How to Prepare for NYC Corrections Officer Exam?
As part of Social Service jobs, NYC Correction officers enjoy some of the highest state salaries and numerous benefits. But, getting employed as an NYC correctional officer is an extensive process that might take more than a year to finish. The NYC Correction officer exam is a crucial part of the NYC Correction officer hiring process.
We’ve created this comprehensive guide on the NYC correction officer test to help you find your way around the exam, its testing questions, and the abilities it measures. To further help you prepare, we recommend the most effective practice materials which can help you ace the NYC Correction officer practice tests.
Table of Contents
What Do You Need to Be an NYC Correction Officer?
To be an NYC Correction officer, you need to comply with these minimum requirements:
- Have at least 60 completed college credits (including the points from NYC Correction Academy)
- Or have a high school diploma and two years of experience in the U.S. Military, Law-Enforcement, or their equivalent
- Must be a U.S citizen
- At least 21 years of age to enroll in NYC Correction Academy
- Possess a driving license before graduation from the Academy
- Able to pass background checks (not have previous felonies or convictions)
- Able to pass a medical and psychological assessment
- Able to pass physical testing
- Able to pass drug testing
- Must be a resident of NY city, Nassau, Orange, Suffolk, Westchester, Putnam, or Rockland
- Able to speak, understand and write in English
- Poof of identity and right to work
Is There an Age Limit for NYC Correction Officers?
To take the test, you must be at least 17 and a half years old and 21 to enroll in the Correction Academy. There are no additional age restrictions.
NYC Correction Officer Hiring Process
To become an NYC Correction Officer, you would need to pass each step of their hiring process, which might take up to a year or more. The order of the NYC Correction officer hiring process is as follows:
- Apply and take the initial examination
- List of candidates that passed the test (can take up to 6 months)
- Candidates start the screening process (which can last up to 6 months)
- Orientation process
- Ability and background check
- Psychological examination
- The NYC Correction Academy
- Academy Graduation
- Employment
The registration process and test dates are regularly updated, so we recommend you continuously track newly opened positions and testing dates on the NYC Department of Citywide Administrative Services.
Once you find a job position you want to apply for, you can do so through their Online Application System (OAS). To take a Civil service test, you would need to pay an entrance fee for the test, so make sure that you finish the payment process too.
What Is the NYC Correction Officer Exam?
The NYC Correction Officer written exam is the mandatory initial test that all applicants need to pass to qualify for further continue the screening process.
What Does the NYC Correction Officer Exam Measure?
The NYC Correction Officer exam will measure your cognitive abilities and behavioral tendencies concerning fulfilling the job requirements for a correctional officer.
The NYC Correction officer aptitude test will measure:
- Math Skills – usage of the basic mathematic operations and calculations when solving word problems related to time, distance, money, paperwork, reports, and the like
- Reading Comprehension – the ability to read, understand, summarize, interpret, and draw conclusions from the information given in an excerpt
- Grammar and Spelling knowledge – the ability to express thoughts and ideas through a well-organized, grammatically accurate written report
- Deductive reasoning – ability to draw conclusions and apply rules and regulations in a specific scenario
- Information selecting and ordering – the ability to distinguish, organize and logically order information based on flow or relevance
- Difference identification – ability to spot, understand and remember slight differences in pictures of people and objects
- Time management and scheduling – ability to organize oneself and their time, understanding and drawing conclusions from schedules, graphs, and charts
- Situational judgment – ability to quickly and effectively resolve problems or incidents by evaluating different possible actions and outcomes
- Usage of knowledge – applying knowledge and abilities in a correctional facility setting
The NYC Correction officer written exam will measure the abilities crucial for correctional officers to fulfill their work duties. The test questions are related to the job but don’t require any previous technical or factual knowledge of the correctional officer job position.
The information you’ll need will already be in the test. Your job will be to understand the given information, locate the excerpt you need, evaluate it, and draw conclusions.
Aside from these abilities, you would also be required to show some soft skills, measured passively through the test. There are some of the highly valued soft skills for an NYC Correction Officer:
- Ability to follow procedures and orders
- Attention to details
- Clear communication and ability to express oneself in writing
- Ability to maintain order
- Assertiveness
- Decisiveness
- Ability to work with teams
- Quick and accurate judgment
How Many Questions Are There on the NYC Correction Officer Exam?
