CSNSW Correctional Officer Round One Assessment study plan

Map the situational judgement decision cycle (notice, assess risk, act, record, refer) and apply it to 15 short custodial scenarios you write yourself

Rank the five most common integrity pressure points in a custodial setting (gifts, favours, information sharing, relationships, use of force reporting) and write the correct response to each

Draft a one-page personal decision framework that names the order in which you weigh safety, duty of care, policy and colleague loyalty

Complete 40 timed situational judgement practice items and log every error with the reasoning that caused it

Work through 30 scenarios involving competing obligations (inmate welfare versus security, confidentiality versus disclosure) and justify each answer in two sentences

Identify the specific conduct breaches that trigger mandatory reporting and rehearse the wording you would use to report a colleague

Practise separating policy-compliant responses from merely well-intentioned ones across 20 items

Review your week 1 error log and rewrite the five weakest answers with corrected reasoning

Read 10 dense procedural or legislative-style passages and extract the operative rule, the exception and the responsible officer for each

Convert five of those passages into plain-language summaries of no more than 80 words without losing any obligation

Draft three incident reports using a fixed structure (time, place, persons, observations, actions, outcome, follow-up) with no opinion or speculation

Edit your own reports to remove passive voice, vague pronouns and unsupported conclusions

Answer 30 verbal reasoning items under time pressure and classify each error as misread, over-inference or vocabulary

Rewrite two incident reports into formal report format and one into a short verbal briefing script

Practise distinguishing observation from inference across 15 short statements

Proofread a partner's or your own older writing for factual precision and consistent tense

Solve 60 numerical items covering percentages, ratios, time calculations, sentence arithmetic and roster hours without a calculator

Build a one-page formula sheet for shift length, overtime, leave accrual and headcount ratios and test it on 10 new problems

Describe the daily custodial routine from muster to lock-down and name the officer's duty at each stage

Explain the limits of a correctional officer's authority, including use of force, search and restraint, in your own words

Analyse 12 interpersonal scenarios involving an agitated inmate, a disengaged colleague and a critical supervisor, and script the opening line you would use in each

Identify the difference between assertive, passive and aggressive communication and rewrite five aggressive statements assertively

Draft a personal resilience plan naming early warning signs of stress, two de-escalation habits and a peer-support pathway

Describe how you would raise a safety concern up the chain of command if the first response is inadequate

Complete a full-length timed mock covering situational judgement, integrity and interpersonal items and score it against the answer rationale

Re-run your week 1 decision framework against 10 mock items and note where it failed you

Role-play three high-pressure scenarios aloud and record where your tone or reasoning slips

Consolidate all error logs into a single top-ten weakness list

Sit two timed mixed mocks covering verbal, numerical and written communication and compare scores with week 5 and week 7 baselines

Redraft your weakest incident report to a publishable standard and read it aloud for clarity

Drill 30 numerical items you previously got wrong until each is correct twice in a row

Write a 150-word exam-day plan covering timing per section, question triage and when to move on