Whatcouldbethereasonforsuchlowscores?
Firstofall,youneedtorealizethatpartof473-eisthePersonalityAssessmentandExperienceInventoryexamwhichyounowtakewhenyoulodgeyourapplicationforaparticularpostalemploymentopportunityonline.ThisusedtobePartDofthe473testbackinthedayswhenitwasstillapenandpapertest.Nowthat473hasgoneelectronic,thisassessmenttestistakenfirst.Itisscored,mindyou,evenifitsmainaimistobuildaprofileofyoursuitabilityforaparticularpostaljob.TheUSPSdoesnotrevealhowtheanswersarescoredbutapparently,consistencyandhonestyaremajorfactorsinscoringhigh.Ifyoutrytoguesswhatthecorrectanswersinthispart,youmightjustendupgettingalowscoreaschecksarebuilt-inthesystemtoguardagainstthiskindofstrategy.
Anotherreasonforthelowscoremaybetracedtopurenegligence.Becauseofthetimepressureinvolved,sometest-takersinadvertentlymarkthewrongchoiceeveniftheanswertheyhaveintheirheadistherightone.Toavoidthis,youneedtofocusandgetusedtoreadingfromacomputerscreen.
Finally,notmanyrealizethatwronganswersonPartsA(AddressChecking)andC(CodingandMemory)willbesubtractedfromtherightanswers.Thisisthepenaltyforguessing.Theruleofthumbis:Unlessyouaresureofyouranswers,justleaveanumberblank.Itisbetternottoansweratallthantogetsubtractedforawronganswer.