Washington State Patrol Oral Board

[laughlinww]

I just completed my written exam for WSP on Saturday (yesterday) and they have scheduled me for a oral board this Tuesday (the 14th).

If anyone has taken this oral board, could you give me some pointers you may have?

Also if you have taken their oral board and passed, could you give me any info you may have on how their polygraph is structured? If I pass the oral board I believe I will be immediately scheduled for the polygraph.

[birdman0]

Have you done a ride along? Will you have a chance before the oral board? It helps a lot. The advice I got when I rode was to relax, and think about each situation as though I were a trooper (what would I do). Don't try to think about what they want to hear, just talk through every situation. Don't assume anything, they'll tell you this also.

They will give you several scenarios. Obviously I can't tell what those will be since every one is different, but if you read through all the info in these forums on oral boards you will have a pretty good idea what may come up.

I can't tell you how to pass 100%, I just did my best to answer every question in the most complete way possible, acted confident and didn't get rattled if they pushed me on an answer I knew was right. Also the recruiter told me, "they won't know how bad you want this unless you tell them" so I did. Practicing your answers to the questions out loud in front of a mirror or with someone else helps a lot. Especially with the questions like, "Why do you want to be a trooper?"