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Transit Management Analyst Trainee - Exam #7606


Jersey Loop

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+Young+

Thanks for all the info you provided.

 

From what you said it would seem that they are using a raw score method....

 

My only experience with any of these exams was a state exam...

 

So the first milestone, after the exam will be the release of the answer key, correct?

 

Saw here [http://web.mta.info/nyct/hr/proposed_answerkey.htm]that some TA exams taken in March '17...

 

Guess at any point the after key is released, the list can be established. That might be where the long wait stands.

 

Are eligible lists made public like the state does?...

 

Anyway thanks again, do appreciate the background info. Hoping that way less than 1000 are taking it, 500 perhaps. :)

 

First, you're welcome.

 

Second, to be "technical", if there were 80 questions and an applicant managed to get 65 of them correct, then their raw score would be 81.25% (65 divided by 80).

 

And yes, providing you recorded your answers on your "Candidates Record of Answers" sheet at the test site, which you are allowed to take home, the first milestone would be comparing your answers to the proposed answer key.

 

Now if you disagree with a proposed answer, you can go down to the Protest session (information will be provided at the test site) to try to prove your point across. If you, and some of the other candidates are successful, then they will throw out the related question(s). If this happens, then chances are your raw score will increase to 82.27% (65 divided by 79) or 83.33% (65 divided by 78). Keep in mind that attending the protest session is optional.

 

Then, once the protest session is over, the list is established. As one of the other moderators mentioned in this post, this is the part where we will have to wait the longest, since it usually takes them at least a year to produce it. As far as the lists being made available to the public - if you check out The Chief, the lists are produced in this newspaper, unless you're willing to pay for the online subscription. What's nice is that, at least in my neighborhood, you can walk into the local deli, look at the paper in the store, and only pay for it if you decide to take it out of the store. However, if you look through it, and you don't find what you're looking for, you can always put it back and save some $$ (except for a cup of coffee).

 

Usually, a civil service list for any agency within New York City (NYC Transit, Dept. of Transportation, CUNY, NYPD, FDNY, etc.) are good for four [4] years.

 

Just like you, I'm also hoping that less than 1,000 people are taking it, however I just like to plan for the worst. I'm sure I don't have to describe an example if I mention the word "snowstorm".

Edited by +Young+
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Got mine as well! And thank you for all the information. I'm excited but also nervous that it will take another year to even have the list established, let alone go through the process to get a position...

Definitely feel the same, it's one of those do it & forget it for a while things it would seem. And even then, it's a matter of where one lands & how extensive the list ends up being.

 

Found this really informative site, http://www.osaunion.org/exam/main.htmlthat had DCAS results for a Staff Analyst Exam they gave back in May '15, and the established list didn't happen until July '16.

 

Can someone confirm that MTA handles their own testing/scoring/list establishment independent of DCAS?

Perhaps their timelines will deviate, as I have seen MTA answer keys released 2 months after exams [unsure if lists were established, but at least it's something to look for]

 

I guess the slight good news is that the pay on the position/s seems to increase a few thousand every year and the position auto bumps to the next level position [w/o exam] after 1 year in good service.

 

Hopefully some individuals taking the exam that pass will also be earning above the starting on this position, thereby constricting the list of eligibles a bit tighter as some pass on the position due to the salaryor any other reasons. Good luck to all and thanks for an informative board on this topic.

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So I just got back from the exam...my apologies for posting so late, I was affected by the G.O. along Queens Blvd, in which Shuttle Buses were running from 71st Avenue to 179th Street & Jamaica Center.

 

First, did anyone recognize me? I was wearing a yellow t-shirt, with shorts and brown sneakers. Since I got there at 8:20, I was towards the front of the line. Since I got there so early, I was able to witness the staff unload the materials from the van into the building. As I was doing so, I clearly saw five [5] green storage totes, which was marked on the exterior with 200 copies of the exam on each one, being brought into the building. Even someone in the classroom I was in (Room 408, seat #21) informed us that there were about 1,000 people taking the exam.

