Mo. fire candidates did poorly on test

By Jake Wagman
St. Louis Post-Dispatch

ST. LOUIS, Mo. — Scores of aspiring city firefighters could not answer basic math and reading questions on an entrance exam given this summer.
More than 70 percent of about 1,350 applicants failed the test, according to city personnel director Richard R. Frank. The city plans to scrap the results of the exam and retest all of the applicants at a later date.

That decision comes amid simmering tensions in the department over another exam — the promotional test for existing firefighters — that was the subject of a prolonged federal lawsuit.

"The last thing I want to do is use some examination that is going to be so controversial that it lands us in court again," Frank said today.

The July test was the first part of an entrance exam that applicants must pass before qualifying to take a physical fitness test. Candidates who pass both phases are eligible to become fire privates, the lowest rank in the department.

But, Frank said, the vast majority of applicants taking this year's test did not fare well enough on the reading comprehension or arithmetic questions on the test to advance.

"They obviously could not read and respond to the questions appropriately," Frank said. "There was basic math questions that they were not able to complete."

Such as: Each length of hose is 30 feet long. The fire is 90 feet away. How many lengths of hose are needed to reach the fire?

"We're talking about elementary level skill," Frank said.

Though Frank did not have immediately available the passage rates for previous exams, he said that a 70 percent failure rate was "highly unusual."

The exam was designed by Ergometrics, a Seattle-firm that distributes entry-level exams for a wide-range of jobs, from prison guards to bank tellers. Company officials did not return repeated requests for comment today.