Studying for a test

[Jeremy431]

Hello:
I'm going to be taking a test for dispatch position sometime within the next month. I was wondering if anyone had any advice on a good way to prepare for this? The main subject areas that will be covered include: call summarization, cross referencing, data entry, decision making, memory recall and prioritization. I've got sometime to working on this, so any help would be great.
Thanks
Jeremy

[RO56]

The best advice I can give you isn't specifically related to this test, but all tests.

Don't cram. The best way to move information from your sensory memory to short-term then to long-term is to do it gradually, and by paying attention while studying. Don't have distractions (TV, radio, other people, activities) around when you study, as studies have shown that your ability to store (long-term) and retrieve is best when you are in similar environments while performing both tasks.

[StationM]

Will this be a written test, or Criti-Call modules?

Think officer safety.

[Jeremy431]

It's written and I'm thinking maybe some hands on.

[StationM]

Hmmmm.

In Criticall, we were tested on recall by listening to a tape, then having to type in what was said after the tape stopped.

Use a typing program to work on data entry.

As a reserve officer, I would think you'll have a good idea of what officer's really need to know in a call. We used to call it "trim the fat" by getting rid of all the "story" elements.

Since my department does both calltaking and dispatching, we try to teach people to write good calls, but you still end up dispatching an even shorter version.

[Jeremy431]

Yeah it's nice at our department because it's required that there is a deputy in dispatch at all times. This way you get pretty good notes sent via MDT and you're going into the call with some information on it. It's also nice that some of the dispatchers will actually run the registered owner while you're making contact, and they'll give you a read bad right away.

[StationM]

Yeah it's nice at our department because it's required that there is a deputy in dispatch at all times. This way you get pretty good notes sent via MDT and you're going into the call with some information on it. It's also nice that some of the dispatchers will actually run the registered owner while you're making contact, and they'll give you a read bad right away.

One of my "pet peeves" as a TO, is when a calltaker writes a call for a report, and the RP has suspect info, but then doesn't include it in the call. Just because the call is "cold" doesn't mean the suspect can't return.