How many questions are on the CritiCall test?

There is no answer, and not because the publisher is withholding one. The agency assembles the test from a module library, so the paper differs between employers. The only published figure is that the session takes, on average, between one and three hours.

What score do I need to pass CritiCall?

Biddle publishes no passing score and no scoring formula. The agency that bought the test sets its own cut for its own roles. Score tables on prep sites are inventions.

Is there an official free CritiCall practice test?

There is no full one. Biddle states plainly that no practice version of CritiCall exists for applicants. It does host free sample tests for three modules — keyboarding, proofreading and spelling — on its own site, and publishes a candidate preparation guide.

Can I prepare for the multitasking part?

Only indirectly. Multitasking on CritiCall is not a separate topic but a combination: emergency messages arrive, on a fifteen-second clock, while you are typing something else. Practising the individual parts until they are automatic is what leaves attention over for the second task.

Does CritiCall test typing speed?

Its data entry module is scored on speed and accuracy together, and getting the information into the correct field is part of it. No words-per-minute requirement comes from the test: any typing standard belongs to the agency and is stated in its job posting.

What is on the CritiCall test

The short answer is that nobody can tell you, and that is a fact about the product rather than a secret. Biddle Consulting Group sells CritiCall as a library of more than twenty separate tests, and the agency doing the hiring chooses which of them you will sit. What can be told is the whole list, the two figures the publisher does print, and the one thing on the test that can genuinely be revised.

There is no single CritiCall paper

Biddle’s own candidate FAQ puts it in one sentence: the software contains over twenty different tests, and each agency selects only the ones it considers appropriate for its positions. Two applicants in neighbouring counties can both truthfully say they sat CritiCall and have almost nothing in common to compare.

That is why the question count printed by prep sites is invented — there is nothing for it to be a count of. The only length figure the publisher gives is a range for the session as a whole: on average, between one and three hours.

One clock is published and it is worth knowing. On the emergency-message items you have fifteen seconds each, and no credit is given for a late answer or for sending the wrong service.

The classic module library

These are the modules as Biddle names them to the agencies that buy them. Your test will be some of these and not others.

Multi-Tasking / Advanced Decision Making — decisions made while doing something else, under a limited response time
Computerized Data Entry — typing information heard or read into the correct field, scored on speed and accuracy
Oral Comprehension (Call Summarization 1 and 2) — note-taking from a voice, and detailed answers about what was said
Reading Comprehension — reading and retaining the detail of a short paragraph
Sentence Clarity — choosing the clearest way to present a set of facts
Cross Referencing — alphabetic, character and numeric searching, from written and spoken requests
Frequency of Information / Probability Determination — the most likely answer from what you have been given
Map Reading / Geographic Directions — the most direct route, obeying the signs on the map
Memory Recall (Short Term) — written and audible information given back after a short interval
Numerical Ability — job-related addition, subtraction and percentages, in distances, times and amounts
Perceptual Ability — comparing letter and number sequences and telling confusable ones apart
Position Locating — working out where a caller is from scattered clues
Spelling — commonly misspelled and misused words
Vocalization Summary — selecting spoken information according to a decision rule

CritiCall3D adds three more

The newer version of the product is sold alongside the classic modules rather than replacing the ideas in them. Its Operational test folds eight of the classic tests into one sitting. Its Situational test is a judgment test validated for the emergency dispatch environment, with an emotional-intelligence component. Its Behavioral test is a personality assessment measuring dependability, assertiveness, composure and prioritisation.

The last of those has no right answers and nothing to practise. It is worth knowing it exists so that a section of the day that feels like a questionnaire does not read as a trick.

The one part you can actually revise

CritiCall is a work sample test: it puts you in a simulated dispatch environment and watches what you do, and the publisher is explicit that no specialised dispatcher knowledge is needed to answer anything on it. That leaves very little to study — with one exception the booklet makes a point of.