 

As far as the exam is concerned, IMHO, that was one of the hardest exams I ever took!! The only other exam I remember taking which was that hard was the Staff Analyst Exam (#4060), in which my list # for that is in the 1700's out of 2,964 people with a score of 78.75%. Also, from what I recall, even though I have an undergraduate degree in math, some of the questions and answers did not make sense...depending on what the proposed answer key looks like, I'm thinking of going to the protest session...however, we'll see what happens in about a month from now.

 

Any other thoughts/comments? Did anyone else see me?

Edited by +Young+
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I was in room 205.

 

I overheard someone ask the proctor how many people were taking the exam, and she said 980, but wasn't too sure about it.

 

Having no other exams to compare this with, this exam was not exactly what I expected, but not too far off either. I hated those "supervisor interaction" questions...the rest was pretty easy with a couple individual exceptions.

Edited by Amtrak7
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Finally back; decided to do some city exploration after the exam! I got there around 9:10 am, and I think I also ended up in Room 208 (seat 32)! I was I think the third or fourth person to finish in that room. Sea foam green "NYC" shirt with glasses and cargo shorts.

 

But I can totally understand those who spent the full 4 hours on it or close to that; I feel lucky to be fresh out of college and still used to taking exams in recent memory. 

 

Overall, I feel very comfortable about the math questions, except for one or two that had some wiggle room - one of those was the question about calculating pension benefits for the track worker; on my third attempt I got an answer that was a choice so I just went with that...

 

Same deal with grammar/sentences/paragraph questions - most of them had an obviously correct answer to me. 

 

I agree Amtrak7 - the "supervisor interaction" ones were so dumb and in my opinion for most of those the "correct" procedure wasn't even listed because obviously you're dealing with human beings not robots, and so many responses are dependent myriad other factors besides those a test question could describe.

 

Aside from some minor concern about those more subjective-type questions, I felt pretty comfortable with my work on the exam as a whole - one question I'm still wondering about is the one where a passenger is injured on a platform; what do you do... was between two responses for that. If I think of any others to wonder about, I'll post here.

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But I can totally understand those who spent the full 4 hours on it or close to that; I feel lucky to be fresh out of college and still used to taking exams in recent memory.....

 

Aside from some minor concern about those more subjective-type questions, I felt pretty comfortable with my work on the exam as a whole - one question I'm still wondering about is the one where a passenger is injured on a platform; what do you do... was between two responses for that. If I think of any others to wonder about, I'll post here.

 

First, lucky you!!

 

Second, at first glace, I was stumped by those subjective-type questions, but after I looked at a second time, I was fortunately able to figure those questions out.

 

I'm just curious to find out how I did when the proposed answer key comes out.

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So I just got back from the exam...my apologies for posting so late, I was affected by the G.O. along Queens Blvd, in which Shuttle Buses were running from 71st Avenue to 179th Street & Jamaica Center.

 

First, did anyone recognize me? I was wearing a yellow t-shirt, with shorts and brown sneakers. Since I got there at 8:20, I was towards the front of the line. Since I got there so early, I was able to witness the staff unload the materials from the van into the building. As I was doing so, I clearly saw five [5] green storage totes, which was marked on the exterior with 200 copies of the exam on each one, being brought into the building. Even someone in the classroom I was in (Room 408, seat #21) informed us that there were about 1,000 people taking the exam.

 

As far as the exam is concerned, IMHO, that was one of the hardest exams I ever took!! The only other exam I remember taking which was that hard was the Staff Analyst Exam (#4060), in which my list # for that is in the 1700's out of 2,964 people with a score of 78.75%. Also, from what I recall, even though I have an undergraduate degree in math, some of the questions and answers did not make sense...depending on what the proposed answer key looks like, I'm thinking of going to the protest session...however, we'll see what happens in about a month from now.

 

Any other thoughts/comments? Did anyone else see me?

