The Compete Cpat Guide

Author: Juan Serrano May 29, 2016

The Cpat.

As a lot of you know or will come to know, Cpat is a big part of the fire service. A lot of departments are using it nowadays, especially in the bigger departments. It’s one of the main physical agility tests you can do when you’re trying to get hired as a full-time firefighter.

The reason a lot of the departments use it is because it’s easier to have some outside company put on this test instead of your own department  using up resources and money to put this test on themselves.

It’s an easy test. I’ve done it three times and I’ve passed it with flying colors every time.

I have heard of people failing and usually it’s because of the auto fails integrated into the test. I have also heard that some woman have a hard time with it. Whatever the reason being is, they just have a hard time with it.

What I’m gonna do is give you an overview of what the Cpat is and give you an idea of how to prepare for it.

Cpat stands for Candidate physical ability test.

There are multiple stages to a firefighter hiring process. You have to go through a written test, interview, background check, chief interview, etc. One of those stages you have to pass is a physical agility test. Like it said before, a lot of departments now use the Cpat for their firefighter physical agility testing. They’ve been doing it for years now.

Once you past the test you will get your Cpat card. The departments will ask for a copy of that card when you apply to their department.

How to process works is you first find a department that you want to apply to. You look at the requirements that the department is requesting and you see they require a Cpat card. Go online to the Cpat website to schedule your test. There’s a problem that some individuals encounter at this time, and that’s trying to schedule your test before the hiring closing date. Some departments will only let you know a couple of weeks before it’s time to apply and you have to schedule and pass your Cpat test before that time.

You must have your Cpat card with you to apply to most of these departments. When scheduling the test you must be aware that there’re only certain days a week you can go and also certain times within those days in which your able to schedule. The more people who take this test, the harder it will be to schedule yours. The logistics of it can be hard to get around sometimes.

My advice would be to make sure you get your Cpat card before you need it.

Your Cpat card is good for 1 year after you complete it. I’ve got a card right now and it’s good till June of this year. I will have to renew mine if I want to keep testing. I’ve already used it for a couple of departments I’ve applied to. 

The cost is quite expensive. It’s $150 and with that comes two orientations a test run and the actual test. You can also pay for a $25 practice run. It’s a timed practice run if you want to see where you are at. I think it’s also $25 if you lost your card, which I’ve never lost it but $25 if you do lose it. The first time I did it I did do the practice run because I was nervous and I wanted to make sure I was up to par. I did fine in my practice run.

I actually was kind of bummed that I did the practice run because it was a long way to drive and 25 bucks just to know that I could do it easily. So I would say I wouldn’t recommend the practice run just because if you watch videos online you’ll know what’s going on then it’s not that hard. The $150 is quite a bit especially when you an aspiring firefighter but that’s one of those things you got to pay for.

So about the test. After you schedule your test and pay for it, you should start preparing for it. Now like I said, it’s a real easy test so you don’t have to get too in-depth with your training, as long as you’re in decent shape.

There are a couple different online tutorials about how to prepare for the Cpat test. Click here to view a Cpat training video. I do know a lot of you guys who take it and they won’t work out for it and take the test and they would still pass.

If you’re having a hard time passing the Cpat test you should really be thinking about a different career choice or start getting into a physical fitness level where you can at least pass it easily because that’s the easiest it will get. A lot of the time, If you’re doing an agility test for a department and they don’t go through Cpat then they are going to have you probably perform a harder test than the Cpat is.

When I would train for the test I would use a weight vest. During the test you are wearing a weight vest. Even just a 20-pound weight vest will do wonders. It’s nice just to get used to having that weight on your shoulders. What workout I would mostly recommend is doing the stair chair/climb. The stair climb is probably gonna be the most difficult part for some people especially like if you’re not really into working out. 

Here is a very reasonable priced vest on Amazon:

If you’re a generally fit person then you’re gonna pass it no problem. You will be huffing and puffing at the end but you’ll make the time. Maybe do some interval training. I know some sports like soccer and other sports helps.

The Cpat is a pass/fail test and for most of the test you’re wearing a 50 pound vest. For the first 3 minutes you’re wearing a 75 pound vest during the stair master climb. This is the first category you go through. For the test itself, you have your weight vest on, your helmet and your gloves. They supply you with gloves, they give you helmet and pretty much everything you will need.

Before I go into it more I want to talk about what you should be wearing during the event. When I go there I usually wear some kind of under armor shirt, the kind that helps remove sweat from your body. Even a generic one will be fine. You have to wear sweats during the event, sweat pants usually will work fine.

You cannot wear shorts.

They’re not allowed because you will be on your knees during an event so just wear some kind of sweats and tennis shoes to go with them. That’s really all you need. You don’t wear a watch or anything like that.

The Complete Cpat Guide from start to finish:

When you arrive then you check in, tell them your name and give ID then you sit down in the wait area for your name to be called. And what you’re doing is essentially just watching a video, which actually helps out quite a bit. You sit there and watch a video of the whole process of the test.

