Corrections Officer Test – Basic Information

Who is a Corrections Officer?rnA corrections officer is a person responsible for supervising and maintaining safety and security of the prisoners in jail, prison or any similar kind of secure custody. They were previously termed as jail guard, jailer, prison warder etc. rnThey are entitled to carry out the following duties: • Maintaining law and order within the prisonrn• Enforcing and activating various rules, regulations and discipline within the prisonrn• Transporting the inmates to court or other correctional facilities, as and when neededrn• Responding tactically to any hostile situations arising within the prisonrn• Ensuring proper medical facilities within the prisonrnCorrections Officer Test:rnIn order to be a Corrections Officer, a candidate has to pass a Test. In general, a written test of 3 hours is conducted but sometimes both written and video-based exams are also conducted in some states. rnHistory of the exam:rnThis test was previously known as Jailer’s test. This exam was designed long time ago by the correctional agencies to ensure proper filtering of the candidates appearing for the exam. This way they could select the best person for the job.rnFormat and Layout:rnThe test is comprised of 4-6 sections approximately. In the first 3 sections, objective questions based on mathematics, grammar and comprehension are provided. The fourth section is incident report writing which requires the candidates to write their own answers based on the provided situations. For these types of questions there may be many correct answers as it varies from person to person how they counters a certain situation, but it is required to choose a situation which is closest to the way one would generally respond. As most of the questions are related to the duty of the Corrections Officer, so no prior knowledge of law or law enforcement is required. rnCorrections officer test measures skills, aptitude and abilities of the candidates. Through this test the following things are judged: • Ability to judge and solve problemsrn• Motivation and interest for the jobrn• Communication skillsrn• Ability to work under hostile situations and co-operate with a variety of peoplernSome Tips, Tricks and Secrets about the test: • As there is no penalty for wrong answers, hence the candidates should try and attempt all the questionsrn• The time management should be very good. The candidates should balance their time properly, out of the total time limit, to answer each sectionrn• The candidates would be informed when to start and stop each section. So if one finishes a section early, he/she can review their work on that sectionrn• Candidates should try and score maximum marks as this increase their chances to get selected Compensation of a Corrections Officer:rnNow comes the most important part, compensation. As per the rules and regulations of United States Labor Department, the median annual wages for correctional officers were $38,380 back in May 2008. As per the recent surveys it has been raised to $39,324 on an average.