 

Have to say I was surprised at the turnout to the exam, and with the numbers that were supplied by two posters on here it really looks like it was a sizeable lot. At 1000 heads, even a modest passing rate of 50% really creates quite a large pool of eligibles. It did appear to me that there was a large contingent of college/newly graduated to entry professional level crowd. This may have been due to campus recruiting via CUNY & other schools. All said, the numerics of the crowd was more troubling to me than the exam. Even with say a midline passing of 500 individuals, the modest bell curve would only place 50 people in the upper 10% of eligibles. Guess once the answer keys are released there will be more individual clarity.

 

As for the exam, while the most time was lost on the lenghty reading passages that were often basis of 1 to 3 questions, the overall feel was of a moderate difficulty. Many of the questions were often repeated in slight changed requirements, so if you can spot patterns there were many repeats. The math questions especially had quite a few different iterations of esentially the same premise. The most frustrating ones were to me the spotting the error in the passage, it often required re reading the passage word by word just to spot a single word being misspelled [recall customer, being spelled as "custumer"] These were more a point of frustration, but the answers were right there in front, so it just took a real fine tooth go through. There were to me many easy ones in the groups of information ordering, paragraph sequencing, office relationship protocols, and the math [that pension calculation was a tricky one, in that it asked which of the answers was "closest to" and one of the $ amount answers was a 23 differential & the other was a 25 to the actual real answer] The questions with supervisors//what is the right thing to do etc really were set up in a pattern of highly "ideal" action taking, in the case of injured customer, calling 911 was the ideal "max effort" action to undertake given the circumstance & given the highest priority is the customer.

 

Hopefully you all did well on it, it was a bit of a reality check to see the large turnout. But at the same time, if you have a bit of qualified experience [pgs 17-20 on the application] in conjunction with a good passing score there may be means by which one lower eligible candidate will outflank a higher one for some particular analyst postions.

 

It's really good to see that they answers will be release within a relatively short time frame. I am not sure how the protest really works, but it would seem one would have to singularly go through all missed answers & choose which ones to dispute & then formulate a plot on why it may have been a possibilty of a duplicitous answer all in the span of 2 hours?

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  • 1 month later...

So the proposed answer key has been posted...for those of you who took the exam on Saturday, July 15th and have your yellow "Candidate's Personal Record of Answers," it can be viewed here...I got 18 wrong, for a score of 77.5%
 

It's really good to see that they answers will be release within a relatively short time frame. I am not sure how the protest really works, but it would seem one would have to singularly go through all missed answers & choose which ones to dispute & then formulate a plot on why it may have been a possibility of a duplicitous answer all in the span of 2 hours?

Well, I only got 18 wrong, so out of 80 questions, it's not that bad...keep in mind that the protest is geared towards arguing why your incorrect answers should be marked correct, so it's not like you're taking the exam with 80 questions all over again.

 

In addition, a score of 70% is passing, so for those who got a good 40 questions wrong, or something to that nature, it may not even be worth attending the session to begin with...
 

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Congrats to you both for passing! I got 4 wrong, so 95%. Hoping there are not too many veterans/other add-ons to people's scores lol.

Best of luck to those passing, happen to whiff on 8 of them. All in all not bad, we'll see when a list gets established exactly

how it looks. With over 1000 likely having took it, it'll be interesting how the scores broke down in that pool size. Anyone care to

take a guess as to duration before list gets established? 6 months? 1 year? sooner?

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Best of luck to those passing, happen to whiff on 8 of them. All in all not bad, we'll see when a list gets established exactly how it looks.

With over 1000 likely having took it, it'll be interesting how the scores broke down in that pool size. Anyone care to take a guess as to duration

before list gets established? 6 months? 1 year? sooner?

 

So you got a tentative score of 90%...congrats!!

 

As far as when the list gets established, I would say at least one year...according to this, it took them 18 months to produce the Track Worker list, and according to this, it took them over 2 years to produce the Bus Operator list.

 

In addition, does anyone have any information as far as when the list from the previous examination expires? I know they had a hiring freeze back in 2009, and I don't know how much of an impact that had on the previous list.

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So you got a tentative score of 90%...congrats!!

 

As far as when the list gets established, I would say at least one year...according to this, it took them 18 months to produce the Track Worker list, and according to this, it took them over 2 years to produce the Bus Operator list.

