From the Publisher
This book is designed to prepare the reader to maximize her/his performance in the upcoming assessment center for promotion within her/his police department. This is accomplished in two very concrete and powerful ways: 1. The reader becomes an informed participant in the assessment center by learning all about assessment centers from someone who has been creating and implementing assessment centers for police departments throughout the country for the last twenty-plus years and 2. The reader is given the opportunity to practice their performance in the assessment center before the actual assessment center by participating in the three actual police assessment center exercises which accompany the book.
This is accomplished by following the instructions that accompany the exercises and enable the candidate to administer the exercises to herself/himself. The exercises also include a scoring guide which enables the reader to see what they did well and how they can improve, after they complete each exercise. This sequence of practice and feedback provide the candidate with the experience which is necessary for learning to occur.
The author uses his training and his twenty five years of experience in creating and implementing assessment centers to police departments across the country to develop a practical preparation kit. This resource is something very concrete and useful for the Police Officer to use in taking a proactive approach in preparing for her/his Department's upcoming assessment center. Not only has the author created and implemented the assessment centers but he has also developed the scoring guides for the assessors which focus them on what to look for, when scoring the exercise. This puts him in a sound position to provide the candidates with valuable information about maximizing their performance in the assessment center.
From the Author
After years of being asked by candidates for promotion, "I know how to study for a multiple choice test of job knowledge but how do I prepare for an assessment center?" I finally developed the answer that I am comfortable recommending to the officers who raised the question. It is a kit that involves an informative book entitled Police Assessment Center Preparation by Lawrence O'Leary, Ph.D. and it comes with a set of actual police assessment center exercises for the reader to practice. It instructs the reader how to avoid the most commonly observed errors committed by hundreds of past candidates. Next the kit allows you to take the three different assessment center exercises, when you decide to take them. The book also includes a scoring guide which can show the reader what things they did correctly when they completed exercise and what they need to change to improve before their actual assessment center.
The result of the kit is that you have the opportunity to first become an informed candidate and next, to practice your skills before they are measured by your Department's assessment center. The fact of the matter is that the police promotional assessment center is a competition. Furthermore, you the Police Officer know much better than anyone else, the payoff of successfully competing and earning an acceptably high enough ranking on the resulting promotion list. We're talking about thousands of dollars more in salary year after year after year, etc. Given these facts, you want to do everything you can to maximize the chances that you will perform at your peak level on the day(s) that you participate in your assessment center.
There is a great deal about your assessment center that you cannot control. For example, What exercises will be in your assessment center?, How will your assessment center be graded?, Who will the assessors (graders) be in your assessment center?, etc. However, there is something that you can control. You can become thoroughly informed about every major aspect of police assessment centers, before you participate. You can also practice participating in assessment centers by practicing the actual assessment center exercises that accompany the Police Assessment Center Preparation book. Finally, you can compare your responses to the scoring guide in order to identify three valuable types of information: 1. The responses to the exercises that were accurate and for which you would receive points and 2. The responses which were inaccurate and 3. In those cases where you were inaccurate, what would some accurate answers be.
The good news is that if you learn and practice with the Police Assessment Center Preparation Kit (PACKIT) you will maximize your performance in your assessment center and have an advantage over candidates who have not practiced. Clearly the assessment center is more than a game. Furthermore, it is competitive. If you anticipated competing in some other area: basketball, golf, tennis, running, soccer I assert that you would not wait to practice for the event until the day of the event.
Yet many candidates do that very thing when it comes to participating in their assessment center. It has been my experience that many candidates in a police assessment center do not practice any of the skills or behavior to be observed and graded until they participate in the actual assessment center.
