Learn to Pass the MTA Police Exam

Deductive reasoning is the process of reasoning from one or more statements to reach a logically certain conclusion. In this subject of the MTA police exam, candidates are generally given a passage containing state laws or policies of the MTAPD itself though general policies unrelated to it are not uncommon to be included in the test as well.

Here, the candidate will be required to read the passage then analyze how the policies, rules, or laws apply to it before deducing what would be the best course of action is or what the correct answer is.

This subject is included in the exam because it determines if the candidate has the sufficient problem solving skills needed to become an effective police officer. After all, they are expected to make decisions or judgement calls in the field if a rule book or a more experienced officer or superior isn’t nearby to assist them in doing the right thing.

This is similar to deductive reasoning as the test-taker will have to come to a logical conclusion after reading through a passage or the question, but in this case, it is not limited to mere words as the questions can sometimes instead use pictures, a number of different scenarios, or even just a set of objects.

The information provided may also be in the form of passages, tables, or charts.

In this subject, it will be up to the test-taker to determine or discover the common element, concept, rule, or sequence they all share. Having good inductive reasoning skills are crucial to a police officer because of how much of it is used in the day-to-day activities of police work.

A good example of this is when they have to review multiple crimes with the same nature. With good inductive reasoning skills, the officer can determine if a particular suspect is likely to have perpetrated some or all of the criminal offenses.

Flexibility of closure refers to the skill of being able to pick out or identify a pattern of information quickly in the presence of distracting information, even without all the information present. The question will come in the form of having to identify a key pattern that is buried within a larger, more cluttered pattern.

When put in the context of an MTA police officer, they must have the ability to spot a person or problem despite the presence of a huge crowd or numerous distractions like people talking, trains/buses coming and going, and music or advertisements from storefronts.

From here, we can see that it is one of the most essential skills of a police officer as they will most likely have only a few seconds to spot or identify a particular face or appearance in a crowd, making it vital that the applicant shows that they possess this skill in the MTA police exam.

This section is used to test the ability of applicants on how they can logically sequence information. Applicants will be required to arrange procedures in the order of occurrence. Five or six statements will be provided, and you’re to place them in their proper order by selecting the response with the correct sentence sequence.

These questions are included in the test to mimic how well the candidate can process information and see if they can come to a logical conclusion if such information wasn’t presented in order or discovered not in the correct chronology.

After all, as officers of the MTA, they will have to gather statements or information from multiple sources from varying locations and it will be up to them to produce a coherent and accurate sequence of events in order to solve an incident or crime.

On the other hand, this is also used to make sure that the applicant has what it takes to write or create a report chronologically.

In this section, the test-taker will be provided with a short passage, often containing a conflict of some sort or a minor problem that an officer of the MTAPD may encounter during their day-to-day activities or rounds.

From there, you will need to select from a number of given choices on which is the most appropriate one that can solve the problem.

Although this may seem daunting since it will put you in the shoes of an officer, you do not need to worry as the questions usually only need common sense to solve them, meaning you do not need to be familiar with the policies and procedures of the MTA when dealing with these kinds of scenes.

This will allow the MTA to discover just what kind of officer you are or person you are if presented with a situation where they are free to pick what course of action they have to take, whether it be the sensible one, tolerant one, or aggressive one.

This section is aimed at testing the concentration level of applicants amidst different distractions or other information.

As part of the MTA police exam, Selective Attention skills are useful when carrying out security checks amid a larger commotion or when trying to recall license numbers, license plates, employee numbers, serial numbers, etc.

As a police officer, you will have to look through a registry to search for a very specific information such as a person’s name or registration number.

In the case of it not being in an electronic database or computer, where you cannot just input the said name or number to instantly find them, it will not be uncommon for officers to have look through a hand-written record book for it on a very short period of time.

Given the nature of this subject, you should expect finding a complicated line of letters, numbers, symbols, or a mixture of everything.

This part focuses on checking the ability of a candidate to determine his location within a city, building, or set of structures. The NCJOSI and the MTA police exam examines this aptitude by making use of maps and layouts.

As a police officer of the MTA, you will have to perform rounds, inspections, and even go on patrol all over your assigned area on a regular basis.

This means that you are expected to not only know of the layout of your surroundings, but also the ins-and-outs of it, sometimes more than civilians or perpetrators so that you or a fellow officer that needs directions can easily catch up to them if they’re taking a certain route or street.

To do this, you will be given a number of questions in the form of having to identify which is the most direct route possible to their destination among the provided choices. Again, you’ll be tested on how you can use or provide directionals and identifying the most direct route to a destination.

Verbal comprehension is the ability of an individual to listen or read a spoken or written information, understand it, and use it across a range of tasks. This part evaluates the ability of applicants to read and comprehend english as a written language.

This subject is similar to that of reading comprehension but more focused on word choices or passages that may appear or may be used if the candidate was an MTA police officer. It is meant to gauge if they have the capability to understand instructions, statements, or even just mere directions given to them.

The subject also partially aims to determine if the candidate has the ability to understand incident reports or even write them in a manner that can be comprehended easily by others.

It does not mean that they will have to make an incident report in this question set however as these are all purely multiple-choice questions.

One of the most essential skills that an officer has to have, not just in the MTAPD. As part of an organization that provides law enforcement, a police officer of the MTA needs to be able to communicate information and ideas effectively, both through oral and written methods.

As a result, this section is included in the MTA Police exam to assess if the candidate has the ability to express themselves verbally.

The questions in this section will come in the form of incomplete sentences, and the test-taker will have to choose the answer that correctly completes the sentence from the given options.

Another format of the question will have the test-taker identify the word or words that are incorrectly spelled in a passage and choose amongst the choices on which is the correct number of the incorrectly-spelled words. The length of each passage can vary to a few sentences to a full paragraph.

All in all, applicants will be tested on four main elements; these are the vocabulary, grammar, spelling, and word order.

This part is used to examine applicants’ mental imagery skills.

Candidates will be asked to identify the original object, pattern, or person after changes in position or appearance have been made.

As an officer, the candidate will be required to identify a person, object, or vehicle from all possible angles, especially if the information was only given to them verbally or through the dispatch radio, making them rely on their visualization skills to confirm it.

The MTA tests this by having the providing a unique geometric pattern/portrait to the test-taker to which they will have to choose amongst the choices on which matches the original image.

The options will have a version of the original image that is either rotated or positioned in a different position. Other times, there will be changes to its features but will keep the same shape in a bid to confuse the test-taker, forcing them to examine the choices closely