Questions, answered straight.

First Call is a practice tool for the fire service oral board. You answer real oral board questions out loud, on a timer, and every answer is scored against a rubric written for that question. You see what landed, what didn't, and what to work on next. See how it works.

Scott Shimala, a firefighter who spent two years preparing for oral boards before getting hired, and who has a master's in human-computer interaction. Read the story.

No. The questions are the kind oral boards ask entry-level candidates, and none of them require you to have worked in the fire service. Your answers can draw on work, school, sports, volunteering, or anything else from your own life.

Yes. Oral boards evaluate the same core competencies whether you're new or already on the job somewhere else. You'll have more fire experience to draw on in your answers, and the scoring will hold you to the same standard.

A phone or computer with a microphone, and a quiet space where you can talk out loud. That's it.

Yes. AI does the scoring, but it doesn't decide what a good answer is. Every question has its own rubric, written by a person, with specific criteria and a defined description of each score level. The AI's job is to measure your answer against that rubric. The rubric sets the bar, not the AI's opinion.

A friend can listen, but they can't score you against defined criteria, and they'll usually go easy on you. Question lists show you what might be asked, but reading answers doesn't prepare you to say one out loud under pressure, and memorized answers tend to sound rehearsed. First Call has you actually answer, out loud, then scores you the same way every time.

No. Your answer is converted to a transcript and the content is what gets scored: what you said, how you structured it, and whether it answered the question. Accent and speaking style aren't part of the score.

On purpose. Real boards are strict. A practice tool that grades easier than the real thing feels good and leaves you unprepared. If First Call is going to be wrong about you, it's better for it to be tough than generous.

It depends on the length you pick. Sessions are 3, 5, or 8 questions, each on its own timer, plus time to read your feedback. A short session fits in a lunch break.

Real oral boards don't give you a teleprompter, so First Call doesn't either. Practicing without seeing your words builds the habit of answering from what you know, the way you'll have to in the room.

No one can promise that, and you should be skeptical of anyone who does. Departments write their own questions. What First Call covers is what oral boards consistently evaluate, so the skills you build carry over to whatever you're actually asked.

Your recording is converted to text, and your feedback is generated from that transcript. Voice recordings are deleted on a set schedule rather than kept indefinitely, and you can ask for your account and all of its data to be deleted at any time. The Privacy page has the full details. Read the Privacy page.

First Call is free while in beta. No credit card needed to sign up.

Email [email protected]. A real person reads every message.