CONTENTS: About this Guide | About the Ethos Police Test | ETHOS Memory & Observation Questions | ETHOS Reading Comprehension & Critical Thinking Questions | ETHOS Summarizing Skills | ETHOS Writing and Editing Skills | Practice Ethos Police Tests | Conclusion: Preparing for the Ethos Police Test |
Getting hired as a police officer in British Columbia isn’t easy. Each year, departments across the province get thousands of applications. This study guide was developed to help you get a great mark on the Ethos police officer test, with the end goal of helping you get hired. It breaks down all the subjects covered on the test, and provides examples and practice questions.
One of the best ways to prepare for the Ethos police officer test is to take practice tests. Practice tests that cover the same subjects with similar questions. It has been proven that practice tests help students get better marks when it comes to the real test. That’s why there are practice questions throughout this guide. For the best prep possible, check out our Canadian Police Officer Practice Tests for thousands of additional practice questions.
All major municipal police departments in British Columbia require candidates to write the Ethos Police Test. This test is designed to measure the aptitudes and qualities deemed necessary to be successful police officers in the province, and help departments sift through the thousands of applicants for the candidates with the best potential in policing. In other words, doing good on the Ethos Police Test means you should do good in training and working as a police officer in British Columbia.
The Ethos police test consists of four modules, scored out of 100, and is three hours in length. Candidates must score at least 60% to pass the test.
The four modules of the Ethos Police Test are:
Memory and Observation Skills (20 marks)
Reading Comprehension and Critical Thinking (25 marks)
Summarizing Skills (10 marks)
Writing and Editing Skills (45 marks)
Click here for a helpful summary and practice questions from the Victoria Police Department
Click here for more sample questions from New Westminster Police Department
It is a mistake to think that you don't need to prepare for the Ethos Police Test. The more you study, the better you will get at answering the types of questions on the tests. The better you get, the quicker you can answer questions, and the more questions you can answer without running out of time and having to guess. The higher your score, the more likely you are to be invited for an interview. And that's where you want to be – in an interview, telling the department why you will be a great police officer, winning them over.
The following chapters examine each question type typically found on the Ethos Police Test in British Columbia, and provide some sample questions.
This section of Ethos Police Test assesses candidates’ ability to learn and remember information presented in writing and by video. The first part of this section involves reading a fictional police bulletin. Candidates must remember as much as they can without taking notes. The second part involves watching a video of a fictional crime in progress. Again, candidates are to remember as much as information as they can without taking notes. Candidates then answer 15 multiple choice questions on the information presented in the video, followed by 5 multiple choice questions on the information presented in the written police bulletin.
This can be one of the most challenging sections of the Ethos Police Test. The best way to prepare for memory and observation questions is to simply practice. These questions require you to commit a lot of details to memory in a short amount of time.
Here are some strategies to help you:
Pay close attention. Focus. This is not easy for some. Practice will help you develop your focus.
Repeat key details to yourself, under your breath, or in your head. If you are allowed, of course take notes. But if you cannot take notes, then try and quick repeat key details to help them stick in your memory. A good strategy for practicing is to start your practice by taking notes and then answer some practice questions. Then work your way to answer questions without notes.
Visualize the information. Try visualizing the scene or person in your head as you read or watch, connecting details.
Make associations. While reading and watching, try to make associations between details, times and dates, and locations. They can help you recall information when answering questions, particularly if one of the details is presented in the question.
READING COMPREHENSION
The reading comprehension and critical thinking section of the Ethos Police Test is pretty straightforward. You read a paragraph or two about a topic, and then you answer one or several questions about the information contained in those paragraphs. All the information required to correctly answer the questions is contained in the questions. You do not need to know anything else about the topic to correctly answer the questions.
Here is the breakdown of this section:
Part 1 - read an article, then answer a number of questions in sentence and paragraph form.
Part 2 & 3 - read a description of a crime or accident scene, and then answer a number of questions in point form.
To do well on this section, you need to be able to read and understand the question quickly, as well as retain the information long enough to answer the following questions correctly. You can refer back to the main passage while answering the questions, but that takes valuable time. Remember, these tests are timed, and every minute counts!
Preparing for this specific section can be difficult. It is a test of your general reading abilities that you have developed over many years of schooling.
