Navigating the Suffolk County Police Exam: A Comprehensive Guide
Suffolk county has one of the biggest police forces in the U.S. To ensure that all new police officers are competent and appropriate for the job, the SCPD uses the help of the EB Jacobs LEAB exam.
If you want to pursue a career in law enforcement as a Suffolk police officer, you must successfully pass each step of the extensive Suffolk police employment process. The LEAB test is the hardest step of that process, so this article will explain all the details of the Suffolk county police exam.
Understand its testing sections, the format of the questions, what they measure, and how to answer them successfully.
We will also direct you to the best resources out there to practice for the Suffolk police exam.
Table of Contents
Suffolk County Police Employment Process
Five of the 10 Towns in Suffolk County, New York, are served by the Suffolk County Police Department (SCPD), which offers police protection. With about 2500 sworn officers, it is one of the biggest police forces in the country.
To become a police officer in Suffolk county, you need to pass a rigorous employment process. You will be tested on your cognitive abilities, personality traits, professional and private background, physical ability tests, psychological evaluations, and health screening.
These are the steps of the Suffolk County employment process:
- Visit their website and browse through job positions available.
- Take and pass the EB Jacobs LEAB test.
- Fill out the employment paperwork.
- Successfully pass the background check and Agility test.
- Successfully pass the psychological and medical exams.
- Successfully pass the in-person interviews.
- Successfully graduate from the Police Academy.
What Do You Need To Become a Suffolk County Police Officer?
To become part of the Suffolk county police department, you must adhere to a few minimum requirements:
- Be at least 21 years of age. To take the Suffolk County Police Exam, you need at least 19 years of age. Even if you pass, you won’t be employed by the county police department until you’re 21.
- To work as a Suffolk County police officer, you must have a high school diploma or a GED. No college credits are necessary.
- You must reside in Suffolk, Nassau, or New York City counties.
- Your New York State driver’s license must be in good standing when hired for the position (not needed to take the written exam).
- When appointed to the position, you must be a citizen of the United States (not required for the written exam).
How Long Does It Take To Become a Suffolk County Police Officer?
The employment process for a Suffolk county police officer varies. It mainly depends on the nature of the job position, the number of candidates, and the time it takes to finish the employment process.
If you successfully pass all the exams and interviews, you will have a probationary period of 18 months, out of which 6 are part of the Academy training.
What Is The EB Jacobs LEAB Test?
The acronym LEAB stands for Law Enforcement Aptitude Battery, and it’s a test used by police departments in numerous counties and states, such as New Jersey, New York, and Massachusetts.
There are two formats of the EB Jacobs LEAB test:
- A Pen and Paper format
- An Online format
The online form has been more widely used recently, but you should be prepared to answer in both formats.
The EB Jacobs LEAB exam lasts for about 3 hours, and during that time, you need to answer questions from three separate sections. You can find more details about each of the sections in our article.
The questions you will encounter on the Suffolk LEAB exam will be in a multiple-choice format, where you will be provided with four possible answers, out of which one is correct or most adequate on the situation described.
The questions will resolve and portray situations you are most likely to encounter during your job hours as a police officer.
Nonetheless, you don’t need any previous police training or knowledge of law enforcement to answer them. This is because you won’t need to respond with any factual knowledge and information; instead, you must give your natural tendencies and behavior in a particular setting.
What Does The EB Jacobs LEAB Test Measure?
Police officers work in tense, stressful work environments, so they must endure the pressure and risk that the job brings for their own good and the good of the community. Suffolk (and many other counties) use the LEAB test to pinpoint these competent candidates.
The EB Jacobs LEAB test is not the sole measurement of your abilities and compatibility to be a police officer, but it plays a significant role.
For one, the Jacobs LEAB test is used to distinguish the police officer candidates with the natural tendencies, mindset, and abilities to fulfill the duties of a police officer.
The EB Jacobs LEAB test measures the abilities of police officer candidates in three different sections:
- The Cognitive Abilities Test (CAT) – measures your knowledge of the English language and your reasoning
- Work Styles Questionnaire (WSQ) – assesses your preferences and approaches when in situations that require your timely and effective performance
- Life Experience Survey (LES) – assesses your previous experiences and personal history, as well as the conclusions you’ve drawn from them.
The test is used as a measurement of your abilities to perform police officer duties.
The LEAB exam assesses your skills, broad knowledge, background information, behavioral tendencies, and personality traits.
In the next section of our article, we will get into more details about each of these sections, the abilities they measure, and the format of questions you can expect.
How Often Is The Suffolk County Police Exam?
The Suffolk county police department (SCPD) recruits new police officers every four years. The last Suffolk County police exam was in the summer of 2019. The subsequent recruitment with the help of the LEAB exam should be held in the summer of 2023.
