I took a Clerical Abilities test for the Post Office a couple of weeks ago, and I was wondering if I any Dopers could give me a general idea about my score. I got an 88.80 rating on it and was wondering what the scale is. Is it out of 100? a percentile? They don’t say anywhere that I can find. I am hoping it is a really good score, and the other 1000 or so people that took the test did much worse, but I don’t really think that is so. 
You flunked horribly. Just kidding! I have no idea either, but I’m also curious. I’ve never even heard of that test.
Dunno what your score means, but I can tell you that the Better Half took “The Test” for letter carrier, and it took a year and a half (yes, that’s eighteen months) before he got any kind of callback. We had gotten on with our lives, we were making life choices that didn’t involve the USPS, having written the whole thing off as a failed experiment, when suddenly…the call. And even then it was, “This is NOT a job offer, we’d just like you to come in for an interview…” They took their own sweet time–about two weeks–to get around to an actual job offer.
So don’t hold your breath. Or make plans for a career at the post office based on your score, 'cause it don’t mean diddly.
Yeah, they call you in order as jobs open up. So the people that were at the tail end of the 1000 or so that took it during the same time period as I did will probably not get called before the 2 years that it is good for is up. That is part of why I am asking. If it is a percentile score, it is not bad, but not something I want to count on for applying for a job. If it is out of 100 possible, then I have a better shot at something coming up. Unless of course 600 people scored 88.81 or higher. 
The test was marked the same day he took it, but they mailed him the results.
They never gave, or mailed, him any results at all. He took the test, they said, Welp, thanks for coming in, and then silence for a year and a half.
Wow - who’d have thought that a job in the post office would be in such high demand.
Drat, my (carrier) postal worker husband left for work before I saw this, or else I’d have asked him. Hopefully someone more knowledgeable will chime in before he returns.
I do know that previous government or - especially - military experience will essentially give you a bonus to that score. I’m sorry I don’t know more.
Yes, a veteran can get either a 5 or 10 point bonus added to their score, same with someone permanently disabled. The exact number depends on what they are a veteran of or what level of disability they have. So a permanently disabled vet could get as much as 20 extra points to their final scores. But I was never in the military and so far I am not disabled.
Duck Duck Goose, I am surprised they didn’t send him the results. They made it clear when we took the test they made clear we would receive the results in 4-6 weeks. It has only been a little over 2 for me, so they actually got it done pretty fast.
Illuminatiprimus, this is an economically depressed area, with a chance for a job that has high pay, good benefits, and good job security. There were over 200 at the test I took, and they had 4 other test sessions.
bolding mine
Isn’t the score the same whether it’s out of 100 or a percentile? I mean, you either got an 88% score on the test or 88/100 (88%) score on the test. Can someone who knows actual math tell us?
I think he means the percentile would be a score showing his ranking compared to everyone else taking this test versus “you got 88% of the questions right” for the percent. Sort of like grading on a curve in the first instance if I’m remembering my math right. If it were a percentage but most everyone else got 89%+, his score wouldn’t be so good, but a percentile of 88% would mean he scored better than 88% of the other test-takers.
Yes, percentile means that you scored better then that percentage of the people that took the test. If you are in the 99th percentile, you scored better then 99% of the people that took the test. If you score 99% on a test, you might still be in the 10th percentile if most of the people that took it scored 100%.
Heh. Tommy Lee Jones and aliens at the Post Office notwithstanding, it is an excellent job to have. I’ve had “no worries” as a wife and mom ever since Fall 1983–roof over head, food on table, things like power bills and car insurance “not a problem”, reasonable amount of family vacations, three kids raised and in the process of being put through college.
Also, there has never been a strike at the USPS, so job security there. We’ve watched contemporaries at Firestone and Caterpillar deal with closings and layoffs. It all passed us by, totally, for which we are eternally grateful.
If you’re a letter carrier, and you’re on the Overtime Desired list, the overtime is tremendous, puts you right up in those painfully higher tax brackets. (Oh, it’s so awful to hear Himself moanin’ and groanin’ on April 14, “Honey, we made too much money this year…” ) Maybe by Harvard Lawyer six-figure income standards, it’s peanuts, but for a blue-collar gruntwork hourly wage-slave job, it’s heaven.
And they have a ferocious union, the NALC, that plays balls-to-the-wall both at contract renegotiation time and on the workroom floor.
Yeah, seriously, there’s a reason why people are standing in line to get hired on.
Interesting. Sounds like the US postal service workers have it better than the UK ones (if the number of strikes this side of the pond are anything to go by).
My husband says that (to the best of his recollection) typically anything above 90% is considered excellent so you did very well, and that it is not a percentile, that’s your own score.
Thanks. Probably would have done better if I didn’t have brain damage, but such is life.
MrWhatsit is a mail carrier and says that as far as he knows, your score is high enough to put you over the “cut-off”, meaning that you will be on the callback list. However, and he prefaces this by saying “I’m not sure I want to say this to someone who’s currently job seeking…”, he says that at least in our area, the USPS is anticipating cutting a lot of clerk jobs due to automation in the next several years, and therefore, again in his opinion, without military or disability preference, it might be unlikely that you actually get a call.
However, he says that you might want to consider applying on as a casual/transitional employee, which would involve finding out which post offices in your area are in need of temporary workers, and putting in an application there. At least at his P.O., occasionally a casual employee will get upgraded to an actual employee.
Good luck, either way!
Unfortunately, the only casual workers they have been hiring is drivers for rural delivery. I wouldn’t mind doing that, but all of the jobs are from 30 to 50 miles away. Then driving around doing the deliveries. Can’t really afford that much for gas, even in a Civic.
The US Post Office has some powerful union people, there’s plenty of job security. I’ve heard from a few different sources that the main way they get rid of a bad employee is to promote them and move them to another office. :dubious:
Isn’t that average number of rounds per minute he can be expected to get off with a 7.62 mm Soviet assault rifle?
Pretty damned good if it’s a semi auto.