The
United States Postal Services has developed a new entrance exam
called the Test 473 for Major Entry Level jobs. This new test
is also referred to the 473 Battery Exam.
Mail
room clerks, carrier, mail handlers, and postal distribution
personnel must pass the 473 Postal exam. Your overall hiring
potential is based on your test results on the Postal exam, your
previous work experience and education. Those with related
previous work experience will score naturally higher overall.
The
473 Battery Exam got its name from the fact that there are 473
questions on the Postal exam. The Postal exam covers the
following:
- Part A, covers your ability to check address. There are 60 questions and you have 11 minutes to determine if two address are identical to each other or not.
- Part B, assesses your ability to complete forms. There are 30 questions and you have 15 minutes to complete missing information on forms presented in the exam.
- Part C is made up of two parts. Section 1 of Part C has 36 questions and you have six minutes to assign the proper code to addresses based on the directions provided in the exam.
Section
2 of Part C of the postal exam is designed to test your memory
skills. There are 36 questions and you got 7 minutes to answer
the questions. You have to memorize assigned codes for
addresses ranges.
The
last part of the exam is Part D. There are 236 questions. Those taking the exam are given 90 minutes to answer questions that
are designed to evaluate your experience and characteristics
that are related to working as a postal worker.
Part
D, will ask questions about yourself. Things you like to do and
things you don’t like to do. They will ask questions to find
out if you have experience in different areas of work. It’s a
personal profile so the more honestly you answer the questions the
better it will enable the U.S. Postal Service to find a job that fits
your characteristics. This is one part of the exam that you
cannot prepare for so concentrate on the other parts when you are
studying.
Address Checking
The
postal clerk exam is intended to underline your skills on the job if
necessary. Address checking is obviously a huge component if you work
for the postal service. There is a section devoted entirely to
checking addresses in order to evaluate your attention to detail, and
if you can work quickly.
When
you are checking addresses, look for differences in street numbers,
street names, abbreviated words like Dr. Rd. Ave. St.
etc. City names and state abbreviations can throw you. NY
looks similar to NV if the handwriting is unclear. Work as
quickly as you can scanning the address from left to right. The
smallest detail will make the difference if two addresses are
identical or not. If you want to challenge your eye scanning
skills, practice teaching yourself how to scan from right to left. The eye has a natural tendency to start from the upper left corner of
any reading material first. But forcing yourself to scan an
address from right to left will force your eye to move slower, thus
better able to catch discrepancies.
Random
guesses will not help your score so it is to your benefit to get
through as many questions as possible and to give each your full
attention.
Coding & Memory
Attention
to detail is probably the single-most important skill for anyone
testing for postal clerk jobs. The second most important skill
for this career path is your memory. The coding and
memory section of the postal clerk and carrier exam text your ability
to remember your ability to focus.
72
coding and memory questions ask you to identify codings
sections for details related to addresses and delivery routes. You are given a “coding guide” listing a series of address
ranges on one side and delivery routes on the other. It
will be your task to match the address range to the delivery route
without using the coding guide after you’ve reviewed it.
The
best tip for excelling at the coding & memory section is the same
with the address checking section, to stay completely focused on the
task at hand and pay close attention to the smallest details. Take the coding & memory sections of practice tests before your
test date. At first, the coding guide will appear
overwhelming. After reviewing a few of them, you will begin to
see a pattern in that the guide is devised in a logical format so
that addresses can be quickly associated with delivery routes.
A
quick side note on memory. We all have a memory. We all
have the ability to convert information to our short-term memory, our
long-term memory and our remote memory. Short-term memory
is where we store information temporarily. For example, if you
are working as a temp you may have a badge number for a particular
office, but once that assignment is complete, you probably forget all
about that badge number.
Long-term
memory is where we store information for the long haul. Family
member names, important telephone numbers and passwords are
usually stored here.
Remote
memory is where we remember things on autopilot. For example,
language is in our remote memory. Once we learn how to speak,
we never forget.
Personal Characteristics & Experience Inventory
There
is a section on the postal clerk exam called a Personal
Characteristics and Experience inventory. This is the
longest section on the exam and you can’t really prepare for
it. In fact, you are encouraged not to. Let’s go over what your test reviewers are looking for in the PC &
E section.
Your
personality is a large part of this section. The questions
aren’t intended to determine whether you are a good or bad person,
rather, they are intended to reveal if your personality traits would
bode well in the post office environment. For example, you will
be asked to answer a series of agree/disagree questions that will
shed light on your ability to work under pressure, and as a
cooperative part of a team.
The
Experience section is probing to find jobs that you have had
previously that demonstrate similar aptitudes and skills for the post
office job function. Jobs that might have required long hours
standing, for example, would be important to mention. Did you
have any jobs that required you to stand in one place for a long
period of time, like a retail sales associate? Likewise,
performing inventory in a retail environment might show that you can
work very quickly while also paying attention to detail. Repetitious tasks in any previous job will be good opportunities to
show that you are a good candidate for the post office.
Government Forms
There
are 30 questions in the forms completion section on the
postal clerk anc carrier exam. Questions ask you to fill in
fields on various forms. You don’t need to, nor should you even
try, to memorize the government forms in advance of the exam in order
to answer the forms questions successfully. The process that
you go through when you fill out medical forms are you local
physician’s office are filled out the same way as the US Postal
Service forms.
When
you get a form, look at its title to determine exactly what that form
is about. Glance through the form quickly to see if there are
sections you can skip if they do not apply. As you move down through
the form fields, note questions that say something like ‘if you
answered yes, proceed to question #8′. Also, as you work down
the fields, make sure you fill in the blank appropriately; for
example do not write your city’s zip code in the home telephone
number field. Pretty self-explanatory tips. This section
really boils down to focus and taking your time to deliberately
complete the form fields.
You’ll
have fifteen minutes to answer the 30 questions in the Forms section
on the exam. Again, don’t worry about memorizing all the
forms. Undoubtedly there will be one you haven’t seen
before. If you stay focused on what the form is about, and
exactly what detail the form field is looking for, you’ll score
well. In fact, in this section you are not penalized for
incorrect answers. Rather, you are scored on the completion rate of
your forms. Be sure to fill in every answer!