Police entrance exams in Australia
every force, every section, compared

The table below comes from each force's own recruiting pages, and for Victoria and Queensland from ACER's candidate sites, all read on 9 October 2026. The test name, provider, components and cost are what each force publishes. Where a cell says "not published", we looked and couldn't find it, so ask the force before you rely on anyone's guess.

Two things stand out. First, the forces that test you are testing similar skills: reading for meaning, reasoning with patterns or rules, and writing clearly. Numeracy is now only a stand-alone section in Victoria and in the AFP's "calculation" component. Second, in most forces the test sits early, straight after your application, so it decides whether you reach the fitness test, interview and checks at all.

It helps to sort the forces into three groups, because your preparation looks very different in each.

If you're applying in NSW or WA, don't skip this guide entirely. Psychometric batteries in both states include reasoning and judgement items, and the habits that pass a written exam (reading precisely, structuring an answer, checking your working) are the same ones interview panels and academy assessors look for.

ACER administers the Victoria Police Entrance Exam on behalf of Victoria Police and sends the results to both you and the force. You're invited to sit it after your application passes the first checks, and you then have 3 months to sit it. The same exam is used for Protective Services Officers. You pay the $284 fee yourself, directly to ACER, when you book.

Most candidates sit it at home under live webcam supervision ("remote proctoring"), on a personal laptop or desktop with a stable connection. ACER also runs supervised sittings at a venue in Camberwell, Melbourne, one weekend a month, which is the safer choice if your computer or internet is unreliable. Work and school computers usually won't run the required software.

The numeracy section allows an on-screen calculator, and some answers are typed in as a number or measurement rather than chosen from a list. That changes how you practise: you can't work backwards from the options, so you need to be confident with the method. Full details, six worked questions and a four-week plan are on our Victoria Police entrance exam guide.

The QPS Entrance Assessment (QPSea) is delivered by ACER on behalf of the Queensland Police Service. It takes 1 hour 45 minutes, and each of its three components is timed and scored separately: literacy, abstract reasoning and a writing task. You have to meet the minimum standard in all three to go further.

QPS sponsors your first attempt with a voucher that you enter when booking, so most applicants pay nothing. ACER lists $279 for an unsponsored sitting and a $107 late reschedule fee. Like Victoria, the QPSea is mostly sat at home with webcam supervision; ACER also runs a Brisbane venue 5 times a year.

Older guides, and some cached pages, still list five QPSea parts including numeracy and digital literacy. Queensland has dropped those two. Our Queensland police entrance exam guide covers the QPSea in full, with six worked questions.

The other four forces with a test use different providers and much less published detail. Here's what each force states.

SA Police is the one force in this group that publishes pass marks: 60% for reading comprehension and 60% for written expression. Spelling and numeracy were removed in April 2025, so older SA practice material overstates what you'll face. TAFE SA, which runs the test, sells an official practice set.

The AFP splits reasoning into deductive (apply rules to reach a conclusion that must be true) and inductive (work out the rule from examples), plus a calculation test and a personality questionnaire. Tasmania pairs cognitive reasoning and reading comprehension with personality measures, and states plainly that AI tools such as ChatGPT can't be used for written application answers. NT lists computer-based cognitive and psychological testing without naming a provider.

NSW lists no separate written police entrance exam. Instead, your academic suitability for the Associate Degree in Applied Policing is assessed by Western Sydney University: an ATAR of 50 or more, or an equivalent such as a Certificate III or higher, a degree, or a bridging course. If you fall short, the fee-free Undergraduate Preparation Program in Applied Policing (UPPAP) is the route in. You'll also sit psychometric testing at Stage 4, with a possible psychologist interview.

WA no longer uses its old written entrance assessment, and the WA Police Force says you don't need any qualifications to apply. Stage 1 combines an integrity check, a tattoo review, a psychological evaluation and the Physical Performance Evaluation. WA warns that its psychological tests are designed to detect applicants who manage their impressions, which invalidates the result.

Full detail on what replaces the exam is on our NSW and WA guides.

The two ACER exams don't report a percentage. They convert your raw score (the number correct) into a scaled score that allows for the difficulty of the version you sat, because several versions of each test are in use. For Victoria, ACER says scores range from about 40 to about 170, mapped to the Australian Core Skills Framework, and publishes the pass marks of 105 (literacy, numeracy, abstract reasoning) and 107 (report writing).

Queensland works the same way but doesn't publish its benchmark online: your results certificate shows the benchmark, and you need to score above it in each component. Both exams report a simple "Standard met" or "Standard not met" alongside the scores, and ACER sends results to you and the force within 7 business days.

ACER doesn't deduct marks for wrong answers, and every question is worth the same. Never leave a multiple-choice question blank.

