Mastering the NPOST: A Complete Guide to Police Officer Selection Test Prep
If you’re looking to advance your career by becoming a Police Officer, you will know it’s not an easy journey. In order to apply and get selected, you need to pass the National Police Officer Selection Test, or NPOST, for short.
In certain states, this is the standard mandatory procedure you need if you want to become a Police officer, so passing it is your ticket to becoming a Law Enforcement employee.
In this article, we will cover all you need to know about the National Police Officer Selection Test or NPOST. We will explain its subtests, their duration, the type of questions you will encounter, and the structure of the answers you need to provide.
Read on for practical guidance about the exam and tips to help you prepare.
Table of Contents
What is the National Police Officer Selection Test?
The National Police Officer Selection Test is a standardized set of tests used to measure and assess some basic skills required by Police Officer candidates.
The test itself is divided into four parts, each assessing a different skill. Each part is measured separately too. They want to make sure that you don’t only have the skills, but you’re agile enough to use them fast and efficiently.
What is on the NPOST?
Mathematics (Arithmetics)
This subtest is designed to assess your mathematics skills. The questions will be mathematical problems you would need to solve. A calculator is not allowed for answering the questions, but you will get a blank paper sheet you can use to do the calculations.
Reading Comprehension
The next subtest will measure your writing and reading skills — how carefully you read and understand written text. The questions will be connected to law enforcement, but you do not need to have any knowledge of the law or the work of a police officer. All that will come later on.
All the information you need to answer those questions will already be in the paragraph provided. You would only need to read carefully and understand all the info given.
There are three types of questions in the Reading Comprehension part of the test:
- True or false answers – Here you need to select whether a certain statement is true or false by the info provided in the correlating passage.
- Multiple-choice questions – Here you select the right answer from the available, provided ones.
- Multiple-choice questions – Here you need to select the alternative that best describes information from the passage. Practically, select the sentence which states the same thing, but with a different sentence structure.
Grammar, Punctuation, and Spelling
The third part of the test is evaluating your abilities for correct grammar, spelling, and punctuation. In this section you need to:
- Select the option of the 4 provided that has the correct spelling of a certain word.
- Or, select the option which shows the word that was misspelled in a certain sentence (passage).
Incident Report Form
The Incident Report Form test is designed to test your writing skills. You will get a filled-out Incident report form that contains all the information you need for answering the questions. There will be a question asked, followed by a blank line you need to fill in with the answer.
Watch out for these things:
- Answer correctly
- Answer with full sentences
- Make sure you don’t have any spelling mistakes
- Don’t make any grammar mistakes
How do I prepare for the National Police Officer Selection Test?
Our top recommendation to prepare for an NPOST is this:
- Get the help of a job test preparation website like Jop Test Prep. They have specific and accurate study materials for the NPOST. These include over 800 practice questions, study guides, and easy-to-understand explanations, incident report writing and more.
Some other options to prepare are:
- Search the internet for as many example questions as possible and familiarise yourself with the questions — just remember resources are limited and not all sources are trustworthy.
- Talk to acquaintances in the Law Enforcement department. Although remember, the tests may have changed over the years.
If you want to pass the exam and rocket your chances of getting into the Law Enforcement department, the easy answer to the question “How do I prepare for the National Police Officer Selection Test?” is to let Job Test Prep help you.
They’ve had an established, extensive, and continuous presence since 1992, both offline and online. They’ve helped millions of people to get to their dream job and career by preparing them for required tests. And they continue to be the leading Job Test Preparing platform worldwide.
How long does the NPOST test take?
Each of the four parts of the National Police Officer Selection Test has a different time frame for completion.
The total time spent on the test is around one hour and 15 minutes, with possible delay due to short breaks between parts used for explanation of the test material and the type of questions or answers needed.
The NPOST timings at a glance:
You get around 1 hour and 15 minutes to answer all 75 questions in all 4 of the categories of the test.
