Tempest of Light

Phase 1 Sergeant Exam - Completed.

The night prior to the test, I went to sleep at 9PM. Anxiety woke me up at 11PM that same night, merely two hours later.

I did not fall back asleep and on two hours of sleep, left my house at 6:45AM to head to the examination center.

Arriving there around 7:30AM, I was one of a few dozen marked police cars in the massive parking lot.

Around 8:30AM the lot was full. At least 450 Police cars filled the convention center parking lot. That was sure a lot of competition.

I’ve studied and studied and reviewed and studied until my eyes wanted to bleed but deep down I was still very nervous about this test. The results of the test; my performance on it, would decide my career path. To be frank, I put a lot of weight on the written Phase of the Sergeant exam knowing that a high score on that section would help me compete with the average score earned in the Phase 2 assessment portion of the test.

Lines were established based on last names and when my turn came to present ID to the lady at the counter, I was given an answer booklet, challenge form, 2 pencils and told my number to be seated at was “126”.

I walked into the massive convention center too a sea of tables which seemed to hold two people. Each table had 2 numbers on it.

I was dead in the middle off to the left side.

Sitting down I noticed just how cold it was inside. It literally felt 60 degrees in my seat and I’d begun to wish I’d brought a jacket.

After an hour everyone had taken their assigned seats and a lady stood at a podium at the very front. Using a microphone she dictated the rules of the test, which strikingly mimicked the rules given out during the old SAT school testing.

After being given the ‘go’ to start the test, we had 3 hours to complete it.

I cracked open my booklet and started reading the questions. Immediately, I saw the questions weren’t simple definition or even revamped sentences. The questions appeared as paragraphs and each had no correlation to the SOPs I’d been reading for months. The first few questions I honestly don’t think I got right. A few questions in though, I started seeing material I recognized and from then on, I flew through the questions.

Ever the attentive reader, I saw the double negatives and trick questions from a mile away.

125 Questions in and I was finished. I looked at the clock.

1 Hour and 10 Minutes to complete. I stood up with my materials and walked to the front to ‘check out’, turning my items in.

Exiting the building I saw a few familiar faces and started doing what test takers usually do. Long story short, I am confident I passed, I believe I got a competitive score but that could just be my perception.

I’ll find out in 12 days whether I officially passed the exam or not, but they won’t give me my exact score until the entire testing phases are complete.

With my luck, me thinking I ‘passed’ means I failed, but I’ll find out in a few days.

Here’s hoping…

• Posted Jun 10, 2009