Dred

I would like to have some of your opinions from people who took the OPA exam. We really need to have a serious discussion about our chances of passing this OPA exam. Please also note that I am not trying to brag about my accomplishments, just trying to give you an understanding of where my background is help put into perspective how difficult I found this memory section to be. I'm a native english speaker and also have an accounting degree and also a master degree, I have my CPA license, or certified public accountant certification which is a extremely difficult 4 part exam, and got 2 answers wrong on the first part of the conductor exam. I don't consider myself to have bad memory either, but I found the first memory part extremely difficult because they would give you so much information to remember and they would give you stuff to remember to try and trick you up. To clarify better as an example, they would give you lots of facts and the facts were very close to each other that when it came time to answer the question you could usually narrow it down to 2 answers very easily but those two answers were so close you really had to take a guess. I found myself having to take an educated guess many times after narrowing it down to two questions. To give an example of a hypothetical memory question that is made to try and trick you up, say I placed a book on the 7th row of a shelf, and this shelf in the 6th aisle of the 8th floor. There would be lots of other information in this question also you had to remember, not just these facts so there is no way you could continue thinking about these numbers in your short term memory. Then you were asked a question a few minutes later asking "What row of the shelf did you place the book on the shelf". A) 8th B) 7th C)2nd D) 3rd shelf. Now you kind probably easily remember that the book was placed high up on the shelf, so you can eliminate the 2nd and 3rd shelf easily. However, you then narrow it down to two answers, was this the 7th or the 8th shelf. You remember hearing the word 8th, but you really can't remember was it the 7th shelf or the 8th shelf, or was it that the 7th aisle . You then have no choice but to take a guess because who the heck is going to remember exactly the location when so many other numbers were so close to trick you up and you had so many other facts and numbers to remember. This is exactly why this test was so difficult, they really tricked you up and forced you to remember things that were extremely close. That all being said I had to guess at many questions and am seriously worried that I failed this test, especially if they grade it with a 75 average. What I would like to discuss from some of you is, do you think they are going to fail a lot of people? Personally I would be shocked if they graded this on a 75 Pass average as I would think so many people would fail including myself. Is it possible that they may not fail a lot of people and the only people who will fail will be non-english speakers who really couldn't remember anything well because of the language barrier and couldn't even narrow down the answers to 2 questions? This is what I'm hoping for. I found the first part of the exam was so language intensive that it seemed it was meant to weed out the non native speakers of English. I simply can not believe my memory can be so bad with all my accomplishments, unless of course being in your late 30's makes your memory crap compared to early 20's. This makes me believe that they will have to score this on some kind of curve and not outright fail more than 50% of the candidates. Could you imagine if most of us failed here? Wouldn't there be lawsuits like with the FDNY for discrimination? We really should consider a lawsuit if most of us fail this OPA exam as I think it is outrageous what they expected you to remember. The other topic I would like to discuss is how some people have posted on this thread that the OPA memory exam was easy. Personally, I usually have found at the university that the people who said an exam was easy did poorly on it. The reason for this is because they did not even realize they were getting tricked up big time. I just can't see how anyone could have that good of a memory unless they practiced memory tricks to learn how to remember things. I would like to hear from some of you how people have said in this thread that the memory test was easy. Are these people just fooling themselves or is my memory just bad and I have to accept that fact? Please, I don't want any fighting about what I wrote here, it always seems like anything I write leads to flaming. I really want a serious discussion about the difficulty of this OPA exam as I found it ridiculously difficult. Based on my test scores, my academic qualifications, having been able to pass the CPA exam which is considered very difficult exam, how I could find this OPA exam so difficult and am pretty sure I failed it. I also don't consider myself to have bad memory considering I always seem to remember things better than most people I know. Please share your experience with this memory test, did anyone else find it extremely difficult and are also worried they could have failed?

If 70% is passing, I feel a lot of people are going to be disappointed. Unless of course, they give close answers partial points. I would say 5 questions I had to guess between 2 answers, I could easily have gotten below 70% on the memory. The speaking test, I know I screwed 1 question up pretty badly, my mind just went blank on what to say. But the others I think I answered them OK. I really can't see them eliminating so many people because of the OPA, We are top scorers on the first test and find it difficult, can you imagine when they get further down the list. Lots of people would be eliminated and there would be lawsuits and such, like on the FDNY. But wow, that memory test. If I had time to prepare I would have done a lot better.

Wow, the memory test was really difficult, I'll just say that. If they score it by 75% pass I could have failed it, I had to guess at least 25% of the time. The speaking test didn't seem as difficult but not sure what they were looking for. Still shocked how difficult the memory test was.

I emailed the MTA a few times when I didn't receive my test date. They are pretty good at getting back to you with a response. I didn't expect that sending an Email would get any response. I would just make it simple and ask them, I didn't receive a letter for the OPA and my friends who got the same amount wrong on the first test received one, are there any issues or should I have received one in the mail?

Thanks, the way they word it in the letter you have to wonder if they put you through a metal detector and then when they see you have a cell phone not allow it in the building. They do this at the federal court. Again, thanks for the quick reply.