The candidate preparation guide sets out four decision rules and tells applicants to learn them before the test day, saying that the better an applicant knows them, the better they perform on the decision-making portions. Under those rules, in short:

Send	When
Police	Someone is harming another person, attempting or threatening to, or damaging another person’s property
Fire	Immediate signs of a fire in progress, a sounding fire alarm, or a person trapped or confined who needs releasing
EMS	A medical emergency needing medically trained personnel
Utility	A broken or malfunctioning public water, electricity, home-heating gas or sewer system — power lines, streetlights and traffic signals included

Restated from Biddle Consulting Group’s candidate preparation guide, read 2 September 2026.

The instruction that decides the hard items: answer from these four rules alone, not from what you know about how a real agency works. A downed power line is a utility call under these rules even in a city that would send three services to it.

Two rules about the mechanics, both published

You are penalised for skipping questions, unless the instructions for that part of the test say otherwise. This is the opposite of the advice on several other hiring tests, and it means a guess costs nothing a blank does not already cost.
Unscored practice items appear at the start of each section, they do not count towards your score, and you may skip them. Skipping them is free and throws away the only look at the format you get.
Many parts accept upper case only, because that is what computerised dispatch systems do. Meeting that for the first time on the day costs seconds you will not get back.
The data entry fields are tabbed through in a fixed order — last name, first name, telephone, address, city, zip, vehicle identification number, licence plate, driving licence — and the cursor will not move past the last of them.

What the publisher gives away, and what it does not

Biddle says there is no practice version of CritiCall and that the software is released only to emergency response agencies and verified private dispatch companies. It then, on its own applicants page, hosts free browser sample tests for three modules: keyboarding, proofreading and spelling, separately and as a combined battery. It also publishes the candidate preparation guide this page draws on.

Those three are worth doing before anything else, because for those modules the publisher’s version is the real interface. What they do not cover is the rest of the library — the decision rules, cross-referencing, reading under a clock, spotting the character that changed — which is the part practice on this site is for.

Now find out what the clock does to you.

A full-length timed run, free, with a score by section and an explanation for every question afterwards.

Take a timed test

Frequently asked

How many questions are on the CritiCall test?: There is no answer, and not because the publisher is withholding one. The agency assembles the test from a module library, so the paper differs between employers. The only published figure is that the session takes, on average, between one and three hours.
What score do I need to pass CritiCall?: Biddle publishes no passing score and no scoring formula. The agency that bought the test sets its own cut for its own roles. Score tables on prep sites are inventions.
Is there an official free CritiCall practice test?: There is no full one. Biddle states plainly that no practice version of CritiCall exists for applicants. It does host free sample tests for three modules — keyboarding, proofreading and spelling — on its own site, and publishes a candidate preparation guide.
Can I prepare for the multitasking part?: Only indirectly. Multitasking on CritiCall is not a separate topic but a combination: emergency messages arrive, on a fifteen-second clock, while you are typing something else. Practising the individual parts until they are automatic is what leaves attention over for the second task.
Does CritiCall test typing speed?: Its data entry module is scored on speed and accuracy together, and getting the information into the correct field is part of it. No words-per-minute requirement comes from the test: any typing standard belongs to the agency and is stated in its job posting.

Sources

Every figure on this page comes from one of the documents below, with the date it was read. Requirements change; if a source has moved on since that date, the source is right and this page is out of date.

CritiCall — Public Safety Communications Pre-Employment Test Preparation Guide (Biddle Consulting Group, 2023, PDF) Read September 2, 2026
CritiCall — “CritiCall and the Dispatcher Applicant: F.A.Q.” (Biddle Consulting Group, 30 April 2024) Read September 2, 2026
CritiCall — CritiCall3D and CritiCall Classic Test Descriptions Read September 2, 2026
CritiCall (Biddle Consulting Group) — Public-Safety Dispatcher / Calltaker Applicants Read September 2, 2026

Page facts last verified September 2, 2026.

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Hiring Test Practice is independent practice material and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or authorized by Criteria Corp, Wonderlic, Inc., National Testing Network, the electrical training ALLIANCE, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, NECA or Biddle Consulting Group, Inc. CCAT® is a registered trademark of Criteria Corp; Wonderlic® is a registered trademark of Wonderlic, Inc.; CritiCall is a trademark of Biddle Consulting Group, Inc. Test names are used only to describe what this material prepares you for. Every question here is original and none is taken from any actual assessment.