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Yeah, the funniest part for me is that if they really believed I was guilty of all the misdeeds the polygraph "uncovered" they'd be tailing me 24/7.  (Maybe they are sneakier than I give them credit for, but I haven't seen any evidence of this.)  Or I should be in a cage at Camp X-Ray.

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Based on the appearance of my polygrapher, I would guess he's very familar with Denny's even if he does eat alone.  A really finely-tuned specimen he was.

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What makes him a loser?  Not passing a poly?  If so, I guess I'm a loser too.

Human Subject,

Thanks for the head's up bro! Luckily I did not tell too many people about the process but the ones I did tell responded the same way your family and friends did. Luckily my strange sense of humor allowed me to get some laughs out of that! I have several ol' school family friends in the federal law enforcement agencies who 'warned' me of the poly by telling me that telling the truth would not guarantee a passing score due to false positives. That's the funny thing about the poly. Everyone in these agencies, atleast the experienced ones, know how much of a joke the test is. One of the good things about not getting the FED job is not having to take a 25,000 pay cut right of the bat. That would have hurt!

I have heard stories all my life from my LEO family and friends about the jokesters and "geeks" that work in these agencies. It is obvious that our friend 'Fed Up Fed' either just graduated from the academy and is looking to rub his alleged accomplishments in someone's face or is just mad that the real agents at his office never ask him to go and eat at Denny's for lunch. "Hey guys wanna ask the poly nerd to lunch.....haaaaa" I'm willing to bet that first words out of Fed up Fed's mouth after graduation were...."And I get my own gun"....haaaaa. And this guy is suppose to be "protecting us"...now that's the true comedy out of all this.

Fed-up Fed,

If John boy told the truth and failed, how could that make you happy?

Don't you think that failing an innocent person is unjust.

Didn't you swear to uphold the law and the spirit of the law?

What happened to you to make you so bitter that you would gloat over a miscarrige of justice?

Human Subject, the way you empathize with that loser John Boy just makes a fella cry.   

And to make things worse George gets his hopes up by telling him he may have actually passed.  George and his advice, both as worthless as tits on a boar hog. 

I guess it's back to Walton's mountain for John Boy.

Hey JohnBoy, I'm sorry to hear that.  Your story is very similar to mine, so I can sympathize.  For me it was a huge disappointment, and I'm sure it's the same with you.

All I can say is try to stay positive.  If you want to appeal, do so.  But in the meantime just take a step back and re-assess your other career goals.  Then start taking positive steps toward their accomplishment.  It will restore the sense that you have a grip on the reins of your life -- which is something an experience such as the one you just suffered through can undermine.

Hopefully not a lot of people knew about your application process.  I know in my case it seemed like everyone did (I have chatty friends and relatives).  Now they all look at me either like I'm this poor wounded creature or I'm this person with dark secrets that they never really knew.  This can make things tough.  I wish I had advice on how to handle this, but I don't.  (Other than to refer them to this site so they can at least start to learn more about the polygraph than they know from watching Law and Order reruns.)

And if anyone reading this is about to take the exam and hasn't decided whether to use CMs or not...  I'm pretty sure it feels better to fail after at least trying to take control of the situation than to fail after leaving your fate to the whims of a polygrapher and his trusty machine.

JohnBoy,

Based on the new information you have provided, I regret to say that it seems clear that you did not pass.

If, for the benefit of others, you would be interested in writing a more detailed statement about your experience for inclusion on the AntiPolygraph.org Personal Statements page, please get in touch at info@antipolygraph.org.

George,

You wrote : "But from your account above, it is not so clear to me that you didn't pass. You might have."

From reading my statement I don't think I made it clear that I received the official "thanks but no thanks" from the HR coordinator via phone and the letter is probably waiting in my mail box as I type this.

Were you in question that I did not receive the official results or are you still convinced that I passed the exam?

I confessed that I cheated in High School off the machine but she(examiner) would not let it rest. She continued to question me and then later asked if I cheated in college while hooked up to the machine. So that does make perfect sense that the cheating question was a "control" question. More reason for me to be frustrated for not educating myself properly. That makes me wonder what part of the examine  I actually did "fail" ?

JohnBoy,

Note that the question about cheating in college was a probable-lie "control" question. (Review Chapter 3 of The Lie Behind the Lie Detector.) If your polygrapher accused you of deception with regard to this question between chart collections, he was probably trying to "sensitize" you to it. This would actually have the effect of "helping" you to pass, as your reaction to that probable-lie "control" question would have been compared with your reaction to a relevant question (perhaps the question about withholding information on your application packet, which is a relevant question).

Of course, none of this has any scientific basis whatsoever: it is sheer quackery, and it is an outrage that our government relies on such nonsense to assess the honesty and integrity of applicants for employment.

But from your account above, it is not so clear to me that you didn't pass. You might have.

I failed my poly as assumed by the reaction of the polygrapher. I told the 100% truth and was accused of cheating on an exam in college and witholding information on my application packet. Can you believe that? I can tell people I will not be an SA due to "possible" cheating in college.  What a joke!! I seriously do not know how the examiners/witchdoctors sleep at night. Let me say it again....I told the 100% truth and here I am!! After reading the many posts on this board I still failed to take the warnings seriously! I understand that if you are like me and go in telling the truth the chances are in your favor of passing. BUT you never know!! The way the examiner walked me into the cheating question is another story in itself. So add me to list of people who are here to say "Telling the truth will not gurantee you a passing score on the polygraph......." .  What a bureaucratic joke!