Hoping to catch someone before I leave early this morning. It says on the exam notice not to bring a cell phone. Should I not bring one at all, or is it OK if I leave it in my pocket? I would like to have it with me for the travel. Thanks, hoping someone responds tonight!

Thanks, they have to be kidding me giving a test like this. I don't really like it but I will manage. But I prefer it being 2 people over 1 person, I just don't like sitting across from people 1 on 1, like at dinner or interviews and stuff like that.

Can someone give more details, is it very personal, or are you speaking across a room? Thank you

You really have to base this off of pension and also job security. You can't beat the city for job security, so you have to expect a little lower pay. You also have to calculate what you would get as a NYC pension vs your hotel pension, and then figure out if it is worth it. The other thing you should look at is job promotions, how high could you climb in the MTA vs how high you can climb in your current job. I am going to say that if there is any stress at your job, having to kiss ass, feeling worried about getting fired, too much competition, then why deal with stress for the next 20 years when you can have an easy stress free city job. It isn't worth the extra pay at the end of the day to work in a private company. My recommendation is you have to be crazy not to take a city job unless you are getting paid a lot of money, and when I say a lot of money, I mean like $200,000 salaries.

Could someone tell me who you spoke to? Was it a computer or person? Do you have someone sitting right in front of you looking at you while you speak? This will make me nervous as hell and I might forget stuff, especially if the person is an attractive female. I might bring sunglasses if this is the case.

This is what I am thinking also, how could they hold this against someone who is not on the job.

What is there to be nervous about if English is your first language? I can't see them expecting you to cite Shakespeare or anything crazy. There are so many MTA employees who are foreigners where English is their second language. I can't see this being difficult at all. Not only that, you just need a passing grade, nothing like the first exam where you need to get at least a 95 to get called. I have to admit though, I was surprised how difficult they made the 1st exam.

If they wanted a dress code they would mention it. When I went through the FDNY hiring process nobody ever was dressed up, mostly everyone wore sneakers and jeans. Nobody cares. I personally would feel stupid if I got dressed up. All you are is a number, and they have to hire you only based on your scores and passing tests. Impressing someone is just a waste of time as it means nothing. This is a city job. I am basing this off of going through the FDNY hiring process, and I believe it will be no different with a conductor job. The few people who got dressed up always looked odd.

Does anyone have an idea about how difficult the OPA is if English is your first language? I'll probably be out of it because I'm not going to get any sleep that night and I'm always out of it in the mornings, so just wondering if I should worry or will it be impossible to fail if English is your first language? I also assume that it only matters if you pass or fail this? Or will they use the score to establish list numbers, where a higher score would be better? What do you think?

Damn you guys are lucky who got 2PM, they want me to be there at 7:30AM. I go to sleep at 2:30AM normally so will get almost no sleep.

I see what you are saying. You are saying they can't go forward until the list is finally established and this OPA is just more or less part of the first exam. Makes sense since you need a 70 on it to pass. The only thing that makes things confusing is they are giving the test to the highest scorers first, you would think they would give it randomly to everyone who passed the first exam. In the end it is a big unknown, but we are still probably looking at another year before DCAS creates their list.

Just speculation but how soon could people called from the 6601 list be called? Assume the top scorer. Is this something that could happen within the next few months, or most likely over a year away? Thanks, just trying to get an idea about of how soon I could be called.

Can you temporary defer the conductor job, and get put back at the top of the list when you want back on? You were able to do that with the FDNY.

For the top scoring people, how long would it probably take before you get called for this job? Is it still more than a year away before anyone is hired from this list?

I just got the letter for test date October 6, I see people saying they got 1 wrong. I also scored really high but am too lazy to find my score sheet to see how many I got wrong. I got like 2 wrong I believe. Are they sending this out to the people who scored the highest first? I believe that the only people who got this letter so far are the people who seemed to mention they got 1 or 2 wrong.

Hi, does anyone know if a criminal record will bar you from this job? Are there special background checks and standards for being a conductor? Thanks

5/22 AM Got #6 and #73 wrong.

I took the test on the same day and got #6 and #73 wrong. I don't care enough to go protest, but if I was you I would go find out why #6 was wrong. Not really happy as I thought I hit them all right, oh well. You really need a 100% to get called. Lots of people here saying they got 100%. I always make about 1 stupid mistake per test, maybe I made two here. None of this matters because I just got arrested on a bus and out on bail now, I don't think MTA would let me have the job because of being arrested on a bus. I also lost my FDNY job offer because of this arrest.

I missed this one also but if you wrote your answers down on that paper they gave you it says on the paper July 8th the answers will be available on the MTA website. They will after that date mail you your score, but they didn't give any dates for that. Remember, you're looking at a couple of years before they start hiring people from this test.

Thanks for your feedback about the test. I agree 100% that it was made to appear easy. I think many people are going to be a bit surprised about their score on this test. I may even be a bit surprised by scoring lower than I expected. I think only 1 question had 2 potential answers. I didn't find any other questions where I was not able to find the correct answer and also eliminate all the other answers. When the scores come out please come back and let me know how you scored on the exam.