Police entrance exam practice test

What the real test usually looks like

There is no single police entrance exam. Each police department, sheriff's office or civil service commission chooses its own written test, so the number of questions, the time limit and the sections all vary. Your job announcement, exam notice or test invitation is the best guide to yours.

One public example: New York State. The state's Department of Civil Service publishes a guide to the written test for its Entry-Level Police Officer Series, used for local titles such as Police Officer, Patrol Officer and Deputy Sheriff (New York State guide). The guide says:

• The test generally has an overall time allowance of 5 hours, increased to 6 hours when certain state titles with extra test material are included.
• Each test is a selection from a list of subject areas, and the Examination Announcement lists the ones on your test.
• Memory for facts and information: you get 5 minutes to study a Memory Booklet, then it is taken away and you answer questions about it.
• Preparing written material in a police setting: a page of notes, then questions that each give four restatements of the notes. You choose the one that presents the information most clearly and accurately.
• Reading, understanding and interpreting written information of the kind officers read in training and on the job.
• Applying written information (rules, regulations, policies, procedures and directives) in police situations.
• The sample questions in the guide have four answer choices each.

Content areas you are likely to meet. Agencies name their sections differently, but most police written exams draw on a similar set of skills:

• Reading comprehension: policies, procedures or short reports, with questions on what they actually say.
• Written expression or report writing: grammar, spelling and the clearest, most accurate way to record what happened.
• Applying rules and procedures: a written rule and a situation, and what the rule requires.
• Reasoning: spotting a pattern in facts, or putting events in the right order.
• Sometimes memory, maps, pictures or basic math.

What our mocks cover. Our full mocks are in the style of common police written exams: 80 questions in 100 minutes, with no calculator, in six sections in this order: reading comprehension (20), written expression (15), applying rules and procedures (15), inductive reasoning (10), information ordering (10) and basic math (10). That is 75 seconds a question, the same pace as this free sample. You can go back and flag questions. They do not include memory booklet questions or map and picture sections, so if your exam has those, add your agency's own sample questions to your practice.

Question types with worked examples

One worked example for each section, with the trap most people fall into.

1. Reading comprehension. Passage: "Officers must complete the use-of-force form within 24 hours of the incident. The form goes to the shift supervisor, who reviews it within 3 days." An incident happens Monday at 8 p.m. When is the form due? By Tuesday at 8 p.m. Trap: mixing up the two time limits. The 3 days is the supervisor's deadline, not the officer's.

2. Written expression. Your notes say a man "ran south on Main Street at 11:05 p.m. carrying a black backpack". Which is better: "A suspicious man ran off with a bag late at night" or "At 11:05 p.m., a man carrying a black backpack ran south on Main Street"? The second, because it keeps every fact and adds no opinion. Trap: choosing the shorter version. A clear report is complete first, then short.

3. Applying rules and procedures. Rule: "Before a vehicle pursuit, the officer must notify dispatch. A pursuit must end if a supervisor orders it to end." A supervisor orders a pursuit to end while the suspect is still in view. Answer: end the pursuit. Trap: answering with what seems effective on the street. The question asks what the rule says.

4. Inductive reasoning. Three stolen bikes were all taken from the north rack of a school, all on days with afternoon sports practice, all between 4 and 5 p.m. The best conclusion is that thefts are most likely at that rack during practice hours. Trap: picking a conclusion that goes further than the facts, such as naming who is responsible.

5. Information ordering. A procedure lists steps in a jumbled order: "photograph the scene", "secure the scene", "collect evidence", "write the report". The logical order is secure, photograph, collect, write. Trap: following the order the steps are printed in. Ask what must happen before each step can happen.

6. Basic math. A shift starts at 10:45 p.m. and lasts 8.5 hours. When does it end? 10:45 p.m. plus 8 hours is 6:45 a.m., plus 30 minutes is 7:15 a.m. Trap: forgetting the half hour, or getting the a.m. and p.m. wrong when the shift crosses midnight.

How to prepare

1. Read your exam announcement first. Find out which sections your test has, how long it is, whether it includes memory, maps or math, and what you may bring. The New York State guide, for example, tells candidates to check their Examination Announcement for the subject areas on their test (New York State guide).
2. Use your agency's own samples. Many agencies and civil service departments publish a study guide with sample questions. Read the instructions as well as the questions, so the test day screens or booklets feel familiar.
3. Read for conditions. Police rules and passages turn on words like "only", "unless", "within", "at least" and "must". Underline them in practice and check each answer choice against them.
4. Write and choose factual sentences. Report-writing questions reward the version that is complete, accurate and free of opinion. Check every fact in an answer choice against the notes: who, what, when and where.
5. Work through procedures step by step. Find the step that applies to the situation, then check whether a later step is triggered.
6. Keep the math simple and by hand. Our mocks have no calculator. Practice percentages, averages, distances and times, including times that cross midnight.
7. Practice at the real pace. Take full timed mocks so the pace feels normal, and practice flagging a hard question and coming back to it rather than losing minutes on it.

How scoring usually works

Scoring depends on the agency. There is no national police exam, so there is no national scale and no universal pass mark. Each department or civil service commission decides how the written test is scored, what counts as passing and how the result is used alongside the rest of the hiring process, such as a physical test, background check and interview. Your exam announcement or notice is the place to find out how yours works.

The New York State guide, for example, describes the subject areas and question types and directs candidates to their Examination Announcement for the details of the test they will take (New York State guide).

Our practice score is the number of our own questions you answered correctly, with a breakdown by section, so you can see where to focus. It is a practice score: it is not a score on any agency's exam and does not predict whether you will pass.

Common mistakes on police written exams

• Answering from street sense, not from the text. Reading and rules questions ask what the passage or rule says. If the answer is not in the text, it is not the answer.
• Picking the report sentence that sounds most formal. The best version keeps every fact in the right place and adds nothing. Check names, addresses and times one by one.
• Stopping at the first step that fits. In procedure questions, a later step is often triggered by a detail in the situation, such as a time limit that has run out.
• Over-reaching in reasoning questions. Choose the conclusion the facts support, not the most dramatic one.
• Rushing the math. Basic math questions are usually two short steps. Write both down, and check the answer makes sense.
• Spending too long on one question. Flag it, move on and come back. A question you skip now is a question you can still answer later.