My estimate of my expenses in taking these exams, buying the books and attending promotional school over my 29 years on the job comes to about $4K. There were 10 different textbooks for the last Deputy Chief's exam I took. One of them I had to buy, at a cost of $85.

They asked TWO questions out of this book, and the questions was based on illustrations and sidebars, not the text. By the way, the textbook was a business psychology textbook that has zero, zilch, nada, nothing to do with the fire service and was written to be used in a group discussion format.

The Human Resources Division of the Department of Personnel Administration hires “educators” with absolutely no knowledge of the fire service to write the questions for the exam. Proof of this lunacy is when they write a question that has no possible answer.

The exam is getting away from what is needed to be known about fireground operations and becoming a guide to see how well a person can memorize useless bullscat… and frankly, it is pissing me off, as well as thousands of other firefighters having to deal with it.

My estimate of my expenses in taking these exams, buying the books and attending promotional school over my 29 years on the job comes to about $4K. There were 10 different textbooks for the last Deputy Chief's exam I took. One of them I had to buy, at a cost of $85.

They asked TWO questions out of this book, and the questions was based on illustrations and sidebars, not the text. By the way, the textbook was a business psychology textbook that has zero, zilch, nada, nothing to do with the fire service and was written to be used in a group discussion format.

The Human Resources Division of the Department of Personnel Administration hires “educators” with absolutely no knowledge of the fire service to write the questions for the exam. Proof of this lunacy is when they write a question that has no possible answer.

The exam is getting away from what is needed to be known about fireground operations and becoming a guide to see how well a person can memorize useless bullscat… and frankly, it is pissing me off, as well as thousands of other firefighters having to deal with it.

My estimate of my expenses in taking these exams, buying the books and attending promotional school over my 29 years on the job comes to about $4K. There were 10 different textbooks for the last Deputy Chief's exam I took. One of them I had to buy, at a cost of $85.

They asked TWO questions out of this book, and the questions was based on illustrations and sidebars, not the text. By the way, the textbook was a business psychology textbook that has zero, zilch, nada, nothing to do with the fire service and was written to be used in a group discussion format.

The Human Resources Division of the Department of Personnel Administration hires “educators” with absolutely no knowledge of the fire service to write the questions for the exam. Proof of this lunacy is when they write a question that has no possible answer.

The exam is getting away from what is needed to be known about fireground operations and becoming a guide to see how well a person can memorize useless bullscat… and frankly, it is pissing me off, as well as thousands of other firefighters having to deal with it.