US Border Patrol- Artificial or Spanish Test?

[shane]

I am going to take one of these tests.
I was wondering if anyone with experience and or knowledge could elaborate, differentiate between these two tests. Thanks.


PS- I am able to speak, read, and write Spanish. Although I do not do this on a regular basis. So I am leaning toward the "Artificial Language Test".


shane

[Stump]

Shane,
I think Mac will be best able to answer the question you have. Can you elaborate on how you know Spanish? I took 7 years of Spanish in high school, but don't use it daily so I have a hard time understanding people that speak it unless they go slow. (Just ask Mac, he tested me! LOL)
I have been toying with the idea of looking into a job with Border Patrol too, so it will be interesting to hear the answers.

[Mac]

Regardless of how you test in Spanish, you will have to take it at the academy. All the test does is measure your knowledge for placement in a Spanish class whether advanced or just learning. Spanish is not a requirement for hiring, it is a requirement to graduate the academy. If you don't pass it while at the academy, your employment WILL be terminated. Take the artificial or the easiest. If your knowledge is more once you get to the academy, you will have an easiey time of it.

Mac

[darrell]

i took the damn test 2 times. The artifical is a lot easier then the spannish. Just study the book they give you. My best friend is from Mexico now a citizen he flunked the artifical but passed the spannish. Thank god he passed his real language or his family would have killed him lol.

[u538]

Go with the spanish. if you know it. the people that take the spanish part finished alot faster than the rest of my class I was in.

[navyfiveo]

I am a former Border Patrol Agent from Calexico, CA. Base out of the El Centro District.
Back when I took the test, I spoke absolutly NO Spanish. The testing process is basically to measure your ability to learn. Even though you speak Spanish, you will learn what is called the "I" form in the academy and that is what you will be tested on at your 6 and 10 month exams once you get to your station. What you actually use in the field will be back to the slang Spanish that everyone speaks.