- Mathematics section – 20 questions in minutes
- Reading Comprehensions section – 25 questions in 25 minutes
- Grammar, Punctuation, and Spelling section – 20 questions in 15 minutes
- Report-related section – 20 questions in 15 minutes
How do I pass the NPOST (police written exam)?
Owning exercising materials and practicing is the best way to go if you want to ensure that you pass your NPOST written exam.
By having practice materials, you can learn and train your brain about the exact format of the questions and the answers you need to provide. As you practice, you will also remember answers and learn a few things.
You might not be able to know the exact question you will get, but you will know what to expect. If you know how true/false questions are answered, and you expect to see them in your test, you will take less time to answer them.
Three of the four sections contain the answers within them. You don’t need to think of an answer, you just need to know where and how to find that answer in the passage.
What is a good NPOST score?
To pass the exam, you need to answer correctly on at least 70% of each subtest. But, having a high percentage of correct answers does not ensure your career as a Police Officer. Once the results are in, the highest scores are the ones that are considered best. So, it’s not only about doing good on the exam, but it’s also important how well others do at the exam too.
Why should I get the help of Job Test Prep?
Job Test Prep is one of the leading online companies that have decades of experience in their field of expertise. They offer all kinds of preparation tests samples and exercise sheets for different types of professions and working positions.
The NPOST is one of those tests. Without passing this test, you would not get into Law Enforcement. Furthermore, even if you pass it, but other candidates get higher scores, your place in the field is threatened.
So, the best thing you can do is to timely start your training for the written Police officer selection exam and get so good at it, that the exam day itself won’t make you anxious.
What kind of exercise materials will I get from Job Prep Test?
- Over 800 practice questions
- Basic Math problems for the “Mathematics” part
- Reading comprehension working materials
- Written communication for the “Grammar” part
- Police Report example for the “Incident Report Writing”
- 6 study guides
- Comprehensive explanation and tips on how to solve any question that might come up on the test
What makes Job Prep Test the best for NPOST preparation?
- Their practice materials are based on years of continuous monitoring of the actual test.
- They also give you tips on how to succeed at the exam.
- They have a 24/7 support team ready to answer all your questions.
- They have a secured payment system.
- They have a full money-back policy.
- You can choose your subscription period – 1 week, 1 month, or 3 months.
- Once you subscribe, you get access to all of their packs, not just one.
Tips to help you when you answer the actual test
- Start preparing for the test on time, so you don’t have to be anxious or overwhelmed by the learning process.
- Don’t start reading the materials a few days before the exam. Being in a rase with time might push you into anxiety, fear, and low self-esteem. With these emotions, you are more likely to forget an answer or convince yourself that you don’t know it, even if you didn’t even think it through.
- Have plenty of sleep and rest before the test.
- Eat and drink plenty of water before the test. You don’t want your stomach to distract you from the questions.
- Use the bathroom before the start of the test.
- Calm yourself and don’t rush.
- If you are anxious, close your eyes and take a deep breath in and out for a few seconds. You need to calm your mind and concentrate on the questions and answers alone.
- Don’t spend a lot of time on one question. You have a certain amount of time for each subtest, so you can always go back to the answers you’re not sure of, but you can’t do so if the testing timeframe has passed.
- If you are not sure of an answer, either leave it and come back to it later or guess an answer and come to check later on.
- Don’t leave a question unanswered. Wrongly answered questions are not considered in the final score. You might get it right, even if you are not sure of it.
Conclusion
If you want to become a Police Officer, passing the NPOST (National Police Officer Selection Test) is required. In order to do so, you would need exercise materials.
The NPOST is designed to measure your abilities to solve arithmetic problems, reading comprehension, grammar, punctuation and spelling, and comprehension of the Incident Report Form. It takes a total of 1 hour and 15 minutes to complete and it has 75 questions you need to answer.
Job Prep Test has all the necessary materials you would need to know if you want to go and pass that exam with the highest score possible. With their help, you will be able to get ready for the exam and finally pursue your career goals in Law Enforcement.
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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.