The stair climb. The whole test you will have a 50 pound vest on and on your shoulders you have two – 12.5 pounds weights which equals to 75 pounds for the stair master. You’re on the stair master for three minutes and its 50 steps per second. The only way to fail this is not be able to complete the event or for an automatic fail which would be touching the wall to hold your balance 3 times. If you fall or touch the sides or not hold your balance three times then you fail the event.

Obviously that doesn’t happen too often. When you’re done with that you step down the stair climb machine, an individual take off the two 12.5 weights leaving your 50 pound weight vest on and then you walk about 75 feet to the next scenario.

The next event is the hose drag. It’s a dry hose on the ground which you pull only about 50 feet I believe.

So what you do in the event is you grab the nozzle from the ground and you run. This is the only event you can actually run in. You run about 40 feet and then you make a turn and go about 10 or 15 feet more. You then turn around, get on one knee and start pulling. You pull about 50 feet of hose to the designated length. Once you’re done with that, you walk 75 feet to the next event.

To fail this one is if you run outside the designated area which, unless you slip or something then you shouldn’t be falling. I don’t see that happening too often. Also, when pulling the hose with one knee on the ground, if you can’t keep your one knee on the ground then you fail. You get 2 tries. An easy event in my mind.

The next event is the Equipment carry. What you do is carry  2 chainsaws (without the chain, gas or anything) It’s basically just the bare bones of a chainsaw and you walk 75 feet with them. You pick them up from an elevated position then put them both down individually, grab them again and you walk around a barrel and then you come back. You put them both on the ground and put each one back on the deck one at a time.

You’re walking 75 feet to the next event. The pass/fail on this one is if you drop either of the saws. So don’t drop the saws! They don’t give you the greatest of gloves (more like gardening gloves) but they will be fine in holding the chainsaws.

Next event is the ladder raise. You have a 24-foot ladder that’s stationary and what you need to do is step into the square in front of the ladder and pull the halyard to raise up the 12-foot section.

You pull the rope and it goes all the way up, wait until the click when you reach the end and then you overhand it back down. Once you’ve done you step next to you and there’s another ladder. The ladder is on the ground and you just lift it up rung after rung. It’s held by ropes so it won’t fall and hit you if you drop it. You just raise it up all the way. It’s super easy. The only fail here is if you drop it or you let go of the halyard. 

The next event is the forcible entry. You get a ten-pound sledgehammer and you hit the target until you hear the buzzer. It usually takes people 5 to 10 hits until the buzzard sounds. The pass/fail here is if you miss the target then you fail. It’s pretty big so it’s not easy to miss but if you’re swinging for the fences then you might miss so usually people do weaker and shorter hits to make sure they hit it and you’ll be fine. 

Once you’re done with that you set down the sledgehammer then you go to the next event, the search box.

So the search event is in the dark box and it’s in the shape of a “C”. So you get in and they close the flap behind you. You go on your hands and knees and you pretty much just keep to the right side when you go in. It’s super easy and not really a search. There are some obstacles where you got to kind of maneuver around.

It gets a little shorter toward the end so you have to crawl in the finish. It usually takes me around 30-45 min. to complete. I’ve never really seen or heard of anyone failing. The pass/fail for this is if you get scared and you need help getting out or if you go out the same way you came in. Next, you walk 75 feet to the rescue drag.

Now the rescue drag is a 165-pound dummy that you have to walk 35 feet around a drum. Super easy again, but may be heavy for some. It has little loops around the dummy for you so you can have a good grip onto the dummy. You don’t have to pick up the whole body you just pick it up enough to drag it. I believe you’re able to drop it and still not fail. The only fail for this one is if you touch the drum more than once.

You walk again 75 feet to the next event and it’s the ceiling breach. What you’re gonna do is you’re gonna walk into the event and you grab a pipe pole and you  push up on this certain little area and you’re pushing up 60 pounds. You do that 5 times, up and down. They’re gonna let you know if each set is a passable set. It usually happens if you don’t hit it all the way up then they’ll say something.

After you do those five then you step to the other side and pull down again. You do that whole scenario, the five pushes, the five pulls, three times for a total of 30 reps. Once you’re done with that last one your prompter will say “time” and then your time will stop. To be honest I’m not sure how much time you’re allowed but I know it’s around 8 or 9 minutes

Every time I have taken it I passed with at least two to three minutes to spare. I am out of breath afterward but not too exhausted at the end. You know right away if you passed of failed. If you do pass you get your card right then and there. The system is pretty well set up.

After that you are ready to go!

 A lot of departments want to see Cpat now and that’s just the way you have to go if your department requests it. It’s $150 per year so hopefully you get the job within that year so you’re not paying that cost yearly. That’s pretty much the whole test. Good luck to you guys and hopefully you guys get a job soon.

My best wishes to ya. Please Let me know if there’s anything I can do to help.

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See you guys. Thanks for reading.