TEST PREP
It is time: The New Jersey LEE has been announced
DR. DAVID A. PAPROTA
The New Jersey Civil Service Commission( NJCSC) has opened the application period for the 2016 Law Enforcement Examination( LEE) which covers nine separate public safety titles. The NJCSC simultaneously opened applications for the corrections officer recruit position within the New Jersey Department of Corrections( NJDOC) as well. The online application period for the two separate announcements began on July 1, and will close on Aug. 31. The nine public safety titles covered by the 2016 LEE include: municipal police officer, sheriff’ s officer, county police officer, park police officer, campus police officer recruit, police officer recruit human services, police officer Palisades Interstate Park, county corrections officer and corrections officer recruit for the Juvenile Justice Commission.
Candidates who apply for the LEE and / or NJDOC exam, as well as those who applied in June for the parole officer recruit position, will actually sit for only one exam later this fall that will cover all of the separate announcements and titles. The newly composed exam is the Law Enforcement Aptitude Battery( LEAB) which is written by the psychometric experts at EB Jacobs, LLC from State College, Pennsylvania.
There is very good news for those who are highly competitive and want the best chance of fairly beating their competition. EB Jacobs, the test-writing company, has completed an updated job-task analysis and validation study resulting in the development of an even longer test with newly devised scales built into its
sophisticated scoring matrix. The embedded scales are actually a series of algorithms and calculated factors within the test instrument that come together to affect and ultimately formulate the candidate’ s final average. An adjustment in a scale or the addition of distortion scales within the exam can drastically impact a candidate’ s score. A candidate who achieved an exceptional score on a prior version of the entry exam easily can find himself or herself with a significantly decreased score on the upcoming test. The exam preparation used by many in the past actually may prove detrimental to unknowing candidates during this cycle.
The EB Jacobs LEAB is the most comprehensive and sophisticated public safety assessment administered in this country. The examination consists of three distinct sections administered as one assessment over a continuous three-hour-and-40-minute test period. The decision to lengthen the examination has been made with very specific purpose. The goal of the most recent revisions, which have resulted in a longer examination, is to provide for more critical scoring of the last two psychometric sections of the test through use of enhanced scoring scales. The test writer has added an additional 71 trait assessment statements in part two and an additional 12 biodata questions in part three. The additional items are being included specifically to enhance and tighten the distortion / deception scales, which are known to have the potential to significantly detract from a candidate’ s score. The length of the exam also poses an additional challenge; reader fatigue etc. is a significant concern, as I have addressed in prior articles.
An exam of this length has not been administered since the LEAB, in its full form, first was utilized in New Jersey back in 2000. By binding contract, the staff at EB Jacobs is required to provide the state with three equally weighted, newly written versions of the LEAB for this testing cycle. Of course, this is done to effectively eliminate the possibility of cheating within the exam cycle. Each of the three parts of the exam is unique. The company refers to the cognitive questions( logical reasoning, reading comprehension, etc.) as the Ability Test( part one), which involves 48 multiple-choice questions. Part two of the LEAB is referred to as the Work Styles Questionnaire and consists of 173 trait assessment items. Part three involves 108 multiple-choice bio-data questions and is referred to as the Life Experience Survey. Each section is, in essence, a separate validated instrument that EB Jacobs pulls together as one scored assessment.
The new and more difficult exam is good news for those who properly prepare, as they undoubtedly will rise to the top and ultimately join the ranks of New Jersey law enforcement. This move by the test writers will significantly narrow the field of those who are qualified to prepare candidates properly for the upcoming exam. Improper guidance by unqualified individuals in the exam preparation business can and has, as it did during the 2013 entry cycle, caused candidates to falter on this sophisticated assessment. The test writers are well aware of that reality. Please let your friends and family know about the LEE application period and the benefits of proper, qualified exam preparation. Please feel free to email me any questions, and I will be happy to provide assistance. d
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NEW JERSEY COPS ■ JULY 2016
Dr. David A. Paprota is the Chief of Police in Lacey Township, a member of PBA Local 238 and the Executive Director of Critical Concepts and Strategies( CCS), an entry-level exam preparation company. Further information can be obtained through his website at www. ccstest. com or by emailing questions to info @ ccstest. com.