164 L
AW
E
NFORCEMENT
E
XAMS
SAMPLE QUESTIONS: TEA EXAM
The Treasury Enforcement Agent Exam (TEA) is given to candidates for the positions of Internal Security
Inspector with the IRS; Secret Service Special Agent; Customs Special Agent; Bureau of Alcohol,
Tobacco, and Firearms Special Agent; IRS Special Agent with the Criminal Investigation Division;
Deputy U.S. Marshal; and a number of other positions as well. If you are a candidate for any of these
positions, give careful attention to the official sample questions that follow. Even if you are applying for
a local or state law enforcement position, you should give serious attention to all federal exam questions.
Some of the same types of questions are likely to appear on whatever exam you must take.
The Treasury Enforcement Agent Exam (TEA) is divided into three parts: Part A, verbal reasoning;
Part B, arithmetic reasoning; and Part C, problems for investigation. The official sample questions that
follow are similar to the questions you will find in the actual test in terms of difficulty and form.
Part A--Verbal Reasoning Questions
In each of these questions, you will be given a paragraph that contains all the information necessary to
infer the correct answer. Use only the information provided in the paragraph. Do not speculate or make
assumptions that go beyond this information. Also, assume that all information given in the paragraph
is true, even if it conflicts with some fact known to you. Only one correct answer can be validly inferred
from the information contained in the paragraph.
Pay special attention to negated verbs (for example, "are not") and negative prefixes (for example,
"incomplete" or "disorganized"). Also pay special attention to quantifiers such as "all," "none," and
"some." For example, from a paragraph in which it is stated that "it is not true that all contracts are legal,"
one can validly infer that "some contracts are not legal" or that "some contracts are illegal" or that "some
illegal things are contracts," but one cannot validly infer that "no contracts are legal" or that "some
contracts are legal." Similarly, from a paragraph that states "all contracts are legal" and "all contracts are
two-sided agreements," one can infer that "some two-sided agreements are legal," but one cannot validly
infer that "all two-sided agreements are legal."
Bear in mind that, in some tests, universal quantifiers such as "all" and "none" often give away
incorrect response choices. That is not the case in this test. Some correct answers will refer to "all" or
"none" of the members of a group.
Be sure to distinguish between essential information and unessential, peripheral information. That is
to say, in a real test question, the preceding example ("all contracts are legal" and "all contracts are two-
sided agreements") would appear in a longer, full-fledged paragraph. It would be up to you to separate
the essential information from its context and then to realize that a response choice that states "some two-
sided agreements are legal" represents a valid inference and hence the correct answer.
Sample questions 1 and 2 are examples of the reading questions on the test.
1.
Impressions made by the ridges on the ends of the fingers and thumbs are useful means of
identification since no two persons have the same pattern of ridges. If finger patterns from
fingerprints are not decipherable, then they cannot be classified by general shape and contour or
by pattern type. If they cannot be classified by these characteristics, then it is impossible to
identify the person to whom the fingerprints belong.
The paragraph best supports the statement that
(A) if it is impossible to identify the person to whom fingerprints belong, then the fingerprints
are not decipherable.
