Irish Prison Officer Recruit common mistakes
Irish Prison Officer Recruit · Understand the traps and how to avoid them.
On percentage-change numerical items, subtracts the two figures and reports the raw difference as the percentage (for example, treating 120 to 150 as a 30% increase).
Under time pressure the brain grabs the familiar subtraction step and skips the division by the original value.
What to do instead
Before answering, write 'change ÷ original × 100' and substitute; sanity-check that 120→150 must be 25%, not 30%.
Ignores or misreads units and scale in tables, such as treating figures shown in thousands as single units or mixing monthly and annual totals.
Headers and footnotes are visually low-salience, so candidates jump straight to the numbers.
What to do instead
Read the table title, column headers and any '000' or '€m' note first, and write the unit beside every calculation.
Spends four to five minutes on one complex numerical item, then guesses the last five questions as time expires.
Sunk-cost persistence and discomfort at leaving a question unfinished.
What to do instead
Use a 90-second rule: if no route is visible, flag it, enter a guess and move on; return only after every item has an answer.
Chooses a verbal-reasoning option that is true in the real world but not supported by the passage.
Prior knowledge feels like evidence, and dense passages encourage guessing from the topic.
What to do instead
For every option, locate the exact words in the passage that support it; if you cannot point to them, reject the option even if you believe it.
Treats 'Cannot Say' as a synonym for 'False' and marks a statement false when the passage is merely silent on it.
A binary true/false habit carried over from other tests, plus discomfort with uncertainty.
What to do instead
Apply a three-way test: passage supports = True; passage contradicts = False; passage neither supports nor contradicts = Cannot Say.
Misses scope words such as 'all', 'only', 'some', 'must' and 'may', and selects an over-general option.
Skimming for topic words rather than reading qualifiers and modals.
What to do instead
Underline quantifiers and modals in both the statement and the options, and match the scope exactly before choosing.
In situational judgement items, picks the option that feels most sympathetic or most punitive rather than what a prison officer should do under policy.
Personal values and emotion dominate when the scenario is charged.
What to do instead
Apply a fixed hierarchy: immediate safety first, then lawful and proportionate action, then respect and dignity, then escalation and reporting.
Answers 'most effective' and 'least effective' questions in the same style, or selects more than the number of options requested.
Format instructions are skimmed and 'effective' is treated as a single dimension.
What to do instead
Before reading the options, circle the exact task word (most/least/first) and the number required, then test each option against that single criterion.
Gives vague, generic competency answers such as 'I am a good team player and always help out', with no specific situation, personal action or outcome.
Candidates rely on traits rather than evidence and have not prepared concrete examples.
What to do instead
Prepare six to eight STAR stories, each with one clear 'I' action and a measurable or observable result, and practise each to about two minutes.
Describes the team's work in 'we' terms and never states what the candidate personally did or learned.
Modesty and the habit of collective language mean the assessor cannot score individual competencies.
What to do instead
Rewrite each story so at least half the sentences begin 'I…', and end with one sentence on what you would do differently next time.