RankHighCompetitive Exam Prep

The FCTC Statewide Eligibility List — One Score, Many Departments

Passing puts your score on a list that California fire departments can read for a year. Over 170 of them use it, and each sets its own passing grade — so one test can open doors at many departments at once.

What the list is

FCTC maintains a list of candidates who have passed, and makes their scores available to participating fire agencies. Your score is seen only by FCTC staff and authorised personnel at hiring agencies, and for any agency requesting the list it counts as received on the day you tested.

This is the property that makes the FCTC test worth preparing for properly: you take it once and the result works across the state for twelve months, rather than testing separately for every department you apply to.

How many departments, and which

FCTC states that over 170 California fire agencies use FCTC written test scores in their hiring process, and publishes the full roster of participating departments. It ranges from large county and city departments to small fire protection districts.

It is not every department in California. Some run their own testing and some use other systems entirely, so check the department you are applying to rather than assuming — which is what the department pages on this site are for.

Each department sets its own bar

FCTC's passing score is 70%, and individual departments retain the right to identify their own unique passing grade. A score that clears FCTC's threshold may or may not clear the one where you are applying, and departments do not all publish theirs.

That, and not the pass mark, is the reason to aim well above 70%.

Sources

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