NYPD School Safety Agents are specialized security personnel employed by the police department to serve students and teachers. Under New York law, they are considered peace officers and have the capability of making warrantless arrests, using handcuffs and deploying other forms of appropriate restraint.
Before becoming a school safety agent, you’ll need to pass an exam with several sections to qualify for an interview.
Exam Details
To be considered qualified for an interview as a school safety agent, you must first pass an exam. The exam is a series of aptitude tests to understand your abilities to retain and learn new information, and it is meant to determine your success in police training.
The School Safety Agent exam contains nine sections. The questions are in the multiple-choice format, and you need 70% to pass. The sections are:
- Written comprehension – your ability to decipher information from a passage of text
- Written expression – your ability to communicate effectively through writing
- Memory questions – your ability to recall information
- Problem sensitivity – your ability to pinpoint a problem and identify a solution
- Deductive reasoning – your ability to apply logic to a scenario
- Inductive reasoning – your ability to gather pieces of information and form a conclusion
- Information ordering – your ability to follow a specific sequence of events
- Spatial orientation – your ability to properly assess your surroundings
- Visualization – your ability to mentally rearrange photos or words
Scoring a 70% does not guarantee an interview. Therefore, you’ll want to practice as much as you can. The higher your score, the better shot you’ll have at scoring an interview.
Exam Preparation
The best way to prepare for the School Safety Agent exam is to access practice tests. Take the tests in a timed environment, similar to the length of the actual exam. This will allow you to assess how you’ll perform under added pressure, and identify the weaker areas of your knowledge. Once you’re aware of how you can improve, you can access study guides and video tutorials to help you better understand any of the areas you were struggling in. Keep using those practice tests while you study to get a practical awareness of the questions that will be asked on exam day and how you’re expected to answer.
Start practice today and improve your hiring chances
