Everyone has an ideal profession which he or she would eventually like to pursue upon reaching adulthood, but qualifications and prerequisites would vary and not everyone would be lucky enough to fulfill the necessary criteria to get in.
Joining the police force is no exception and is actually quite challenging given the physical qualifications required for the rigorous activities that such a job entails. The aim of this article is to help you pass the Chicago police test.
Chicago Police Department Test
First and foremost, you would have to find out how and where to obtain the necessary information in order for you to apply for a position during recruitment dates. The Chicago police exam is very popular and dates for recruitment are always announced on major news channels such as NBC Chicago and Sun Times. Such announcements would normally contain all the relevant information you need to find out about the dates, requirements, and even tips on how to perform well.
The CPD test is considered the most crucial part of the recruitment process to the police force, given its eliminatory nature. An important thing to keep in mind is that the CPD exam is NOT held every year, but rather every three or four years depending on current need to fill out vacancies.
Most Basic Requirements
Dates vary but the exams are mostly held on the month of December and the requirements usually remain the same every time, except that they have dropped the minimum age requirement from 25 to 18 years old, which is considered a rather significant change in an effort to lure in fresh graduates into the force.
Another important prerequisite would be the time spent in university which should be equivalent to 60 semester hours or three years in the military. A combination of both drives down the required amount of time spent to just 30 semester hours and a year of military experience.
Given the fact that the CPD exam is not offered every year, you really have to prepare well lest you wait another three or four years to get another chance to join the force.
Official Information
Of course, getting the information straight from the horse’s mouth would be more reliable, and in this case you would be looking for the website https://portal.chicagopolice.org which hosts everything you would have to know from the agency’s history up to the updated information regarding current recruitment dates and training details.
Passing the CPD test means proceeding to the Chicago police academy for 1,000 hours’ worth of basic training, which you would know is intense because the state of Illinois would usually just require 500 hours. In addition, training with regards to specialized fields such as drugs, ethics, law, and firearms are just as essential to make sure that you are well-prepared for the job
What Are the Perks?
Of course you are also looking for a job to earn money, which is simply logical and while the Chicago police test would prove to be a great challenge for you, the benefits waiting for you once you get your police officer uniforms would make up for everything you have to endure just to get into the force.
Just to give you an idea, a police officer could earn up to $43,000 per annum as starting salary for their first year in the field. Keep in mind, though, that selection is tough, and figures from the 2010 recruitment process state that only 429 officers graduated from the program for that particular recruitment period. You could be one of them, but you must prepare well and work hard in order to go through the first hurdle, which is the Chicago police exam.
Review Programs
Given how popular recruitment for the police force is regardless of the state you are in, there is a wealth of review programs onsite and online which you could take advantage of, some of them asking that you be a member first while several offer their services for free. http://passthepoliceexam.com/, for instance, would offer features such as timed and simulated exams which allow you to familiarize yourself with the structure of the test.
You also get access to a PDF file which gives valuable tips on how to prepare not just for the exam, but for every document you would need as well as the qualities you would have to possess in order to become a respectable police officer.
Criminology Courses
Some people think that passing the Chicago Police Department test would require specialist knowledge in the field of Criminology. While possession of qualifications for serious study of the said field would obviously give you an edge, it is not really a requirement prescribed by most police agencies across the country. If anything, it is a good complement for the hands on training you would receive once you get into the force, given how you would already be familiar with the various concepts and jargon in use in this particular field. If you would like to thread this path, then you are lucky because there are many universities in Chicago which offer this kind of qualification.
To give you some ideas, here are some programs that are currently running. The University of Illinois at Chicago has both undergraduate and graduate degree programs under the Department of Criminology, Law and Justice. The website contains valuable details and could be accessed at http://clj.las.uic.edu.
The Department of Criminal Justice and Criminology of the Loyola University Chicago offers several graduate programs in the said field. Admission requirements and an overview of the program could be accessed on http://www.luc.edu/criminaljustice/.
Regardless if you opt for a degree in Criminology or just apply for membership in an online review program, in the end passing the CPD testis still totally up to you. Aside from knowledge, you would also have to be fit for the rigorous physical activities that you will undergo.