The NYC Police Officer
exam: a complete guide

What the job is

A New York City police officer works a patrol post, answers radio runs, writes what happened, and gives evidence about it later.

Almost everything on this exam is something an officer does in the first twenty minutes of a tour: read the order, work out who it applies to, notice what is off, and write it down so it holds up.

What is on the exam

Ten sections: the nine abilities the notice names, plus a tenth on employee ethical conduct. It is the only title in the line with an ethics section, because it is the only notice that names one.

Section	Questions	Time	Per question
Written Comprehension	14	18 min	77 sec
Deductive Reasoning	12	18 min	90 sec
Inductive Reasoning	12	18 min	90 sec
Information Ordering	12	16 min	80 sec
Problem Sensitivity	10	13 min	78 sec
Written Expression	10	12 min	72 sec
Memorization	10	14 min	84 sec
Spatial Orientation	10	14 min	84 sec
Visualization	10	14 min	84 sec
Ethics and Conduct	10	12 min	72 sec
Total	110	149 min

Spatial Orientation here is a street grid with one-way signs.

The pacing

Memorization comes with a page you get to study and then lose, which means the clock on it starts before the questions do.

Passing does not get you the job

This is the part almost nobody explains, and for a Police Officer candidate it matters more than anything else on this page. Answering enough of these 110 questions correctly does not hire you. It places you on an eligible list with a number on it, and that number is your position in the queue for every Police Officer vacancy the City fills.

Hiring runs down that list under the Rule of Three: for any Police Officer vacancy, the agency must select one of the three highest-ranking candidates who are willing to take it. The difference between a list number of 300 and one of 3,000 is not a difference of degree. It is usually the difference between being called and never being called.

Police Officer lists are the largest DCAS establishes and they are worked through steadily, so a mid-list number is not the dead end it would be on a small title. What kills candidates on this list is rarely the number. It is the background investigation, the medical and the psychological screening that follow, any of which can end a candidacy that the written exam had already cleared.

The list expires

A Police Officer eligible list typically runs four years from the date it is established, and it can be extended. If your number has not been reached when it expires, the list is gone and your place on it goes with it. You start again with the next Police Officer exam, which may be years away.

Police Officer lists are established more often than most, which tempts candidates into treating the written exam as a rehearsal. It is not. Four years is a long time to spend at a number you could have improved in one morning.

The points you have to ask for

The Police Officer exam is an open competitive exam, so veterans are entitled to 5 additional points on it, or 10 if disabled, and New York City residents are entitled to 5 additional points on some exams. Veterans' credits matter more here than on most titles, because the list is long and five points can move you past hundreds of people. Claim them when you file.

Here is the part that costs people the job. Those credits are not applied automatically. You claim them when you file for the Police Officer exam and produce documentation later. Nobody looks up your service record and adds the points for you. A candidate entitled to ten points who does not claim them sits ten points lower on the Police Officer list, permanently, and will never be told that is why the call did not come.

Filing is a deadline, not a date

You file for a specific exam number during a specific filing period -- for Police Officer that is exam 6311–6323, and missing it means waiting for the next administration. Filing periods are published in advance and they are not long. Check the number on the Notice of Examination against the annual schedule before you pay the fee: candidates file for the wrong exam every year, and a Notice of Examination never says it is the wrong one.

What happens after you pass

A written pass is the beginning. Then comes the medical, the physical, the psychological screening, the character and background investigation, and the Police Academy. Each stage removes people. Plan your life around a process measured in months, not weeks.

How to prepare

Nine abilities plus ethics is a wide exam, and the temptation is to revise it like a subject. It is not one. Work through the question types until the format is invisible, then spend the remaining time on Memorization, which is the only section with a study page and therefore the only one with a technique you can actually rehearse.

One thing worth being clear about: you do not need to know the Penal Law, the patrol guide or the streets of the precinct you want. These exams test abilities, not job knowledge, and candidates who spend their preparation memorizing procedures are preparing for a different test.

What we found when we tested our own exam

Police Officer is the most-prepared-for exam in this line, which means it has the most free practice material floating around, and the least of it has ever been measured.

So we measure it. Across the 38 sections of our NYC civil service exams long enough to measure (760 questions, in sections of 20 or more), the best score any length-based strategy reaches is 40%, against the 25% that guessing alone should give. Four strategies are scored: pick the longest option, pick the shortest, cross off the longest and guess, cross off the shortest and guess. Ten sections is more surface area than any other title here, so there is more room for a pattern to hide.

Nine abilities plus ethics is a wide exam, and the temptation is to revise it like a subject.

The number comes from the live bank, produced by the same script that fails our build if any section crosses 40%. Civil service was the worst part of our catalogue when we started measuring, and the police-family exams were rewritten section by section rather than regenerated, so that every wrong answer kept the explanation attached to it.

Where to practice

We publish two full Police Officer practice exams with no questions shared between them, and you can sit a single section on its own when that is all the evening allows. Every wrong answer carries its own explanation saying what a student who picked it was probably thinking, which is the part that turns a score into something you can act on. There is a free sample on the samples page if you want to see the format before paying for anything.

Common questions

How many questions are on the NYC Police Officer exam?

110 questions across 10 sections. Ten sections: the nine abilities the notice names, plus a tenth on employee ethical conduct. It is the only title in the line with an ethics section, because it is the only notice that names one.

Does passing the civil service exam mean you get the job?

No. Passing puts you on an eligible list with a list number, and hiring runs down that list. For a Police Officer vacancy the agency must select one of the three highest-ranking candidates on the list who will accept it, which is the Rule of Three.

How long does the Police Officer eligible list last?

Typically four years from establishment, and it can be extended. If your number is never reached before it expires, you sit the Police Officer exam again whenever DCAS next offers it.

How do I get veterans' or residency credits on the Police Officer exam?

You claim them yourself. Veterans get 5 additional points on an open competitive exam, or 10 if disabled, and New York City residents get 5 on some exams. Nothing is applied automatically: claim at the point you file for Police Officer and document it later.

What does the Police Officer job involve?

A New York City police officer works a patrol post, answers radio runs, writes what happened, and gives evidence about it later.