What is on
the NYC Police Officer exam?

The short answer

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.

Our practice exam runs 110 questions in 149 minutes, in the order below.

What makes this title different

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

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 each section is asking for

Written Comprehension is reading a rule or an order and saying what it does and does not cover. Deductive Reasoning is taking a rule you were handed a moment ago and applying it to one case. Inductive Reasoning is several incidents, and the pattern that fits all of them. Information Ordering is putting steps into the order a procedure requires. Problem Sensitivity is spotting the detail on a post that is about to become an incident. Written Expression is writing it down so the next person reads it the way you meant it. Memorization is a wanted poster and a roll-call bulletin you no longer have in front of you. Spatial Orientation is reading a street grid with one-way signs and saying which way you are facing. Visualization is turning an object over in your head and knowing what it looks like after. Ethics and Conduct is what an employee may and may not do, on duty and off.

None of it is a knowledge test. You do not need to arrive knowing the Penal Law, the patrol guide or the streets of the precinct you want. Everything the question needs is on the page. What is being measured is whether you can use it with the clock running.

What the City publishes, and what is ours

DCAS names 10 abilities for this title, in Notice of Examination 6311–6323. What the notice does not give is a question count or a time limit, for this title or any other. Nobody outside the City has those two numbers, so a site quoting them is quoting a guess.

The 10 sections above are the City's. The 110 questions and the 149 minutes are ours. We picked them so the practice sitting feels like the real thing, and we would rather tell you that than let you assume the City set them.