How to Ace the Fire Service In‑Basket Exercise
Fire Engineering Podcast Network

How to Ace the Fire Service In‑Basket Exercise

B2Upper-intermediateSeptember 23, 202653 min
  • Interview

On this episode of the Women in Fire podcast, host Lisa Baker welcomes veteran lieutenant and assessment center SME Heidi Simon of the South Metro (CO) Fire Department. Simon walks through the in‑basket exercise used on firefighter promotional exams. She explains what an in‑basket looks like, the assessment dimensions (planning, multitasking, time management, problem solving, delegation, policy knowledge, verbal and written communication), and practical tactics: She emphasizes practice with real department issues, knowing local “hot topics” and policies, and the necessity of follow up.

Play episode

Opens the player: the full transcript, every word clickable, with translation and flashcards.

Try it: tap any word

Real sentences from the start of this episode. Every word is marked with its level.

Sentence 4 of 12 · 0:16

the exercises that you would find on

.

Moving forward each month,

Hear this sentence

Tap a word to see its meaning in your language.

Do you know these words?

8 harder words from this episode. Tap one to see what it means, then mark it.

  • B20:16
  • B210:54
  • B217:27
  • B225:00
  • B227:47
  • B235:54
  • C140:22
  • C150:43

Mark a few words and we'll tell you how this episode fits your level.

Is this episode right for you?

B2

B2 · Upper-intermediate

Comfortable if you already follow TV news

A1 24%A2 32%B1 22%B2 18%C1 4%
  • 78% of the words are B1 or easier.
  • 172 words a minute: natural, fairly fast speech.
  • 156 harder words (B2 and up) in the whole episode.

Transcript

The opening of the episode. The whole transcript is in the player.

0:00

Greetings and welcome to the Women in Fire radio show. Today we're going to be discussing one of the exercises that you would find on a fire assessment center for a promotional exam.

0:19

Moving forward each month, we'll have one of the exercises that we will see on assessment center. Today it will be the end basket.

0:26

Thank you to Fire Engineering for allowing women in fire to be part of their radio show. I'm Lisa Baker, the Southwest trustee, and today I have subject matter expert Heidi Simon, who recently retired from South Metro Fire as a lieutenant in the Colorado area who has sat on numerous assessment centers and has developed

That was the opening. The rest of the episode (53 min) is in the player: every word clickable, with translation, saved words and flashcards.

Continue in the player

Automatically generated from the audio. May contain errors. Audio belongs to its publisher and is played from their feed. Rights holders can request removal — copyright & takedown policy