60 of the FACT's 110 questions and 55% of its weighting — what's known, and how to prepare honestly.
Personal Characteristics is the largest section of the FACT, and the best preparation for it is honest: understand the facts, learn why consistent answers matter, and build the qualities fire services value for real.
CA$67 for 12 months · Never auto-renews
The Firefighter Aptitude and Character Test (FACT) is Stage One of the Ontario Fire Administration Inc. (OFAI) recruitment process. It has 110 multiple-choice questions, and 60 of them make up the Personal Characteristics section. The four aptitude sections carry 45% of the weighting and Personal Characteristics carries 55%.
The result is pass/fail only: no numerical score is released to candidates or to fire departments. The whole test takes up to 3 hours at the GTAA Fire and Emergency Services Training Institute (FESTI) in Mississauga and costs $75 + HST. A pass is valid for 24 months. After a failed attempt you can retake the test after 15 days, or after 30 days following any later failure.
Personal Characteristics
60 of 110 questions
Weighting
55% (aptitude sections: 45%)
Result
Pass/fail only
Time
Up to 3 hours (whole test)
Fee
$75 + HST
Certificate
Valid for 24 months
FireStart only states the facts above. We don't describe the section's question format, answer options or scoring, and we won't guess — be wary of anyone who claims to sell an answer key. Everything below is general, honest preparation that doesn't depend on any of that.
When you describe yourself, honest answers hang together. Contradictions usually come from rushing, misreading a statement or answering the way you think you should rather than the way you are.
A contradictory pair
I keep my workspace organized.
My workspace is usually a mess.
Agreeing with both can't be accurate. Disagreeing with both usually means the truth is somewhere in between, and an in-between answer would describe you better.
Consistency isn't something to fake or memorize. It comes from reading carefully and answering as you really are. If you try to guess what an evaluator wants, the guess shifts from one question to the next — and your answers start to contradict each other.
Firefighting is teamwork under pressure, in service of the public. These are qualities fire services commonly value — and ones you can genuinely build. It isn't a list of what OFAI measures or how it scores.
Putting the crew's goal ahead of your own, sharing the dull work and backing up the people beside you.
Build it for real
Join a team sport, a volunteer crew or a group project where you aren't in charge — and notice how you act when the work isn't fun.
Telling the truth, owning your mistakes and doing the right thing when nobody is watching.
Build it for real
Own small mistakes out loud, keep your word on small things, and be exact about hours, money and borrowed gear.
Showing up on time and ready, and following through without reminders.
Build it for real
Keep a calendar, arrive early, finish what you start, and tell people early when your plans change.
Taking rules and equipment seriously, asking when you're unsure and speaking up about hazards.
Build it for real
Work or volunteer somewhere with real safety procedures, follow them every time, and take a first aid course.
Staying calm and thinking clearly under pressure, taking criticism well and bouncing back from bad days.
Build it for real
Put yourself in demanding situations — competitive sport, a busy job, volunteering where things go wrong — and reflect afterwards on what kept you steady.
Caring about the public, staying patient with people in distress and treating everyone with respect.
Build it for real
Volunteer in your community — a food bank, a seniors' centre, a youth program — and spend time with people whose lives differ from yours.
Adjusting quickly to new tasks, schedules, tools and feedback.
Build it for real
Say yes to unfamiliar tasks, learn new equipment or software, and ask for feedback — then act on it.
Giving full effort on routine and physical work, and improving on your own time.
Build it for real
Train consistently, take pride in routine chores, and look for useful work when your own is done.
Describe how you actually behave at work, school, sport or volunteering — not how you wish you behaved or how you think a firefighter should.
Small words like 'not', 'rarely', 'instead' and 'unless' can flip the meaning of a sentence. Misreading one is the easiest way to contradict yourself.
Before you answer, picture a specific time. Real examples keep your answers grounded and consistent.
Guessing at what an evaluator wants pulls your answers in different directions. Honest answers are the consistent ones.
Volunteering, team sports, first aid training and a dependable work record build the qualities fire services value — and give you true examples to draw on.
A self-check can show habits you didn't notice: contradicting yourself, sitting on the fence or agreeing with everything.
Members can rate 30 or 60 original statements on a five-point scale, from Strongly disagree to Strongly agree. Statements come in pairs — one of each pair worded the opposite way — and appear in random order with the qualities mixed together.
Consistency: every pair you answered both ways, shown side by side.
Response style: how often you chose neutral, answered only at the extremes or agreed with everything.
Alignment: how your answers line up with each quality as worded, with honest suggestions for building it.
No score and no pass or fail. Your recent attempts show whether you're getting more consistent.
The statements are written by FireStart. They aren't copied from or modelled on the FACT or any other real test, and the trainer can't predict your FACT result.
CA$67 for 12 months · Never auto-renews
FireStart.ca is an independent test preparation platform and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to the Ontario Fire Administration Inc. (OFAI), Fire & Police Selection, Inc. (FPSI), or any fire department. Always confirm current test details directly with OFAI at ofai.ca.