POST Memory Tests: Where Note-Taking Is Not Allowed

Most of the POST Entry-Level Dispatcher Selection Test Battery lets you write things down. Two sub-tests do not, and the difference is the whole exercise.

Sub-test 1: Public Safety Bulletin

POST's description: "the examinee is given 3 minutes to study a one-page 'shift bulletin'. The bulletin contains descriptions of several different events. After the study period, the examinee answers multiple-choice questions regarding facts and details about the events, based solely upon memory."

Three minutes, one page, several separate events, then the page goes away. The sample question POST gives — "the suspect was described as" with options covering age range, height, build and race — shows the grain of detail you are expected to hold. Not the gist of an event, but which descriptor attached to which person.

Sub-test 7: Recalling Facts & Details

The listening equivalent. POST: "the examinee listens to a simulated call for law enforcement service received by a public safety dispatcher. The examinee is not allowed to take notes. The examinee then answers multiple-choice questions regarding various facts and details contained in the call, based solely upon memory."

Its sample question is "what is the name of the caller?", with four surnames as options. Again: a specific detail, held without support, from material that played once.

Why these two are different from the rest

It is worth being clear about which POST sub-tests allow notes, because candidates conflate them:

• Sub-test 1, Public Safety Bulletin — study period, then recall. Answers based solely on memory.
• Sub-test 7, Recalling Facts & Details — notes explicitly not allowed.
• Sub-test 8, Call-Taking — notes allowed during the calls, with a brief period afterwards to complete them, and you may use them to answer.
• Sub-test 9, Oral Directions — notes allowed, same arrangement.

So the instruction changes between adjacent listening tests. Each test in the battery is administered with its own set of instructions, and assuming the last test's rules carry over is an avoidable way to lose marks.

Where notes are allowed, they are not assessed: POST states that "your notes will not be scored. Only your final answers marked on your answer sheet will be scored, so you may abbreviate your notes in any manner."

How to prepare for a no-notes test

You cannot practise having a better memory in a fortnight, but you can practise encoding deliberately, which is most of what separates candidates here.

• Impose a structure on the material. For a bulletin: who, what, where, when, descriptors, for each event in turn. Slotting details into a fixed frame is far more recoverable than reading top to bottom.
• Rehearse names and numbers as you meet them. Proper nouns and figures are what the questions ask for and what decays fastest.
• Do not try to hold everything. Three minutes across several events means you are choosing what to encode. Descriptors, locations, names and numbers earn their place; narrative colour does not.
• On the audio test, resist the urge to sub-vocalise the whole call. Repeating what was just said costs you what is being said now.
• Answer from memory, not from reconstruction. Filling a gap with what plausibly happened is how a wrong option gets picked, and wrong answers carry a fractional penalty on this battery.

What it is measuring

POST classes both under memory: "the ability to store and retrieve facts, details, and other information." The job justification is immediate — a dispatcher reads a shift bulletin at the start of a watch and is expected to recognise a name from it hours later, and takes calls where the detail that matters is not always the one being written down.

Practising it

Our memory recall drill presents material for a fixed study period and then withdraws it, which is the bulletin format. Audio memory does the same for spoken material, and call taking covers the notes-allowed version so you can feel the difference between the two modes.

Memory and recall sections covers how these appear across the different batteries, 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

Can you take notes on the POST dispatcher test?

It depends on the sub-test. Notes are not allowed on Recalling Facts & Details, and the Public Safety Bulletin is answered from memory after a study period. Notes are allowed on Call-Taking and Oral Directions.

How long do you get to study the bulletin?

Three minutes for a one-page shift bulletin containing several events.

Are my notes marked?

No. POST states notes are not scored and may be abbreviated however you like — only the answer sheet is scored.

What kind of details are asked about?

Specific ones. POST's sample items ask what a suspect was described as, and what the caller's name is.

Is the audio played more than once?

The guide describes candidates listening to a simulated call and then answering from memory; treat it as a single pass and encode accordingly.