The five subtests this product does not prepare
No, and this page exists so that is clear before you buy rather than after. Five of the eleven subtests play a recording, they count exactly as much as the six that do not, and nothing here prepares them.
- Subtests prepared
- Six of eleven
- Not prepared
- Five, all audiotape
- Weighting
- Every subtest counts equally, per POST
- Audio in this product
- None
Which five, and what they ask
Recalling Facts & Details (18 items, 9 minutes) plays a simulated call for service and asks about details in it, with no notes allowed. Call-Taking (25 items, 17 minutes) plays three calls and lets you take notes. Oral Directions (17 items, 14 minutes) plays a radio call and asks what has to be done and in what order. Checking Coded Information (60 items, 9 minutes) reads codes aloud faster and faster while you mark them against a code sheet. Checking & Listening (105 items, 13 minutes) asks you to do a written comparison task and track radio traffic at the same time.
Why they are not built here
They need audio, and RankHigh has no audio engine. Building one to reach one examination is the kind of change this catalog does not make on the strength of a single family, and a written imitation of a listening test would be preparation for something other than the test.
What is worth knowing is that the abilities those five measure are not exotic. Memory for detail is what the Public Safety Bulletin section measures with a written bulletin, and the ordering that Oral Directions asks for is what Setting Priorities asks for on paper. Preparing the six here is not preparation for the five, and it is not nothing either.
What to do about the other five
POST's examinee guide describes the format of each one and is free — reading it so that nothing about the format is a surprise on the day is worth the twenty minutes. Its own advice is that the tests measure general abilities and that there is no study guide or reading list for them.
Sources
- California POST — Entry-Level Dispatcher Selection Test Battery: Examinee Guide · checked 2026-09-07
- California POST — Entry-Level Dispatcher Selection Test Battery: User's Manual · checked 2026-09-07