What Is the MTA Police Exam?
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) Police Exam is a requirement for those seeking a role in law enforcement in New York’s MTA. The MTA Police Department uses the NCJOSI II (National Criminal Justice Officer Selection Inventory) that IO Solutions supplies.
The two- and half-hour test consists of 200 multiple-choice questions divided into two main sections: cognitive abilities and behavioral attributes.
The first section, cognitive abilities, consists of 80 questions on ten topics, including reasoning, problem sensitivity, spatial orientation, and information gathering. The second section, behavioral attributes, consists of 200 questions related to how you act in professional environments.
MTA Police Exam Main Topics
Deductive Reasoning
The first topic in section one of the exam is deductive reasoning. These questions will examine your ability to comprehend information and apply that knowledge to make logical conclusions. You’ll be presented with rules or policies and need to answer questions about the best course of action based on that information.
Inductive Reasoning
In addition to your deductive reasoning skills, you’ll also be assessed on your inductive reasoning abilities. In these questions, you’ll receive a scenario representative of what you may encounter on the job. You’ll have to find a common thread that connects the given information to answer questions about the passage.
This skill is vital for officers in situations such as choosing a likely suspect based on multiple eye-witness accounts or reviewing numerous crimes and looking for a common motive or suspect.
Flexibility of Closure
This section will examine your ability to identify a key pattern buried in a more cluttered pattern. For example, finding a specific face in a crowd of faces. Officers must learn to pay attention to crucial information amid many unnecessary details, so this topic area will assess your aptitude for this skill.
Information Gathering
Another skill officers must have is ordering information in a logical order. Suppose several witnesses give statements about a crime. In that case, the officer must be able to gather that information and place the statements in a logical order to create a timeline of events.
Problem Sensitivity
You’ll need to identify problems in a given passage in the problem sensitivity questions. The text will present information and some sort of difficulty, and you must correctly identify the challenge and the best way to overcome the problem.
Spatial Orientation
A good sense of spatial orientation is critical to the success of a law enforcement officer. Officers must be able to tell where they are in relation to their surroundings and where they are going. In this exam, this ability is tested through the use of maps and layouts. You’ll need to answer directional and route-based questions using these tools.
Verbal Expression
Law enforcement officers must be able to communicate clearly and effectively. This section assesses this ability by having you complete sentences, correct misspelled words, and restructure sentences. The questions will examine your knowledge of basic grammar, word use, and vocabulary.
Verbal Comprehension
In addition to communicating effectively, officers must also be able to understand written communication directed to them. This can include reports of other officers, procedures that they must follow, or written information that they must digest before heading into a scene.
This section will assess your ability to understand and apply written information by asking you to read passages and answer questions based on the facts provided.
Visualization
The exam uses the questions in this topic area to assess your ability to recognize an object, even after slight changes have been made. Visualization is vital when identifying suspects and event details. For example, an officer must be able to recognize a suspect even if they’ve changed their hairstyle or gotten a new tattoo.
These questions will present a pattern of a photo of some kind and then ask you to choose from a series of photographs that match the original image.
Situational Judgment Test (SJT)
The second section of the exam is the situational judgment test (SJT). This section will assess your behavioral attributes and how you may react to certain situations in the workplace. You will receive a simulated scenario typical of what you may encounter in the role and need to answer questions about how you would respond or react in each situation.
Unlike the cognitive abilities section, there are no right or wrong answers in this section. You must answer each question honestly, and your results will determine how likely you are to be successful in that work environment.
How to Prepare for the MTA Police Assessment?
The best way to prepare for the MTA Police Assessment is by taking online practice tests. These sample exam questions will allow you to practice your timing as well as understand what kinds of questions are on the exam and how to answer them correctly.
In addition to sample tests, there are also online study guides that provide tips and tricks for doing well on the exam.
You must do well on this exam to move to the next stage of the hiring process. Therefore, you’ll want to take the time to prepare so you can increase your chances of doing well.