Is There a Fee For The Suffolk County Police Exam?
The Suffolk county police exam has a non-refundable $125 entry fee.
EB Jacobs LEAB Exam Sections and Questions
Once we have explained the LEAB exam and what it measures, we can dive deeper into each of its sections, the question format you will encounter, and what those questions will assess. We will also include some sample questions to help you understand the structure you will encounter.
Cognitive Abilities Test (CAT)
The Cognitive Abilities test is made out of 6 different sections, each of them measuring your abilities in:
- Written Expression – the ability to express your ideas through writing
- Written Comprehension – ability to understand, paraphrase, and draw conclusions from written material
- Problem Sensitivity – the ability to identify problems or potential problematic situations and timely and adequately respond to them
- Deductive Reasoning – the ability to draw conclusions from general laws and apply them to specific situations
- Inductive Reasoning – the ability to draw conclusions from specific situations and understand their similarities to bring them to general laws
- Information Ordering – ability to read, understand and rearrange information to give them the most logical order
You can expect 46 questions, each measuring some aspect of our previously mentioned sections.
Picture Source: JobTestPrep
Work Styles Questionnaire (WSQ)
The Work Questionnaire is a personality test where you will be asked questions related to your work life, long-term and short-term goals, ability to work in teams, leadership traits, decision-making abilities, ability to follow orders, and the like.
This part of the EB Jacobs LEAB exam will have statements you need to rank in one of the five degrees, from strongly disagreeing with the statement to strongly agreeing with it.
You can anticipate 74 to 102 statements that need your answer.
Life Experience Survey (LES)
The last part of the exam is the Experience survey that will assess your previous experiences and the conclusions you’ve drawn from those experiences. This section will evaluate your work ethic, communal responsibility, teamwork, and similar aspects.
The questions are in the form of statements with five offered responses. It’s your job to answer which response most resonates with you and your experience. You can get between 47 and 96 questions on this part of the LEAB exam.
EB Jacobs LEAB Exam Scoring
The scoring of the EB Jacobs LEAB exam is a sum of the scores of the three separate test sections.
It’s important to note that you must answer all the questions on the Work Questionnaire (WSQ) and the Life Experience Survey (LES) since not answering equals disqualification. For the Cognitive Abilities Test (CAT), if you don’t answer a question, it automatically counts as incorrect.
Once the results are calculated, candidates that pass the LEAB exam are placed on an eligibility list for officer vacancies.
A minimum score of 70 is considered a “pass” score.
How To Pass The EB Jacobs LEAB Police Exam?
You can implement some tips to prepare for the EB Jacobs LEAB police exam and pass it with the highest score possible.
- Thoroughly read the job description and its requirements
- Understand the personality traits that are required from a police officer
- Practice those personality traits
- Use the help of Job Test Prep and their exclusive Suffolk County Police Officer Practice pack
What Does Job Test Prep Offer?
Job Test Prep is the most extensive online library for practice materials. It offers numerous practice bundles for police officer candidates in multiple states, including N.Y.
Job Test Prep offers their exclusive EB Jacobs LEAB practice materials with:
- 15 Written Comprehension drills (for the CAT section)
- 11 Written Expression drills (for the CAT section)
- Four Problem Sensitivity and Deductive Reasoning drills (for the CAT section)
- Four Information Ordering drills (for the CAT section)
- Four Inductive Reasoning drills (for the CAT section)
- 2 personality tests (for the WQS and LES sections)
- A detailed breakdown of the ideal Law Enforcement profile you should strive for
- More than 900 Practice Questions & Answers
- Original study guides to help you through the materials
- Comprehensive explanations and solving tips for all questions
- Secured payment
Please note that the Job Test Prep practice materials and tests often contain questions of higher complexity than what you will encounter on the actual EB Jacobs LEAB test. This strategic step ensures that Job Test Prep’s customers get used to answering complex questions. So, on the actual test, they:
- Are familiar with the format of the questions
- Have practiced all parts of the LEAB test
- Have acquired the personality traits they need if they want to be police officers
- Understand the questions precisely and effectively
- Are fast, accurate, and confident when answering questions
Conclusion
To get employed with the Suffolk County police department, you must pass the EB Jacobs LEAB battery. This police exam ensures that police officer candidates have the required knowledge, personality traits, and attitude to serve their community as police officers.
To ensure you pass the LEAB exam and all 4 of its sections, practice the test beforehand.
Job Test Prep is the most extensive online library to help you find LEAB practice materials, helpful study guides, and the ideal law enforcement profile.
With their help, future police officers can be sure that they won’t only pass the LEAB test but that they’ve acquired the personality traits they need to fulfill their duties.
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.
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.
