FCTC or NTN? Two Different Firefighter Tests in California

Two systems, both used in California

FCTC is run by the California Firefighter Joint Apprenticeship Committee and administers one statewide written test whose score joins the FCTC Statewide Eligibility List. Over 170 California fire agencies use it.

The National Testing Network is a separate, national company whose entry-level firefighter test is called FireTEAM. California departments appear on NTN as well — Santa Clara County Fire Department, for instance, is on both FCTC's participating list and NTN's job listings.

They are not the same test

The FCTC written test is 100 multiple-choice questions in four sections: technical information recall from an essay packet, a video-based section, mechanical reasoning and mathematics.

NTN's FireTEAM is described by NTN as a video-based cognitive and behavioral assessment covering human relations, mechanical aptitude, mathematics and reading. The mechanical and mathematics content overlaps in kind, but the tests are built and scored differently and a score on one is not a score on the other.

Which one applies to you

Saying so costs a sale occasionally and saves a candidate from buying the wrong thing, which is the better trade for both of us.

• Check the department's own job posting. It will name the test it requires.
• A department may accept one, the other, or run its own process — some appear on both systems.
• This product prepares the FCTC written test. If the department you want uses NTN, it is not the right preparation, and no amount of practice here changes that.

Related guides

• The FCTC Statewide Eligibility List — One Score, Many Departments
• What Is on the FCTC Firefighter Written Test
• The Video Section — What to Expect, and What RankHigh Does Not Do