You can expect to answer 100 multiple-choice or two-choice questions on the NYC Correction Officer exam.
There will be four proposed answers to the multiple-choice questions, out of which only one will be correct. The two-choice questions will be in True/False or Yes/No format.
How Long Is the NYC Correction Officer Exam?
There is a two and a half hours time limit for finishing the NYC Correction Officer exam.
NYC Correction Officer Exam Questions
The Correction Officer exam is divided into four main testing areas. Each of these areas might passively measure some of the other aspects or soft skills mentioned in our previous sections.
Understanding and Interpreting Written Material
These questions test the comprehension of given written content. Short reading paragraphs will be presented, and you will need to read and understand the passages. Then, a few follow-up questions will follow.
To answer these questions, you won’t need any factual knowledge – all the information you’ll need will be presented in the passages. It will be your job to understand, cross-check and logically evaluate each given answer to find the right one.
The content of the passages will be connected to the job position, so expect to find passages stating laws, rights and obligations, protocols, etc.
These are the abilities you need to show through these questions:
- Ability to understand written material
- Ability to distinguish important info from fluff
- Ability to remember important information
- Ability to critically evaluate written material
- Ability to paraphrase and understand the meaning
- Ability to apply rules in somewhat changed scenarios
Preparing Written Material
This part of the NYC Correction officer test will test your abilities to express thoughts logically and comprehensively.
The section about preparing written materials will come in two forms of questions.
You will be provided with information in two or three sentences in the first form. The four presented answers will be restatements of that information. It will be your job to review each of them and determine the one that portrays the complete set of information in the most understandable and accurate manner.
In the second form of preparing written material questions, you will be given a few sentences that don’t have a natural flow. You need to determine the order of the sentences for them to portray information logically and consecutively.
The part of the test with questions about the preparation of written material will measure:
- Ability to understand information
- Ability to logically portray information in a clear way
- Ability to distinguish important information
- Ability to clearly communicate in writing
- Ability to summarize and paraphrase
Applying Written Material in a Correctional Setting
This part of the NYC Correction officer test will measure your ability to read, interpret and use information, protocols, or orders in a correctional facility setting.
It will require you to read the given materials (rules, regulations, protocols, instructions, written accounts, etc.) and then use the same logic to apply said materials in a different setting. Everything you need to know will be provided in the materials; you just have to use them and apply them in the presented scenario.
This part of the test will measure:
- Ability to understand laws, regulations, and instructions
- Ability to draw conclusions and use them in new situations
- Ability to logically deduce
- Ability to follow orders and protocols
Observing and Recalling Facts and Information
The Observing and recalling part of the NYC Correction officer test will measure your ability to pay attention to details and remember information. You will be presented with information that describes or illustrates jail settings and situations.
You will be given a short period of time to fully explore the picture/written information before they are taken away. Then, you will receive a set of questions asking for particular information previously presented in the study materials. It will be your job to recall and correctly answer details about them.
This part of the test measures:
- Attention to details
- Visual memory
- Ability to remember details
- Ability to recall details or information
- Accuracy of remembering details
How to Pass the NYC Correction Officer Exam?
If you want to pass the NYC Correction officer exam and get higher on the list of candidates, we propose excessively preparing beforehand.
For one, you will get used to the testing material and the structure of the questions and answers. This can eliminate the possibility of you answering the questions wrong only because you’ve confused and misunderstood what the question asks.
By practicing the segments of the NYC Corrections officer exam, you can also improve many of the abilities you need if you are about to work as a corrections officer. For example, it’s proven that visual memory improves over time if the practitioner consciously dedicates time to noting and remembering visual information.
In the end, practicing the questions given on the NYC correction officer exam will give you confidence and ease your anxiety before taking the test. This is especially important for the later employment steps, where you will communicate with professionals in person.
Working in a stressful, sometimes tense correctional facility environment requires a lot of stability. Most of the time, anxious people are not fit to handle life-threatening or aggressive situations.
Even though the NYC Correctional officer exam doesn’t require much factual knowledge from your side, it requires your steady, logical, and concentrated thinking when answering these questions.
