January 12, 2005

10:49 AM

Civil service exams. Anyone ever taken them? What did you do to prepare? This is in Illinois, if it makes a difference.
posted by sugarfish to (5 comments total)

Are you in Chicago? Just give your Alderman a grand and you'll be taken care of.
posted by aladfar at 11:20 AM on January 12, 2005

aladfar is actually telling the truth.
posted by u.n. owen at 12:15 PM on January 12, 2005

Check this thread out. And this one too.
posted by pwb503 at 1:24 PM on January 12, 2005

Chicago Public Library has a good collection of books and videos that help you prepare for the exam. I don't know if they have the Learnatest test database there [damned library web interface] but mine does and it's a neat little online test taking and practice program that has a set of civil service exams you can take. See if your local library subscribes to it and if not, drop me an email and I might be able to wrangle a temporary login to ours.
posted by jessamyn at 4:50 PM on January 12, 2005

Is it a uniformed (police or firefighter) civil service position that you are interested in?

If so I would contact the union representing each to see if they sponsor any exam preparation courses.

Also contact any fraternal organizations (e.g., in NY there are 100 Blacks in Law Enforcement Who Care and The Vulcan Society among many others) to see if they sponsor any such courses.

The last few times FDNY has given the ff exam, the Vulcan Society obtained the list of all the applicants from the department and sent out a mailing that they were offering free exam prep courses. They explained in the letter that they were hoping to help African-American applicants prepare for the exam but that the courses were available to all applicants.

I could go on and on but will wait to see if this is the kind of information you are looking for.
posted by MLIS at 8:50 PM on January 12, 2005