Types Of USPS Exams: Beat The Test And Work At US Postal Service

Are you thinking about taking a shot at the USPS after seeing a listing? Don’t send your application in immediately because you might not know what you’re getting yourself into! In this article, you’ll see the types of USPS exams and how to beat the test and work at the US postal service.

Depending on the available position, the pre-employment exam that you will have to go through will be adjusted accordingly.

While everyone can pass the USPS postal exam, preparing for the wrong one can be catastrophic, especially since there is a mandatory waiting period of one year if you fail to meet the minimum score.

This means that if you want to land that job at the USPS, you have to do it right the first time around and do well enough in it to stand out from the rest of the applicants. Why is this important? This is because each test-taker’s score that managed to pass the USPS exam will be compared to each other.

By now, you should be able to have a good idea of what comes next: the higher your score, the better your chances of being hired. So, without further ado, let’s go through several tips that can help you beat the USPS postal exam and stand out from the rest so that you can land that job with relative ease.

Look up what position you are applying for and understand its duties and responsibilities.

Every USPS postal exam, whether it’s the 474, 475, 476, and 477 exams, you will be made to take a work scenarios test to see how well you can handle what the average employee in that position has to go through on a regular, if not daily, basis.

These scenarios will follow a multiple-choice format and a situational judgment test where you will be provided with a conflict, problem, misunderstanding, or even just a technical issue at work that you will have to solve in the best possible way.

This means that if you’re taking the USPS 474 mail carrier exam, you will have to go through several scenarios in the shoes of a USPS employee.

The same can be for the rest of the USPS exams: you will have to handle problems by mail handlers in the USPS 475 mail handler exam, clerks in the USPS 476 clerical exam, and associates in the USPS postal exam 477.

While the questions and answers are close, they will not stray too far from the duties and expect responsibilities of the position you are applying for, meaning you can look up their job descriptions and listings to see the extent of what is expected of them.

Try to tailor your behavior to that of a USPS employee and be consistent!

If you are to take the USPS 474, 475, 476, or 477 postal exams, you will take two particular ‘behavioral assessments’ of sorts.

These will come in the form of the ‘Describe Your Approach’ and ‘Tell us Your Story’ sections.

For the former, it is a personality test specifically to suit a USPS employee’s needs. It complements the Work Scenarios section because any inconsistencies can easily note between your responses.

Possible Formats of USPS Exams Test to Work At US Postal Service

There are two possible formats that you can encounter though all of them follow a survey-type exam.

• You have to show your agreement or disagreement to a statement (similar to a Likert Scale).
• You have to pick which of the supplied statements apply/don’t apply to you the most.

The statements present in this part of the USPS postal exam are hard. Or soft-coded to relate to a particular personality trait such as being hardworking, focused, sociable, and many others.

To tackle this effectively, you will have to produce the personality profile that is compatible with the position that you are applying for, so for mail handlers/carriers, you need to show that you are careful with the parcels/letters of customers; for clerks, you will have to have good communication and social skills; and for the associates, you will have to show a good mixture of them but with some good business/sales-related proficiencies.

In the ‘Tell Us Your Story’ section, you will ask questions relating to your work history. Such as how long you’re working in your last job, how many absences you had, among others. So, a good idea to USPS exams test to work At US postal service

Although they are lenient with such things, it should note that the USPS is strict when it comes to inconsistencies. So if they discover that you’ve lied about the nature of your termination. They will likely disqualify you on the spot under the reason of “if they can’t trust you now, then why should they risk it with more important things at the office?”.

Prepare for their ability tests.

For the 475 and 476 postal exams. There will have an ability test that you will have to take. Moreover, this is the ‘Checking for Errors’ assessment.

In this section, you will give a mini-database of sorts and then a series of questions. So, asking if certain rows containing important information such as names, addresses, reference numbers. Phone numbers and other things are an exact match or not.

Lastly, for the 477 postal exams, if that’s what you have to take. You will pass the ‘Work Your Register’ assessment.

USPS Exams Test to Work At US Postal Service Conclusion

Here, your ability to provide change with the least amount of bills and coins test. So if a customer’s change is five dollars. You expect to give them one five-dollar bill instead of five one-dollar bills, etc.

If you have any cash register experience, this will be a great plus for you. If not, then practice using random amounts or through a USPS Postal exam practice test. Those two exams can help tremendously as this is usually in time. Even a single mistake can be costly for you.