I have one year left before I earn my B.S. in Criminal Justice. After college I would like to have a career as a juvenile probation officer. I have looked into this career greatly. A requirement for this job is that I will have to take a oral exam. I was wondering what this exam is like? What will be asked of me? How is it graded? What are they looking for? Any information is greatly appreciated.

Depending on the department, you will have several tests, first there will be a written test to get on the board list of people they call for interviews normally. There is a physcial and some a mental exam.

The oral will be done to put as much stress on you as possible, you may be asked some "what if" questions, if a person does this what do you do.
Many will have a "no win" answer at times. They want to see if you will think though some of them. They want to see how good you are speaking first ( you may be testifying in court alot) and see how you do under pressure.

Thank you, Chuck that helps a lot.

Also remember in some of them, you are being judged from the minute you walk into the front door, some watch you in the waiting room and see how you act if you are left for a bit. In one interview after I got into the interview I had to describe the office secretary, her office and anything I noticed . To see if I was alert to things around me.

That is very interesting. Thank you for sharing your experience. All information is very helpful.

I was a probation officer for 7 years in MD. As was mentioned above, there were a lot of "what if questions" during the interview and I had to go over my employment history in front of the panel in a narrative fashion. It was as if they wanted to see how I talked and presented myself. You have to have at least a bachelor's degree in my state to be a PO, not so in every state. The written exam also had "what if" questions on it and asked about some legal concepts, such as probable cause. They only hired persons who scored the highest scores on the written test.

I was a probation officer for 7 years in MD. As was mentioned above, there were alot of "what if questions" during the interview and I had to go over my employment history in front of the panel in a narrative fashion. It was as if they wanted to see how I talked and presented myself. You have to have at least a bachelor's degree in my state to be a PO, not so in every state. The written exam also had "what if" questions on it and asked about some legal concepts, such as probable cause. They only hired persons who scored the highest scores on the written test.


In my State at one time (don't know if it's still the policy) the bachelors degree had to be in a related field - social services, psychology, something along those lines, not English lit or basketweaving.

The "scores" on the written exam and "oral" interview were averaged and those were the people hired.

Yeah that's right you had to have at least 30 hours of "social sciences" or something like that, I forget the exact wording.