That last point is worth turning into a rule. With a minute left, pick an answer for every unanswered question. In a 45-question section with four options, a random guess on five questions you'd otherwise skip earns about one extra correct answer on average.

ACER describes Victoria's numeracy section as number and algebra, measurement and geometry, and statistics and probability, set in adult contexts and presented in words, tables, graphs, plans and maps. In practice that means percentage change, rates, unit conversions, area and volume, and reading the right figure from a chart. The AFP's calculation test covers similar ground. The three questions below are our own, written in that style.

Victoria's literacy section uses about six different types of text, some with graphs, charts or maps, and asks multiple-choice, true/false and yes/no questions. Queensland's literacy section tests reading comprehension in the same way. The AFP and Tasmania include reading or verbal reasoning in their online batteries. The core skill is separating what a text says from what you assume. Read this original passage, then try two questions.

Both ACER exams test abstract reasoning: spotting the rule or rules that change a pattern from one frame to the next. ACER lists three question types for Victoria: choose the next shape in a sequence, find the missing part of a pattern, and put frames in order and pick the middle one. The pace is the challenge: about 27 seconds a question in Victoria, and about 70 in Queensland.

1. 1

   List the elements

   Dots, lines, shading, size, rotation, position. Most items change one or two at once.

2. 2

   Write each rule

   'Dot clockwise', 'bars +1', 'shading alternates'. Short labels keep two rules in your head together.

3. 3

   Predict, then match

   Picture the answer before you look. Reading the options first invites you to justify a wrong one.

4. 4

   Eliminate and move on

   If you only crack one rule, use it to strike out options and guess between the rest. Then move on.

Victoria, Queensland and SA all mark your writing. Victoria's report-writing task gives you several sources and asks for about 300 to 350 typed words in 35 minutes, with no spell check, grammar check, dictionary, cut and paste or formatting. ACER marks it on choosing relevant information, writing clearly, objectively and in a logical order, forming paragraphs, building complex sentences, and spelling and grammar. Queensland's writing component is also 35 minutes; SA's written expression section has a 60% pass mark.

The coffee van is the distractor: it has nothing to do with the incident, and including it costs marks for selecting relevant information. A strong opening paragraph looks like this:

At about 7:40 am on Sunday, the table at the drinks station collapsed, spilling two cases of bottled water across the course. A runner, Ms Lee, slipped on the wet path and grazed her left knee. A first aid volunteer treated her at 7:45 am and she was able to finish the race.

1. 1

   Plan (5 minutes)

   Plan

   Cross out irrelevant notes. Group the rest: what happened, the response, the cause, the recommendation.

2. 2

   Write (25 minutes)

   Write

   Chronological order, past tense, third person. One idea per paragraph. Times and names exactly as given.

3. 3

   Check (5 minutes)

   Check

   Read once for meaning and once for spelling and punctuation. You won't have spell check, so check the words you often get wrong.

Failing a section isn't the end of your application, but the rules are strict and they differ by force. Victoria and Queensland let you re-sit only the components you failed, and both keep your passes. Where a force doesn't publish a rule, we say so rather than guess.

In Victoria you can ask for a re-mark of report writing only, for $60, and only after failing it on your re-sit. ACER and QPS don't hear appeals on the other components, and neither gives special consideration for illness on the day, so reschedule rather than sit unwell.

Several forces waive the exam for people who've already shown the same skills. The lists are specific, so check yours word for word.

An exemption saves the fee and a few weeks, but think before you claim one. Interview panels, academy study and written reports all draw on the same skills. If your degree or ATAR is a few years old, a fortnight of practice still makes sense.

Victoria Police and QPS both say they don't run or endorse commercial preparation courses, and ACER warns that some commercial courses may give misleading information. That's a fair warning about anyone claiming "real" questions. The safest plan is to use the official resources for the exact format and original practice (like ours) for volume.

1. 1

   Week 1: diagnose

   30 min a day

   Do one untimed set in every section you'll face, including the official free samples. Note your score and the kind of mistake you make most.

2. 2

   Week 2: fix the weakest

   40 min a day

   Two sets a day in your weakest section, one in the next weakest. Read every explanation, including for answers you got right. Write two practice reports.

3. 3

   Week 3: build speed

   45 min a day

   Time everything against the real per-question pace. Write two timed reports with spell check turned off.

4. 4

   Week 4: simulate

   45-60 min a day

   Sit your force's sections back to back at real timings. Do the official practice tests now if you bought them. Rest the day before.

The exam is one stage of a long process. While you study, build towards the fitness test with the beep test audio and the fitness test checker, start interview practice with the AI mock interview, and check what each force pays on the police pay comparison. If you're still choosing a force, the which force quiz weighs pay, location and fitness standards for you.