CPAT STRATEGY — CANDIDATE HANDBOOK

Everything you have to know about CPAT

Eight events, a 50-pound vest, and a 10:20 cut time. Read section 01 if the test is new to you. If your date is already booked, start at 03 and work backwards.

The Candidate Physical Ability Test is a licensed job-simulation test developed by the IAFF and IAFC with ten metropolitan fire departments. It is not a fitness assessment and it is not scored. You either complete all eight events inside the cut time without a disqualifying error, or you do not.

Because it is licensed, the course is identical everywhere: same equipment, same distances, same order, same clock. That consistency is what lets a card earned at one facility satisfy a department a hundred miles away.

The standard