, english and 'spacial awareness' (basically looking at collections of blocks and working out how many blocks in the collection).

Maths and english was around 50 questions with multiple choice answers each, with a 12 minute time limit (from memory though - could be less).

My tip, if its the same as this, is to set yourself a time limit on each question - if you cant answer question 1 in, say, 15 seconds, move onto the next. Your not penalised for leaving questions, and i found that you might have a question, say, 114 x 137, followed by 2 x 4 - 3. So i just buzzed through, and answered about 60% first time through, then had spare time to go back and work out some of the more difficult ones. I got through twice and im a complete dunce when it comes to maths.

This could all be completely different where you are though, and i think its already changed in our brigade.

As stated, fireservice.co.uk is a good source of knowledge. Id recommend popping into your local wholetime station and asking the guys/girls there. Hopefully you can find someone who's new in who should be up to date with the current tests. Ive known loads of people just come in off the street to ask some questions, as well as doing hose runing etc with them.

Edited by E-one on Thursday 3rd June 09:28

[cslgirl]

An added bonus to add on the application would be if he were gay, bi or perhaps transgender. There is a whole group dedicted to this in the fire brigade that attend meetings, hold functions etc.. It's great for their statistics. Also, being jewish or perhaps a buddist would further him also (not sure if Jedi would count though).

http://www.independent.co.uk/student/career-planni...

Edited by cslgirl on Thursday 3rd June 16:06