Personal Characteristics and Experience Inventory Study Guide for McGraw-Hill's Postal Exams 473/473C

Part D of Test 473 is called Personal Characteristics and Experience Inventory. In this part, you have 90 minutes to answer 236 questions. The questions in Part D are designed to assess various personal characteristics, preferences, and experiences that are relevant to working effectively as an employee of the Postal Service.

Part D consists of two sections:

• Personal Characteristics (160 questions)
• Experience (76 questions)

The directions for Part D are essentially as follows:

Directions: Read each of the following items and decide which of the alternative responses is most true about you. For each item, choose one and only one response, even if you think more than one response is true about you. Be sure to respond to each and every item, even if you are not sure which response is best.

Personal Characteristics

The Personal Characteristics section of Part D actually consists of two distinct segments:

• An Agree/Disagree segment, in which you decide the extent to which you agree with each of a series of statements describing you
• A Frequency segment, in which you decide how frequently you engage in particular actions or behaviors that are described

Agree/Disagree Questions

Here are three agree/disagree questions that are similar to the ones on Part D of the exam. Note that the four response choices for each item—strongly agree, agree, disagree, and strongly disagree—are the same ones that you’ll see in each and every question of this type on the actual exam.

1. You like to complete one task before beginning another.

A. Strongly agree

B. Agree

C. Disagree

D. Strongly disagree

2. You prefer working by yourself to working with other people.

A. Strongly agree

B. Agree

C. Disagree

D. Strongly disagree

3. It is important to you that others share your opinions.

A. Strongly agree

B. Agree

C. Disagree

D. Strongly disagree

Frequency Questions

In the second segment of the Personal Characteristics section, your task is to assess how frequently you engage in the kind of actions or behavior described in each of a series of statements. Here are three frequency questions, which are similar to the ones on Part D of the exam. The four response choices for each item—very often, often, sometimes, and rarely or never—are the same ones that you’ll see in each and every question of this type on the actual exam.

1. You argue with other people.

A. Very often

B. Often

C. Sometimes

D. Rarely or never

2. You repeat mistakes that you’ve made in the past.

A. Very often

B. Often

C. Sometimes

D. Rarely or never

3. You think about the consequences of your actions before you act.

A. Very often

B. Often

C. Sometimes

D. Rarely or never