General Circular No. 001398

To: Heads of State Agencies and Human Resource Directors

Subject: Walk-In Testing At Saturday Testing Centers

Issue Date: June 20, 2000

Starting in July, 2000, candidates for Civil Service exams will be able to walk in to any of our testing centers and take any written Civil Service exam that they choose. Applications will no longer be pre-screened for qualifications before testing. Candidates for tests will be informed that they may not qualify for any jobs on the exam they select, and that therefore, testing is done at their own risk.

Applications will be screened at Civil Service after testing. Candidates who pass an exam, but who do not, in fact, meet the minimum qualifications for any job filled from the exam they have taken, will receive a score for the test only. These scores will remain in effect as long as any other test score: they will expire after one year, for non-state employees, or have no expiration date, for permanent classified employees.

Personnel officers consulting our online applicant information should be alert for these scores when looking up candidate records, since the "test-only" score means the candidate was not qualified to be placed on any test registers at the time of testing. These scores will be indicated by a title such as "Prof Entry Test - 1333". No job or register title will appear.

Classified employees will now have the opportunity to take exams they need for promotional purposes at any time, even before they qualify for the job. They need only ask for a regrade from the test-only score in order to be placed on a job register.

Please note: applications for jobs announced on Special or Promotional Announcements must still be sent to Civil Service for proper tracking. Walk-in testing is not allowed for Specials or Promotionals at this time. Also, candidates who want to arrange testing accommodations for disabilities still need to contact Civil Service and apply through us to ensure that these requests are fulfilled.

If you have any questions about this new procedure, please contact Kirk Smith, Amy Tompkins or Debbie Baird in the Examining Division at (225) 342-8536.

Sincerely,

Allen H. Reynolds

Director