POST Checking Coded Information: The Speeded Code Test

Sub-test 10 of the POST Entry-Level Dispatcher Selection Test Battery is short, strange, and designed so that you fail the end of it. Knowing that in advance is most of the preparation.

What it involves

POST's description: "the examinee listens to a series of random letter-number codes. The codes range from two to four alphanumeric characters. As each code is presented, the examinee refers to a 'Code Sheet', and identifies and marks the same code among 5 written alternatives. The information is presented slowly at first, increasing in speed until the task becomes very difficult. After the information is presented, the examinee transfers his/her answers on an answer sheet."

So: you hear a code, you find it among five similar-looking written options, you mark it, and the next one is already coming.

Why the alternatives are the difficulty

The five options are built to be confusable. POST's sample code sheet shows the pattern — for a target of 5A the alternatives include a5, F5, AZ and Za; for U1 they include 1J, UL, L1 and J1; for 3g they include j3, 3B, 8c and g8.

Look at what is being exploited there. Characters that sound alike when spoken. Characters that look alike on the page — 1 and l, U and J, 3 and 8, g and 8. And the same two characters in reversed order, which is the single most common error in reading back a plate or a case number.

That is not arbitrary cruelty. Transposing two characters of a licence plate is a real dispatch error with real consequences, and the test is built around the confusions that actually happen.

It accelerates deliberately

The pace increases "until the task becomes very difficult". The Examinee Guide's general note on the speeded tests applies here more than anywhere: "you should not be alarmed or discouraged if you are sometimes unable to keep up with the rapid pace of the speeded tests — they are designed to test your limits by working up to a pace where no one can keep up."

Nobody completes this comfortably. The score is about where your limit sits, not whether you reach the end, and candidates who panic partway through lose items they would otherwise have got.

How to work it

• Listen to the whole code before you look. Starting to scan on the first character is how you land on a reversed alternative.
• Scan for the distinguishing character. With five near-identical options, one position usually separates them. Find it rather than reading each option in full.
• Drop a lost item immediately. If one gets away, let it go. Chasing it costs you the next two.
• Do not fill blanks at the end. Wrong answers carry a fractional penalty on this battery and blanks cost nothing, so random marking is wasted effort. Our page on the wrong-answer penalty works the arithmetic through.
• Expect the acceleration. It is a feature. Candidates who know it is coming stay steady longer than those who assume they are the problem.

What it is measuring

Perceptual ability, which POST defines as "the ability to quickly and accurately compare letters and numbers presented orally and in written form". The oral-to-written comparison is the whole point: hearing a string and matching it against text is a different operation from comparing two written strings, and it is the operation a dispatcher performs constantly.

Practising it

Our character comparison drill trains the visual half — spotting the one differing character in confusable strings at speed. Audio data entry trains the spoken-to-written half, and cross-referencing trains matching against a reference list.

Staying accurate under time pressure covers the pacing habit, and the POST battery guide covers all eleven sub-tests.

The Examinee Guide is dated February 1996 and is the document POST publishes for candidates. Confirm the current arrangements with the agency testing you.

Sources

• California Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training, POST Entry-Level Dispatcher Selection Test Battery: Examinee Guide (February 1996)
• California Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training, Public Safety Dispatcher Entry-Level Test Battery: Applicant FAQs

The POST Entry-Level Dispatcher Selection Test Battery is administered by the California Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training. DispatchDrills is an independent practice provider and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by California POST. We do not reproduce exam content; every example in our material is original and illustrative.

Common questions

What is the Checking Coded Information test?

Sub-test 10 of the POST dispatcher battery. You hear alphanumeric codes of two to four characters and mark the matching code among five written alternatives on a code sheet.

Does it get faster?

Yes. POST states the information is presented slowly at first and increases in speed until the task becomes very difficult.

Is everyone supposed to finish?

No. POST says the speeded tests are designed to work up to a pace where no one can keep up.

Why do the options look so similar?

They exploit characters that look or sound alike and the same characters in reversed order — the errors that actually occur when reading back plates and case numbers.

Should I guess when I fall behind?

Not at random. Wrong answers carry a fractional penalty and blanks cost nothing.