What is on the Special Officer (NYC H+H) exam

Deductive Reasoning — applying general rules to specific problems and deciding whether an answer makes sense, illustrated by deciding whether an individual caught vandalising property should be arrested. Information Ordering — following a given rule or set of actions in a certain order, illustrated by deciding the next appropriate action when providing medical assistance to someone physically injured.

Problem Sensitivity — telling when something is wrong or likely to go wrong, including identifying both the whole problem and its elements, illustrated by preserving the peace or assisting the sick, injured, or mentally and physically disabled.

Written Comprehension — understanding written sentences and paragraphs, illustrated by reviewing a report. Written Expression — writing so that others will understand, illustrated by creating an incident report and recording daily logs.

Notice how many of those examples are clinical in setting. Two of the five above involve someone who is unwell, which is what you would expect of a security title whose whole working environment is a hospital.

The sixth ability is Time Sharing: shifting back and forth between two or more sources of information, with responding to emergencies as the worked example. Outside the two Special Officer notices, no exam covered on this site lists it.

It is a different item design rather than a different job context. Every other construct here is answered from a single stimulus — a passage, a rule, a set of facts — and the answer is somewhere inside it. An item that worked that way would be testing reading rather than shifting, so a Time Sharing item shows two sources at once and keys an answer available in neither alone.

The practical shape is a reference table beside a running record: a post roster and an activity log, say, where the log names the post an event happened at and the roster names who was on it. A question asking which officer was where requires both lookups. The commonest wrong answer in a well-built item is a real entry from one source, which is exactly what a candidate lands on by reading one and stopping.

The training implication is specific and easy to act on: practise the second lookup. Most candidates lose these items not by misreading either source but by answering from whichever one they finished first.

Calculators are not permitted on this exam, and neither are phones, smart watches, cameras, e-cigarettes, vape pens, headphones, earbuds or other portable media and electronic devices. Anything brought is sealed in a Yondr pouch until after the exam event. Using a prohibited device, or removing one from the pouch without authorisation anywhere in the building including a restroom or hallway, nullifies your score, forfeits your fee and can bar you from civil service tests for up to five years.

The notice warns that certain questions may need to be answered on the basis of documents or other information supplied to candidates on the day. Nothing needs memorising in advance for those, but the clock keeps running while you find your way around an unfamiliar document — which is, not coincidentally, the same skill Time Sharing examines.

A medical assistive device that alerts or vibrates needs written authorisation from DCAS in advance. You cannot bring anyone with you while being processed or tested.

Seventy per cent is the entry condition, not the achievement. Names go onto an NYC Health + Hospitals eligible list in final score order, you receive a list number, and if you meet all requirements and your name is reached you receive a Notice of Interview by email.

This notice does not state how long that list remains active — a real difference from most notices covered here, and one we do not paper over by borrowing the four years its sibling states. New York Civil Service Law § 56 bounds eligible lists generally at between one and four years, and that is the range to plan against.

An appeal against the rating goes to the DCAS Committee on Manifest Errors through the online application system and must state its reasons. The notice adds that an appeal may result in a different rating.