Texas Civil Service Exam Online Preparation & Tips – 2025

What Is Texas’ Civil Service?

Civil service careers encompass any position that involves working through a government agency. Police and Fire Department employees are among the most recognizable civil servants, but librarians, parks and recreation workers, and Health Department employees are also included. For a city in the state of Texas to have a civil service department, they must have a population of 10,000. Employment opportunities in the public sector will be listed on the individual city’s website. Each municipality will have different openings and may have slightly different requirements. The details of the benefits program may differ slightly in each city, but in general, the benefits on offer to civil servants are:

• Medical and dental coverage
• Retirement Benefits
• Child care assistance
• Vacation days
• Sick leave

What Is Texas’ Civil Service Hiring Process?

Application

To apply for a civil service position in the State of Texas, you will need to go to the webpage for the specific city or state department you are looking in, for example, the Department Of Health And Human Services or Department Of Transportation. To apply, you will need to create a profile on the city’s website, and this will allow you to save searches and check your application status. You will upload your resume at the time of application.

Online Assessment Tests

There is no standard civil service exam in Texas. However, there is a wide range of assessment tests required of civil service applicants by the cities they are in. Engineers must be licensed by the state, there is a licensing test required of code enforcement officers, and librarians must take an assessment test to demonstrate their knowledge of the Dewey Decimal system. There may be other skills-based tests required of other public sector positions. Police and Fire Department applicants, in particular, are subject to not only skills-based but also psychological exams prior to hiring. Tests may vary slightly by city, but all officers are required to take tests to determine their reading level, numerical skills, and reasoning ability. For example, officers in Austin are required to take a vocabulary and reading comprehension test, then watch a video and record their observations. Most police departments in Texas will have some variation of this testing method.

• TCOLE – After completing the police academy, all officers must take this Texas licensing test. It is a 2 hour and 45-minute test given to help maintain an ethical police force.
• E.V.E.L Test – A test commonly used by many Texas police departments is the L.E.V.E.L or Law Enforcement Validated Entry Test. This is a 100 question multiple-choice test that you will have 2.5 hours to complete. There are 7 sections that will test basic arithmetic, grammar and punctuation, vocabulary, and reading comprehension.
• SAELLEE – The San Antonio Entry-Level Law Enforcement Exam is used by the San Antonio Police Department. There are two portions to it, Cognitive Ability and, Behavioral Orientation. The Cognitive Ability section of the test focuses on language, visualization, and reasoning skills. You will have 100 multiple choice questions to answer in this section. Behavioral orientation will give you questions which you must rate from strongly agree to strongly disagree. This section consists of 150 questions, and you will have 3 hours total to complete the test.
• Personality Inventory – The personality tests given by police departments are specifically designed to measure the mental health of potential officers, to ensure they can handle the responsibilities of the role, and that they are not overly prone to certain negative traits. A commonly used psychological test is the MMPI (Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory).

Fire department testing also varies by city. Tests for fire-fighters will consist of reading comprehension, vocabulary, reasoning, team working ability, and in some cases mechanical aptitude tests. Each Texas city offers a slightly different test, and many of them use different test providers. Anc example of tests given by different Texas cities is:

• Austin Fire Department Morris Mcdaniel Test – Consisting of a Reading Ability Procedure Test, and an Entry Level Behaviors and Procedures test, reading comprehension will be tested along with behavioral questions to measure an applicant’s work ethic, mechanical reasoning questions, and memorization ability.
• Fire Officer Training Exam – Dallas requires this 2.5 hour, multiple-choice exam that tests ma reading skills, mathematical ability, mechanical aptitude, and reading comprehension.

Interview

The interview process will differ greatly based on the civil service position you have applied for. You will be interviewed by the head of whichever department you have applied for, for instance, potential police officers will be interviewed by the chief of police. For public service positions across the board, however, you will want to highlight your skills, and your drive to serve the community.

How to Prepare for Texas’ Civil Service Online Tests?

Passing the online exams is crucial to being hired in a civil service position, especially if you are attempting to work for the police or fire departments. Studying all the requirements of the job you want is absolutely necessary to prepare yourself. Refresh your knowledge of skills you know you will be tested on. Word searches and logic puzzles are good practice for reasoning and reading comprehension. Reviewing course material if you have recently finished a program related to your desired career is also beneficial. Time management skills are as essential to the assessment tests, as they are on the job. Manage your time wisely so you don’t feel rushed and so you have plenty of time to give your answers a second look. If you find that a question is giving you difficulty, move on so you can complete as much of the test as possible. The hiring process for a civil service job can be long and intense; successfully completing the assessment tests will help you ensure that all your effort will be worth it.