EB Jacobs (PSI) - LEAB-II™ - Law Enforcement Aptitude Battery™

[CCSTestPrep]

Warning: The LEAB™ was the focus of much of my doctoral research, so some of what is mentioned in this post is somewhat technical. I apologize in advance, but I live and breath this stuff every day.

Many candidates have heard of the EB Jacobs LEAB™, since the exam has been used in NJ for multiple civil service LEE testing cycles (2000, 2002, 2010, 2013, 2016) as well as the separate 2013, 2015 and 2017 SCOR cycles.

In September of 2017, the very small Pennsylvania-based company EB Jacobs was purchased by the very large Nevada-based company PSI. Commonly, acquisitions lead to changes.

The world of multi-factor psychometric testing is very fluid and philosophies (scoring methods) from one company to the next vary greatly, so this acquisition is very important. PSI has been administering the LEAB™ to tens of thousands of candidates around the country since taking over in 2017. I have had the privilege to train candidates from 8 different states for the LEAB™ with tremendous results since PSI took over.

The LEAB™ exam has evolved over the years from the original LEAB-I™ to the new LEAB-II™ which has additional sophisticated scales added to the Part 2 and Part 3 non-cognitive components. For the upcoming 2019 LEE cycle, candidates will face new scored scales built within to interpret candidate responses for scoring purposes. For example, candidates will face a scored "cultural proficiency" scale in the trait assessment portion of the test. This unique type of statement tends to be odd and harder for candidates to interpret and understand.

The length of the exam is flexible. Every version of the exam starts with a 48 question cognitive section in PART 1. The 48 questions are broken down into 6 separately scored scales of 8 questions each. The Part 2 trait assessment varies greatly in number from one version to the next, but the LEAB-II™ tends to have 173 trait assessment statements. The trait assessment section is referred to as the Work Styles Questionnaire (WSQ™). The LEAB-II™ tends to have 108 bio-data questions. The bio-data section is referred to as the Life Experience Survey (LES™). The LEAB-II™ tends to be administered over a continuous 3 hours and 40 minutes time period. The time runs without any stop periods or breaks even though the exam has three distinct parts.

Most candidates do not realize that a vast majority of their score is actually generated by the sophisticated scoring scales built into the Part 2 and Part 3 non-cognitive components. This exam is not like the McCann Associates exam or even the the RMA/CPS exam series wherein a candidate's score is simply the number of questions answered correctly. The LEAB™ is scored by breaking the exam questions down into separately scored and weighted scales. One question you answer may on be worth .17 points on your final score, while another question may actually be worth 2.25 points on your final score. The varied weighting is very sophisticated and takes special software (SPSS™ for example) to properly score. There are sophisticated scoring algorithms built into the scoring software.

Aside from the calculation of the individual's raw score on the exam, the scores are then "standardized" across the entire testing pool. This is commonly referred to as scaling. The company does not use a standard "curve." They take the interesting step of using a "uniform" or "square" distribution. They run their post-test item analysis of the exam and decide on a "cut score" based on the data. From that cut score, they determine who passed and who failed. Once they determine the pool of passing scores, they take those results and distribute them proportionately from 70.000 to 99.999. Based on the candidate's actual (real) numerical score, they take the candidate's real score in order compared to the other candidates and plug them into a scaled score along the range of 70.000 to 99.999 working down by the hundredth of a point at each step. So, if the top actual score in NJ is a 98.380, then that candidate will be plugged in as a 99.999 as their final overall average. From 99.990 and down (based on 27,000 passing candidates) they'll plug in approximately 9 candidates per one hundredth of a point down to a 70.000. So, 8 or 9 candidates will be awarded a final overall average of 99.990; 8 or 9 candidates will be awarded a final overall average of 99.980; then 8 or 9 at 99.970; and so on. The only score that differs is the 99.999 , as generally only 2 to 3 candidates are awarded that "highest" possible score in NJ. Putting it simply, close to the same number of people will score a 70.900 as will score a 99.900 on the next LEE and so on. Likewise, approximately 900 candidates will score at each point range. For example, 900 candidates at 98.000 to 98.990 and 900 other candidates from 97.000 to 97.990, and so on. Not because all candidates will score equally across the range of 70.000 to 99.999, but because the company takes the scores and distributes them (in proper order) across the 30 point range.

When sitting for the 2019 LEE, you are clearly trying to be among the nearly 900 candidates who score a 99.000+ on the exam out of the more than 32,000 candidates who sit for the test and the more than 27,000 who pass.

I have tracked all of the law enforcement testing around the country and have had the privilege of training candidates from 14 different states across 8 very different types of exams in the last two years alone. The LEAB-II™ is the most sophisticated, longest, and single most popular exam in the country right now.

Again, sorry for the overly technical writing, but I've been tracking it, evaluating the scores, and training candidates for this particular exam since Year 2000.




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