 Hi, my name is Aronda P. Asena and I'm the recruiting officer for the Denver Police Department. I just want to take a few minutes of your time to talk about the two tests that you'll be taking beginning March 4th. The first test is going to be your written test. With that, you're going to have two aspects to it, looking at the first part, your written communication skills, looking at your grammar, your punctuation, your spelling. And the second part of that test is your interpersonal skills. If you haven't already, I would strongly recommend going to the civil service website and looking at their sample tests. It's a sample test comprising 25 questions and it'll give you a general idea of what's expected and what you'll be doing on your written test. Another option you can do is go to any of your local bookstores and purchasing a police officer exam guide. These are about $15 or so, but they have roughly seven different written tests that you can practice with. But they're a great way to get your mindset and get your mind geared towards how you're going to take your test and what we're looking for. The second aspect of your test is going to be your video situation. And what that will comprise of is a series of videos that will pause in between and are geared towards judging how you would react to certain situations. For instance, you'll have two officers walking up to a domestic violence with people arguing. And as you're walking up, the video will freeze. And at that time, you'll be presented with four different options on how you'd respond to that. Again, this is geared towards looking at your judgment and how you score on this is going to carry forth in your testing process on how you rank from there. So definitely spend some time preparing, looking at everyday situations on how you would react to that. You know, whether you're just driving down the street and say, okay, what would I do with this? At least you'll start to get your mindset towards getting ready for this test. If you pass these two tests and you score well, then you'll be pulled forward towards the physical agility test. And that's going to be the next thing that you're going to be looking at. There is a sample of the physical agility test on the Civil Service website. I'd strongly recommend you looking at that as well. The two things that people have issues with are usually the fence and the window. The fence is going to be a chain link fence six feet off the ground and you need to be able to run up to it and jump over or climb over it in any manner. But you just need to get over that fence. The window, again, is going to be 50 inches off the ground and people just have some time, some issues just jumping up or getting through them. With the fence, the best recommendation for you is to go out to local high school and practice, get your rhythm, jumping over that fence. Because most of us, we haven't jumped over a fence probably since we were teenagers. So don't let this be the first time that you jump over a fence on your test date. Because you're going to have some issues and it could cost you, you know, pretty big going forward. It may cost you the test. The second part is going to be that window. If you are a shorter person, one thing I'd recommend is just, you know, doing some jumps. Getting your leg muscles used to that. You know, because again, we're not used to doing those things. So you need to go out there and practice. And one thing I do really want to stress to you guys is that no matter how many times I tell this to people, we will have people show up and this will be the first time they've done this. If this is what you want to do, you know, make sure you go forward and do that. If you're coming up on the test date and this is the first time you've jumped over a fence, you really need to look at your determination and how much effort you're willing to put forward in this testing process. This job is not going to be a 9 to 5 job. It takes a lot of commitment. It takes a lot of work. You're going to be joining an institution that has 125 plus year history. Within that timeframe, we've had amazing officers come through this job. Some who've sacrificed their lives to be in their line of duty. And so that's what you're going to be coming towards. And when you start doing your application process, getting ready for this test, start asking yourself, what am I going to do? What am I going to bring to this department? You know, we're going to look at all those things. What have you done to prepare yourself for this job? Do you have the commitment to be a part of our organization? You start off in patrol, so you're going to miss your holidays. You're going to be working over nights. And that's just part of the job. And eventually as your seniority goes up, you're going to be able to get some of the better spots and positions. But again, this is where you start off. And do you have that determination to be a part of that? That's just the best thing I can give towards you guys. Go out on some ride-alongs. Go with Denver, Lakewood, Aurora, a couple of counties, Jefferson County, Arapahoe County, Douglas County. Get an idea of what this job is going to be about. And when you go through your background investigation, they're going to ask you, again, what have you done to prepare yourself for this job? And at least you'll have a good answer or a good starting point for that. Again, I just wanted to take a few minutes of your time and give you guys an idea of what you're going to be doing on Monday, March 4th, with the written tests. And if you have any questions during this time, you can always get a hold of me. My number is 720-913-3395 or by email at eranDA, period, P-I-Y-A-S-E-N-A at denvergov.org. And if you have any questions, definitely give me a call and I'll be more than willing to answer them for you.