Using the help of the most extensive online library for practice test materials, JobTest-Prep can help you gain knowledge and abilities that you would greatly utilize as a correction officer.
What Does Jobtest-Prep Offer?
JobTest-Prep has one of the most thorough exclusive NYC Correction Officer exam preparations materials that you can find helpful if you want to build your career as a correction officer.
Their NYC Correction Officer Exam Prep Bundle includes numerous practice tests that follow the latest trends in the NYC Correction officer testing process. In their bundle, you will find:
- 8 Math Word Problems tests
- 8 Basic Math tests
- 10 English language tests
- 18 Reading Comprehension tests
- 10 Information Ordering tests
- 30 Inductive Reasoning tests
- 5 Deductive Reasoning tests
- 12 Memory Aptitude tests
- 4 Spatial Orientation tests
- 2 Problem Sensitivity tests
Furthermore, they include tens of helpful study guides and video tutorials to help you get the most out of your practice. You can also contact their 24/7 available customer support if you have any questions.
NYC Correction Academy
Once you pass the previous stages of becoming an NYC Correction Officer, you will enroll in the NYC Correction Academy. The Academy will teach you everything you need to know and will encounter as part of your work as a correction officer.
Aside from the eight-week academy training program, Correction officer trainees need another 12-month training before becoming Correction officers.
How Long Is the NYC Correction Academy?
The NYC Correction Academy is at least eight weeks long (2 months). This includes 27 days of classroom training at a firing range.
What Do You Do at an NYC Correction Academy?
The NYC Correction Academy trains future Correction officers with all the knowledge they need to run their job as correction officers successfully. During this time, applicants are called Correction Officer Trainees.
The NYC Correction Academy includes:
- Lectures
- Practical Demonstrations
- Firearms training
- Self-defense
- Emergency Preparation
- Security procedure
- Correctional skills
- Correctional institution management
- Institutional training
- Field training
- Examination
What Do NYC Correction Officers Do?
Correction Officers are part of Correction facilities where they take care of custody, control, job training, needs, and work performance of detention and sentenced inmates. Correction officers also maintain security within correctional facilities and carry out related tasks.
Some of the everyday tasks that correction officers fulfill are:
- Supervise detainee meals, recreational programs, visits, and other activities within correctional facilities
- Communicates and works with other correctional officers
- Oversees detainees and takes care of order in correction facilities
- Given verbal orders, information, announcements, or explanations to detainees
- Escorts detainees in and outside of correction facilities, including vehicles
- Guards facility supplies, inventory, and equipment
- Maintains facilities free of safety or security risks
- Fills out reports, forms, and other necessary paperwork
NYC Correction Officer Benefits
If you build your career as an NYC Correction officer, you can expect numerous benefits and opportunities:
- Some of the highest Civil Service salaries
- Paid overtime hours
- Unlimited paid sick days
- Paid holidays
- Correction Assistance Response program with counseling, medical visits, and other services
- Financial assistance sessions with financial advisors
- Discounts for health, wellness, or gym memberships
- Workshops about professional development
- Discounts for education and online degrees
- Other benefits and discounts
Conclusion
The NYC Correction officer hiring process is extensive, and passing it will require time, dedication, and abilities. The NYC Corrections officer exam is one of the most extensive tests during Correctional Officer employment.
This article explained everything you need to know about the NYC Correction officer exam, its testing questions, and the ability it aims to measure. Furthermore, we recommended JobTest-Prep as one of the biggest, most thorough, and most secure online platforms for practicing materials.
With more than 30 years of experience in test preparation and practice materials, they have updated, top-notch practice tests for the NYC correctional officer exam.
Written by Victoria Todorovska
Victoria (or Viki) is a Freelance Writer, Psychologist, and Gestalt Therapy Consultant. With years of experience in higher education as well as counselling others, she is well-placed to offer expert advice on guiding others up the career ladder.
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Sarah is an accomplished educator, researcher and author in the field of testing and assessment. She has worked with various educational institutions and organisations to develop innovative evaluation methods and enhance student learning. Sarah has published numerous articles and books on assessment and learning. Her passion for promoting equity and fairness in the education system fuels her commitment to sharing insights and best practices with educators and policymakers around the world.