 

In addition, does anyone have any information as far as when the list from the previous examination expires? I know they had a hiring freeze back in 2009, and I don't know how much of an impact that had on the previous list.

 

I can't imagine this exam's final results will take nearly that wrong - after all, they were pretty quick with the proposed answers and protest session date (right?). And both of the exams you cited had over 8000 takers, as opposed to the several hundreds who took this one. Maybe 6 months maximum? Or am I being overoptimistic.

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  • 2 weeks later...

So I got back from the Protest session. There were quite a few of us, at least 15 if I had to take an educated guess. If anyone else was there - I was wearing a yellow t-shirt with blue jeans sitting against the wall.

 

As the proctor said, normally for a protest they get a few people - 3 or 4 and that's it. Therefore, with the amount of people that were there today, something was "fishy" (if you get where I'm coming from).

 

Within the two hour time span that was permitted, I looked at most of the questions I got incorrect and realized some of the stupid mistakes I made. Oh well. I was able to submit protests for six of the questions, so we'll see what happens.

 

Good luck folks, and remember, patience!!!

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So I got back from the Protest session. There were quite a few of us, at least 15 if I had to take an educated guess. If anyone else was there - I was wearing a yellow t-shirt with blue jeans sitting against the wall.

 

As the proctor said, normally for a protest they get a few people - 3 or 4 and that's it. Therefore, with the amount of people that were there today, something was "fishy" (if you get where I'm coming from).

 

Within the two hour time span that was permitted, I looked at most of the questions I got incorrect and realized some of the stupid mistakes I made. Oh well. I was able to submit protests for six of the questions, so we'll see what happens.

 

Good luck folks, and remember, patience!!!

 

I missed the "you must email" deadline for the protest session by 2 hours...

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  • 2 weeks later...

So I got back from the Protest session. There were quite a few of us, at least 15 if I had to take an educated guess. If anyone else was there - I was wearing a yellow t-shirt with blue jeans sitting against the wall.

 

As the proctor said, normally for a protest they get a few people - 3 or 4 and that's it. Therefore, with the amount of people that were there today, something was "fishy" (if you get where I'm coming from).

 

Within the two hour time span that was permitted, I looked at most of the questions I got incorrect and realized some of the stupid mistakes I made. Oh well. I was able to submit protests for six of the questions, so we'll see what happens.

 

Good luck folks, and remember, patience!!!

Interesting, I totally missed the protest deadline. Might I ask what you meant by something was "fishy"? I would think it was just a higher than normal turnout due to the basic qualifications of the exam. The exam itself had a high turnout, so 15 people seems rather small no?

 

I am curious though if these dispute sessions can cause a "correct" proposed answers to become incorrect in the final answer key. Or is it that disputes allow for duplicate answers for the same question on final keys. 

 

Is there a timeline as to when these disputes go infront of the "board"? saw that on the back of the answers sheet but it didn't offer much details in terms of timing.

 

Patience indeed, hopefully this list is established by end of 1Q18. Guess the next release on this will be the final answer keys then eventually the list.  We shall see.

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Interesting, I totally missed the protest deadline. Might I ask what you meant by something was "fishy"? I would think it was just a higher than normal turnout due to the basic qualifications of the exam. The exam itself had a high turnout, so 15 people seems rather small no?

 

Like the proctor said, normally for a protest they have very few people, aka less than 5. However, for this one they had in between 15 and 20 people.

 

That's all...

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I got an email today to report to an assessment on 10/3 for a *provisional* TMA-T position in the Personnel Testing, Selection and Classification Unit.

I'm pretty darn sure I never applied to such a position on the MTA website. Perhaps they're already taking names from the exam...one of the specific duties listed was developing and/or proctoring the civil service exams...

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6 minutes ago, Amtrak7 said:

I got an email today to report to an assessment on 10/3 for a *provisional* TMA-T position in the Personnel Testing, Selection and Classification Unit.

I'm pretty darn sure I never applied to such a position on the MTA website. Perhaps they're already taking names from the exam...one of the specific duties listed was developing and/or proctoring the civil service exams...

Wow...good luck!! Keep us posted!!

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