Police Analytical Thinking Inventory (PATI) | Posted July 27, 2018
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The Police Analytical Thinking Inventory (PATI) is the first of several tests used by many police services in Ontario as part of the initial pre-interview assessment of applicants for the position of police constable. The PATI aims to measure key aspects of applicants’ analytical thinking ability in relation to becoming an effective police constable. The test is administered by Applicant Testing Services (ATS).
The PATI focuses on three types of reasoning or analytical thinking deemed necessary for effective police constables:
Deductive reasoning - the ability to draw conclusions from given information.
Inductive reasoning - the ability to find trends or patterns in a series of facts.
Quantitative Reasoning - the ability to perform basic mathematical operations such as addition, subtraction, multiplication and division.
The PATI is paper-based, multiple choice test with a 90 minute time limit. Applicants must achieve a passing score in order to move forward with the application process, though the exact passing score is not published by ATS. A passing PATI score is valid for three years. Applicants who do not pass on their first attempt may rewrite the test after 3 months the first time, and after every 6 months on subsequent unsuccessful attempts.
The exact number of questions on the PATI is also not published. That said, the official PATI practice test provided by ATS on its website states that candidates should be able to complete 18 questions in 20 minutes. Using that as a guide, given that the PATI is 90 minutes in length, candidates can expect upwards of 85 or more questions on the PATI.
The PATI assesses candidates’ deductive, inductive and quantitative reasoning skills through 6 question types: travel time, arithmetic, classification, word problems, syllogisms, and figure series. The following chapters in this guide provide a breakdown of each question type, along with examples and practice questions.
A great starting point for preparing for the PATI is the Ontario Constable Selection System: Orientation and Pre-Test Guide Preparatory Guide available on the ATS website. This document provides a section by section breakdown of the test, as well as suggested studying tips and a mini 18 question practice PATI test.
From there, we recommend that you work through our free 28-page PATI Study Guide, doing the sample practice questions as you go.
Then head over to the TEST PREP HACKER PATI practice tests site to get access to thousands and thousands of practice questions and full length PATI practice tests.