Police Inspector Aptitude

No. This is an independent study platform. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or published by the College of Policing or any police force. The official promotion page at the College of Policing returned a 404 error when retrieved on 2026-11-05, so no official specification was available to base this page on. Always verify arrangements through official channels before relying on anything here.

Unknown, and deliberately left blank rather than guessed. The permitted source returned a "Page not found" response, so the question count, time limit, and section structure could not be verified. Any figure you see elsewhere may be out of date. Confirm the current format with your force promotion lead or the College of Policing career and learning pages before you plan your timing practice.

The passing score is not published on this page because it could not be verified from the permitted source. Pass marks in promotion processes are frequently set or applied by the recruiting force or assessment provider rather than fixed centrally, and they can change between assessment cycles. Ask your promotion lead for the standard applied to your cohort rather than working to a remembered figure.

It is designed to discriminate between competent sergeants and those ready to hold inspector-level responsibility, so expect applied judgement rather than recall alone. Questions typically place you in a scenario and ask what you would do, prioritise, or authorise. Candidates who prepare only by memorising policy tend to struggle with the decision-quality and people-management items. Depth of reasoning matters more than volume of facts.

Both the retake policy and the validity period are unverified and recorded as null here. Promotion assessment rules are commonly set locally or by the assessment provider, and waiting periods or limits on attempts may apply. Check with your force promotion lead before assuming you can resit at the next available sitting, and ask how long a successful result remains usable for promotion.

The fee is not stated here because it could not be verified from the permitted source. Costs, where they apply at all, are usually borne or part-funded by the force and may depend on the assessment route. Do not budget on the basis of figures quoted in older forum posts. Confirm any charge with your force training or promotion contact before committing.

Start with professional standards and ethics, because standards reasoning underpins how you answer operational and leadership scenarios. Then work through operational policing and decision-making, where you apply prioritisation and proportionate action. Leadership and management of people follows naturally, and communication and partnership working is best revised last so you can weave it into the other three rather than treat it separately.

Three recur. First, answering what policy permits rather than what a proportionate, justified decision requires in the scenario given. Second, ignoring the people dimension: ignoring welfare, capability, or the impact of a decision on the team. Third, weak justification, where the chosen action is defensible but the reasoning is never articulated. Practise writing short rationales for each decision you make in practice questions.

Shift from reading to producing. Work through scenario questions under timed conditions, then mark your own answers against the four domains and note which one repeatedly lets you down. Rehearse concise written justifications, because explaining why you chose an option is where marks are most often lost. Review your force's current policies for anything that has changed recently, and confirm the exam logistics in advance.

The College of Policing website is the intended authoritative source, but the specific promotion page returned a 404 error on retrieval, so use its site search or contact pages instead of the broken link. Your force promotion or assessment lead is usually the fastest route to confirmed local arrangements, including format, dates, and any provider involved. Treat all unverified figures on this page as provisional.