Peterson's Law Enforcement Page 175
T
HE
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SAMPLE QUESTIONS: BORDER PATROL AGENT EXAM
Applicants for the position of Border Patrol Agent must pass an OPM exam and qualify in the Spanish
language. If the candidate feels comfortable speaking and understanding Spanish, he or she may choose
to take an oral examination at the time of the interview for the position. If the candidate does not know
any Spanish or if he or she is not certain of passing the oral exam, the candidate may elect to take a written
multiple-choice test of ability to learn a foreign language. The multiple-choice language aptitude test must
be requested and taken at the same time as the OPM exam. The candidate cannot choose the language
aptitude exam after failing the oral Spanish exam at interview.
The following are official sample questions for the Border Patrol Agent Exam. This exam is
administered by the Office of Personnel Management to candidates for other positions as well. The exam
is a 65-question multiple-choice exam. It is divided into four parts, each of which is separately timed. The
structure of the exam is as follows:
Number of
Timing
Questions
(minutes)
Part A
25
Vocabulary
15
Reading Comprehension
15
Part B
English Usage (Grammar)
15
7
Part C
General Knowledge and Judgment
10
10
Part D
Logical Reasoning
10
15
Total
65
57
When the exam is scored, you will receive credit for every correct answer but will suffer no penalty
for a wrong answer. This means it is best to answer every question. A space left blank cannot raise your
score, but even a wild guess could possibly help you. Choose the correct answer if you can. If not,
eliminate obviously wrong answers and choose intelligently from the remaining choices or make a wild
stab if you must. The official instructions that will be read to you in the examination room state: "It will
be to your advantage to answer every question in this test that you can since your score will be the number
of right answers only. If you don't know the answer to a question, make the best guess you can. You may
write in the test booklet if you need to."
These official sample questions are just samples. They will give you a good idea of the kinds of
questions that you must answer.
