Theatre Technician Written Test

[thecommonground]

I'm going to take a Theatre Technician written test soon for a hob with the local school district and would like to know if anyone could give me some advice on what to study. Any help would be mot appreciated! Thanks!!:)

[medina]

Your guess is as good as mine, if someone from an education authority has written the test it could be anything! If it school based I would guess health and safety will be a top priority

[brainwave-generator]

If they've asked you to do a written test it's probably to ascertain what knowledge you already have. So if you need to teach yourself that information it may be that you're not yet ready to do whatever they're needing you to do that warrants a testing procedure.

[Ynot]

There are also comparitively few people here from the left side of the pond, so it's unlikely there will be much experience of such tests even if there were a regular sort of thing over here.

 

That said, if you're applying for the job, one would hope that you have some good experience of the duties anyhow in general, and as such surely the test shouldn't prove too much of a problem?

[indyld]

Lord knows, as we've no idea who created the test, why and what they are expecting to test.

 

As I'm sure most of us wouldn't dream of trying to assess someones competence for a technician job role with a "turn up and fill it in" test, one wonders if the test has been written by a well meaning amateur. On the other hand, if it's a generic employee test or character assessment, then revising specific theatre technical stuff may not help. That's more of a "fill in a form under test conditions and we'll review it and take a stab at scoring you as a person" thing.

 

Assuming that some level of competence is involved in the design of this kind of assessment, I would take another look at the job description and person specification of the job itself and revise what they might ask to assess your suitability. It if says "Must have a working knowledge of basic sound playback systems" then I would assume questions on things like mic/line levels, connectors or signal chains. If it says "Must be familiar with theatre lighting equipment" or "Support for presentations including the use of projection" then you can similarly check your knowledge and anticipate questions.

 

If, on the other hand you don't have access to any of this information, then you'll just have to turn up and busk and you can come back and tell us how relevant (or not) this "test" is.

 

HTH

[Mat]

When applying for a job I was given a "Competence Level" Test. I had to say how I had worked in the area's, how I worked with others or on my own as well as my knowledge of H&S. If your doing a school job, I would assume it would be around H&S as well as safeguarding.

[the kid]

I did a "test" a while ago for a school interview, we were given a senario of - "we have 2, 1 act plays in 4 weeks time, the 1st show on a tuesday, You have 4 weeks to plan and schedule, include set, props, costume, lights, sound and av."

 

Appart from me spending FAR too long trying to decide what date to work to/from (weather 4 weeks was inclusive of the show or not(dont ask))

 

Annoyingly nothing was said about cast rehearsals, being in a school I assumed, rightly or wrongly, that teachers would sort that out as I have NO idea what time tables would be. In the real world I know what I would schedule.

[indyld]

I did a "test" a while ago for a school interview, we were given a senario of - "we have 2, 1 act plays in 4 weeks time, the 1st show on a tuesday, You have 4 weeks to plan and schedule, include set, props, costume, lights, sound and av."

 

Appart from me spending FAR too long trying to decide what date to work to/from (weather 4 weeks was inclusive of the show or not(dont ask))

 

Annoyingly nothing was said about cast rehearsals, being in a school I assumed, rightly or wrongly, that teachers would sort that out as I have NO idea what time tables would be. In the real world I know what I would schedule.

 

See now, this is what I am getting at.

 

If the testee has to make assumptions that may or not be correct, it makes the results somewhat subjective and then down the interpretation of the tester. As you know that you'd do in the "real world" the next question in my mind is "Does the tester know?" As you haven't been given information on their process and they may not understand real world process, I don't see what a panel would hope to gain from such assessment and how different candidates would be scored against each other, assuming that most of them got it basically "right." All that tests is "Does the candidate run away screaming at having to create a schedule (in which case, they probably should've even be at the test stage) or end up with 8 days in a week due to a miscalc?"

 

Demonstrating an understanding of HASAW Act is testable in a Q and A format, many other things are too but the test needs to be designed properly otherwise it's a waste of time and it doesn't tell you anything as a recruiter.

 

Ah well, it makes people feel they've done something....

[Shez]

The first theatre job I went for involved practical and written tests. The written test covered things like fire extinguisher colours, ladder angles, calculating maximum wattage that a 10A dimmer could power, calculating impedances of speakers connected in parallel etc. Very bread & butter stuff that any tech with a bit of experience would walk through.

In a school though, as others have suggested, things may be different. I wouldn't worry too much about it - if you're the right kind of person for the job, you'll already know the answers.

[the kid]

I thought the questions were poorly formated so I worked from an imaginary month that started on monday the 1st and concentrated on JUST technical with an added bit of "well you didnt mention cast so I didnt do anything".

 

I assume it was more to do with time managment skills which in a school I think is going to be important.

 

The easy answer is to expect everything from what people have said, cause if/when I leave that is exactly what I want the next person to do.

[Junior8]

I can't imagine what it might cover but it occurs to me that it may be simply to test your literacy skills. Back in the days when I was involved with recruiting I always insisted on a handwritten application form and letter - and still would now if it comes to that. Your potential employer may have the same views...

[indyld]

I can't imagine what it might cover but it occurs to me that it may be simply to test your literacy skills. Back in the days when I was involved with recruiting I always insisted on a handwritten application form and letter - and still would now if it comes to that. Your potential employer may have the same views...

 

That's me out then. I've always had appalling handwriting and still struggle to produce legible capital letters with Sharpie!! I learned to touch type at the earliest opportunity and avoid writing by hand at every turn. Of course, this has probably compounded the problem as don't even write so much as a shopping list.

 

Luckily, many places have the option of online application forms too and I would choose these every time.

[the kid]

I can't imagine what it might cover but it occurs to me that it may be simply to test your literacy skills. Back in the days when I was involved with recruiting I always insisted on a handwritten application form and letter - and still would now if it comes to that. Your potential employer may have the same views...

 

That's me out then. I've always had appalling handwriting and still struggle to produce legible capital letters with Sharpie!! I learned to touch type at the earliest opportunity and avoid writing by hand at every turn. Of course, this has probably compounded the problem as don't even write so much as a shopping list.

 

Luckily, many places have the option of online application forms too and I would choose these every time.

 

+1 for that.

 

The most frustrating thing was that it was a written "exam" for me to write in an appropriate style that others can read, it is really quite a lot of work, I would not say STRESSFULL but god it is not fun.

[kerry davies]

Many pluses for what Junior says. Spelling and cogent presentation is probably most of what they are looking for. California, as all the States has their own take on H&S at work so a brief reminder of that would do no harm. Here!

 

Check out the schools board website for what they are looking for from technicians and the general culture of the organisation. I expect California is red hot on pupil safety and civil rights.

 

Most of the concerns that you have will revolve around questions that only you can answer from the job and person specifications which they demand. Just enjoy the experience and use it as a learning exercise. They obviously think you are worth consideration otherwise you would not have got this far. Good luck.

 

To Add; don't worry too much about what Rob/IndyLD has said, he is after all teaching at a university so it has not harmed his progress too much.

[ojc123]

I can't imagine what it might cover but it occurs to me that it may be simply to test your literacy skills. Back in the days when I was involved with recruiting I always insisted on a handwritten application form and letter - and still would now if it comes to that. Your potential employer may have the same views...

Interesting. I suspect you would significantly reduce your field if you were to insist on a hand written application. That's fine if the process weeds out the least capable candidates. I'm not sure it would these days.

 

In answer to the OP; I wonder if a telephone call (or visit) to the school to ask a few questions, including asking what sort of thing the test is about might be more effective than asking this forum? Good luck with the process anyway.