The civil service exam is conducted in order to recruit civil servants. They are used to select applicants with appropriate knowledge and skills to perform government jobs. Most government jobs in the United States at local, federal and state levels require the candidates to pass this exam. Some government positions that require the civil service exam are military employees, law enforcement officers, teachers, postal workers and many other government professionals.
Each government job may require a different civil service exam. For example a teacher would be required to take a different civil service exam from a firefighter or a postal worker. Each civil service exam consists of questions on general knowledge and specific knowledge related to the job. General knowledge questions may usually include interpretation of graphs and statistics, word problems and arithmetic. The nature of the general knowledge questions may however differ based on the job.
Job related questions will test the candidate on the professional knowledge related to the job and the skills required. For example an accountant may be tested on accounting principles as well as customer service.
In addition to the general knowledge and job related questions, every civil service exam will also test the language skills of candidates such as grammar, spellings and ability to write a composition. Test format may include multiple choice, short answer and essay type questions and the exam duration may vary from two to three hours.
Civil service exam is usually conducted by the hiring agency and require the applicants to register ahead in time. When an applicant applies for a government position and submits the required material and identification he or she will receive the admission card. The hiring agency will advise the applicant on the date and time of the civil service exam and the name and the address of the exam centre. The admission card should be produced to enter the relevant exam centre.
Civil service exam can also be taken online in some states. Applicants should be honest when taking the exam online. In case of dishonesty such as making someone else take the test instead of the applicant may result in the applicant facing felony criminal charges.
Civil service exams are held months apart. Any applicant who fails an exam is allowed to take it again but will have to wait for the next available exam. Prior preparation is therefore necessary before taking a civil service exam. Books and test guides can be obtained online and at local bookstores when preparing for a civil service exam.
Passing the civil service exam does not guarantee a government position. Applicants who pass the relevant exam will be administered to the next level of the hiring process which includes interviews and other evaluations.
Any government needs a large number of public servants to carry out its orders. The birth of the civil service commission was partly due to this need. Do you know the history of the commission in the country? After president Garfield was killed, the Pendleton Act created the civil service commission in the year 1883. Therefore, the commission is one with a very long history.
Since then the role, powers and number of civil servants involved in the activities of the commission has changed drastically. Various reforms have also changed the nature of the civil service commission. This commission is a very important one, not just to the public servants but for the country as a whole.
Before the commission was created politicians could meddle with the civil service and could hire and fire civil servants at will. Thanks to the birth of the civil service commission things became much more transparent. Everyone who aspires to join the civil service now has to sit for an exam and applicants are chosen according to their merits. If not for the civil service commission each and every government could flood the civil service with its own party members. The commission brought the ideals of fair play into the public service.
What exactly is civil service? The definition could vary from country to country. Generally, excluding the members of the armed forces, all other personnel employed by the government would fall within the jurisdiction of the civil service commission. However, in certain countries this is not the case.
The federal government is not the only body that makes use of the services of such a commission. You might have heard of the civil service commission in the state of New York or of some other state. Those employed by the state would fall under the jurisdiction of the commission belonging to the particular state.
In many developing countries like those in Asia and Africa these commissions are not independent ones. Political interference is common and thus some civil servants are extremely inefficient. The lack of an efficient civil service commission could lead to much corruption and wastage of public resources as in the case of many of these countries. Democracy in civil service is crucial.
Various reforms in 1978 caused a change in the nature and even in the name of the civil service commission. Some of the functions of the commission were transferred to different ones. Office of Personal Management was the new name given to the commission. The president of the civil service commission is an individual who wields significant powers and various people have presided over the commission up to now.
There is no doubt that some aspects of the commission need to be reformed to make it more efficient. However, the role of the civil service commission in any country is a very important one and success of many government policies would depend upon its effectiveness.
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