Ventura County (CA) Academy - Need the scoop!

[Hewson]

Pending a medical exam next week I'm in! Any officers here been through the Ventura County Sheriff's Academy? If so:

1. Is it true they start you off easy on the running only Mon/Wed/Fri?
2. I'm about 50 min away in Los Angeles. With an hour commute each way will that interfere too much with studying? Can it be done?
3. How much homework, in hours, is given every night? Is it assigned over the weekends?
4. I can't do pull-ups for the life of me. Are there pass/fail tests throughout or just at the end of the academy. If you fail once are you gone?
5. What are the hours? 0700-1600?

ANY info is appreciated. Please post or PM any info even if I didn't ask.

Many thanks to everyone. This board has amazing info.

[pkagel]

I can't give you Venture specifics but any academy is going to ramp up the running. You are not going to come in day one and do 10 miles. Plan on doing a couple miles the first week at most. I hope for your sake though that you are in better shape than that.

Homework, most don't assign homework per sey. You will need to get into study groups, find a guy you can commute with and quiz eachother to and from the academy. What you get at most academies in CA are reports to write. Disciplinary reports. These are very structured, make a template that you will put behind the paper you are writing on and write it right the first time so you don't have them piling up on you. You will also have regular reports in your report writing class, probably about 20 or so throughout the course.

As far as study guides go, I think your on my web site but if not, join up. The guides I and a few of my friends have made which took countless hours to put together will save you hours of sleep throughout the academy. Use them. I also have medical information on there. Read it. Download everything I have put in the files and ask plenty of questions in the forum. Many of the guys on the site are either currently in or just graduated from a CA academy and will be able to help you out on the tests.

CA POST tests can be a bit funny as some of the questions are just plain weird and/or written poorly. During review you can get a lot of questions thrown out if you state your case properly.

When you start, post about your academy and how they do things as each one has it's own quirks.

Best of luck to ya.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CABasicpolice/

[pkagel]

Maybe I need to emphasize this STUDY GROUPS

[OFK]

Pending a medical exam next week I'm in! Any officers here been through the Ventura County Sheriff's Academy? If so:

1. Is it true they start you off easy on the running only Mon/Wed/Fri?
2. I'm about 50 min away in Los Angeles. With an hour commute each way will that interfere too much with studying? Can it be done?
3. How much homework, in hours, is given every night? Is it assigned over the weekends?
4. I can't do pull-ups for the life of me. Are there pass/fail tests throughout or just at the end of the academy. If you fail once are you gone?
5. What are the hours? 0700-1600?

ANY info is appreciated. Please post or PM any info even if I didn't ask.

Many thanks to everyone. This board has amazing info.

Not LEO, but congrats, I lived there for several years and our company did production work for the VCSD and the VCFD. They were wonderful to work with, so I can imagine it would be a great place to work. Good Luck!

[sm3158]

Hewson, what department will you be attending the academy for? Pending my medical, I'll see you there in August. I've been trying to get some info also. I know a couple guys that are in there right now that I'll be talking with soon. I'll let you when I get some info.

[Hewson]

Sbso

Hewson, what department will you be attending the academy for?

Hi sm3158. I'm going in with Santa Barbara County Sheriff's Department. What about yourself?

[sm3158]

Hi sm3158. I'm going in with Santa Barbara County Sheriff's Department. What about yourself?

I had to choose between Santa Barbara SO and Ventura PD. I chose Ventura PD, much closer to my house.