Morris and McDaniel Police Test Preparation – Ultimate Guide
When preparing for an application for a law enforcement position, many people forget that there is a cognitive test as well as a physical assessment.
Many institutions (including the police force) often use the Morris and McDaniel Police Test to screen candidates and see if they have what it takes to be successful police officers.
We have put together this guide to help you understand what to expect and how to prepare for the Morris and McDaniel Police test and pass the assessment with flying colors.
Let’s get into it!
Table of Contents
Understanding the Morris and McDaniel Police Test
The Morris and McDaniel Law Enforcement Entry-Level Exams are tests designed to screen and assess candidates for entry-level law enforcement positions.
There is not one standardized test; rather, there are different tests issued depending on the position and sector the advertised role is in.
The Morris and McDaniel Police test is designed to test candidates looking to join the police force to assess whether they have the necessary skills, cognitive ability, and behavioral patterns required to perform the role of a police officer to a high level.
Skills assessed in the police test include reading comprehension, oral communication, inductive reasoning, memorization, semantic ordering and visualization, verbal comprehension, flexibility of closure, and spatial orientation.
While many skills of a police officer are learned on the job, there is a basic standard of ability required to take the training.
The purpose of this test is to check if candidates have what it takes to begin the process of becoming a police officer and to screen their potential ability within the workforce.
Test Structure and Format
The structure of the Morris and McDaniel Police test is slightly different from a traditional test as it is made up of four different exams.
While these exams all have their names and assess different attributes and metrics, they all fall under the one “Police Test” banner, and their scores are looked at cumulatively.
You can expect three written exams made up of primarily multiple-choice questions and an oral presentation that counts as the final exam.
The four exams are taken separately, although it is likely that you will take them all within a short timeframe.
Key Components of the Test
The first component is the Entry-Level Police Test (ELP), which assesses the basic attributes required to be a successful police officer.
These include verbal comprehension, spatial awareness, reasoning, and problem sensitivity. The purpose of this section is not only to assess all candidates’ abilities but to also see who the strongest candidates may be.
The next component is the Reading Ability for Police (RAP). The RAP test is designed to test reading comprehension and is presented as a series of passages and questions, each with a set of multiple-choice answers.
Police officers need to have a high level of reading comprehension, as often they are required to quickly read and act on sensitive information.
This is a basic skill that cannot be learned on the job, so it is important that it is screened during the hiring process.
The following section is the Candidate Self-Report for Police (CSR-P). The questions in this section are designed to gauge the moral and ethical reasoning of the candidates.
Additionally, the questions and answers are designed to give the hiring manager an idea of the integrity and work ethic of the candidates.
This is a purely behavioral section, so there is no need to worry about right and wrong answers in the traditional sense.
The final component is the Structured Oral Presentation (SOP).
This portion of the assessment requires candidates to present an oral presentation in order to give the hiring managers a better idea of how they might react and behave in the field.
Attributes assessed in this section include judgment, oral communication, and service communication.
Preparation Tips for the Morris and McDaniel Police Test
- Brush up on your reading comprehension: A large portion of the Morris and McDaniel Police test involves reading comprehension.
Reading comprehension is a key skill that you need in almost every job, however, it is even more important in a police officer’s job.
If you are a regular reader, or you’ve found yourself in a slump, it is a good idea to start reading again and focusing on digesting the information in the weeks leading up to the exam.
Whether it’s fiction or nonfiction, the more you read, the higher your comprehension skills will be.
At the end of each article or chapter, test yourself and see how much you understood or remember. You will find that as you practice, your skills will slowly improve.
- Go over your basic math skills: There is some degree of mathematical reasoning contained in the police test.
Math is a tricky subject for many, and if you fall into this category, you may benefit from some extra preparation.
Going over basic skills such as basic algebra, statistical reasoning, and probability and ensuring you are confident in these areas is a fantastic way to prepare for the Morris and McDaniel Police test and help you perform to the best of your ability on the day of the test.
- Do practice exams: There is nothing as beneficial for your study as simulating the test itself.
Doing practice exams will not only allow you to get a better understanding of the style of question and answer that you should expect, but it will also let you practice answering these types of questions under time pressure.
Practice tests allow you to hone your skills so that when you sit the test, you don’t need to worry about figuring out the wording of the question or how you think the markers might want you to structure your answers.
I recommend the Morris and McDaniel Police test prep kit from JobTestPrep, as it contains everything you need to achieve a high result in the exams.
Sample Questions and Answers
Here are some sample questions and answers that mimic the types of questions you might find in the Morris and McDaniel Police test.
In the reading comprehension section, you can expect a small passage, such as the following:
Most East and Southeast Asian countries report little or no cohabitation. The exception is Japan where, among women born in the 1970s, about 20% say they have cohabited with a sexual partner.
For Japan, that is a big change. In surveys between 1987 and 2002, just 1-7% of single women said they had lived with a partner.
You will then be asked a question, such as “Cohabitation in Japan is…?” followed by a series of answers. These could look like;
A: more common than in South East Asia,
B: More common in the US, or
C: Not found at all.
Based on the passage, you will need to choose the best answer, which in this case is A.
You may also be asked mathematical reasoning questions, which usually follow a word problem format. For example, you could be asked:
“Tim is a flower grower who grows lilies and daisies in a 2:1 ratio respectively. On Mother’s Day, he sells out all his flowers. Tim sold 2000 lilies. How many daisies did he sell?”
You can then expect a series of multiple-choice answers. The answer here is 1000, as this is in line with the 2:1 ratio described in the word problem.
Final Words
While you may feel that your physical attributes and abilities are the most important part of the assessment process for an entry-level police officer, you should not underestimate the importance of the Morris and McDaniel test.
This test allows the hiring manager to assess whether you have the correct cognitive and behavioral abilities for the role, and an unsuccessful result in the test will likely result in a declined application.
This means that it is of the utmost importance that you adequately prepare for the test in order to best demonstrate your skills and attributes.
By following the advice and tips in this guide, you will be setting yourself up for success and giving yourself the best chance possible to become a police officer.
Sarah is an accomplished educator, researcher and author in the field of testing and assessment. She has worked with various educational institutions and organisations to develop innovative evaluation methods and enhance student learning. Sarah has published numerous articles and books on assessment and learning. Her passion for promoting equity and fairness in the education system fuels her commitment to sharing insights and best practices with educators and policymakers around the world.