Strategies for Comprehension Questions:
Proactively go out and read from sources you don’t normally read. Read newspapers, and current affairs magazines. If you mainly read about sports, try reading about politics, economics and other areas you are unfamiliar with.
Use a dictionary. While reading, if you come across words the meaning of which you are not sure, look the word up. Build your vocabulary this way a day and a few words at a time.
Practice! The best way to get ready for comprehension questions is to actually practice comprehension questions. You can do this at home by having someone ask you some questions about an article you just read. Better yet, you can take one of our Police Officer Practice Tests and practice the real thing, online.
ARITHMETIC / MATH SKILLS
This section of the Ethos Police Test also includes basic math. The paragraphs of information also contain statistics and other numerical data, and some of the questions will require candidates to perform simple mathematical calculations. Candidates should be comfortable with topics such as addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, fractions and percentages.
While this level of math should not be very hard for people who have graduated from high school, keep in mind that calculators are not allowed while writing police officer tests, so everything must be done the long way, by hand. Also, these tests have time limits, so not only must you be comfortable performing math by hand, you have to be able to do so quickly. The more time the math section eats up, the less time available for the rest of the test.
If you have been out of high school for a few years, or it has been a while since you have done math without a calculator, it is very important that you take the time to review all the basic concepts in math, and how to do them by hand. That should be followed by as much practice as possible. The more comfortable you are with math, the better you will do on the police officer test.
For a great review of the mathematical skills you need to be successful on police officer tests, complete the following learning tracks at the Khan Academy:
We say this a lot at TEST PREP HACKER. You must study hard and practice a lot if you want to get a great mark on this test. Nowhere is this more important than with basic computations. The questions themselves may not be overly difficult, but all computations must be done by hand. Things like long division by hand can bog people down and eat up a lot of time. Don’t let this happen to you. Practice math. A lot.
This section of the Ethos Police Test assesses candidates’ ability to summarize written information. Candidates are given a fictional witness statement, and are required to write a succinct paragraph that captures and organizes the most important information.
Tips for summarizing witness statements:
Always make sure to include all the pertinent details about the witness, including name, age, employment, how or why they witnessed the event.
Organize chronologically. The information in the fictional witness statement will likely be mixed up and out of order. A quick and easy way to organize a summary of the witness statement is chronologically, using dates and times.
As with the Writing and Editing skills portion of the test, this section is a measure of written communication skills developed throughout your education. After that, the best thing you can do is practice. For many, these are skills not used everyday. Check out our ETHOS Police Officer Practice Tests for writing and editing practice questions.
This section of the Ethos Police Test assesses candidates’ overall English language composition and comprehension skills through grammar, spelling, punctuation, sentence structure, syntax and word choice. A good deal of police work involves writing reports, and it is important that potential police recruits have a solid foundation in writing in the English language. That is why this section alone is worth almost 50% of the Ethos Police Test.
Each question in this section provides a passage of text containing a number of errors. Candidates must rewrite the paragraph, eliminating the errors and improving its readability.
This section is a measure of written communication skills developed throughout your education. One of the best ways to prepare is to read, read, and then read some more. Read in areas outside of your normal comfort zone. Another great prep strategy is to go over lists of commonly misspelled words, as well as grammar and spelling rules. After that, the best thing you can do is practice. For many, these are not skills used everyday. Check out our ETHOS Police Officer Practice Tests for writing and editing practice questions.
One of the best things you can do to prepare yourself for the Ethos Police Test is to take practice tests. TEST PREP HACKER also has a companion website with thousands of practice questions and tests for the all major Canadian police officer tests.
The police officer tests are what determines if you move forward with the application process. Don’t leave it to chance. The tests can be long, and hard. Prepare as much as you can.
Passing police officer tests is not a given. Do not just assume you will pass. Indeed, a passing mark is often not enough. The tests cover a lot of information, and the time given to complete is deliberately set to challenge your ability to complete them.
The TEST PREP HACKER method for doing well on all recruitment and entrance exams, like the Ethos Police Test, is to take practice tests.
Current research into test preparation concludes that the most effective way to get ready for the big test, regardless of the subject, is to take practice tests. Tests that are similar in format to the actual test, and tests that contain similar questions on the same subjects.
That’s why TEST PREP HACKER has developed thousands of practice questions and similar practice tests. To help you get the most of your test prep, and to help you use the most current insights into to test prep to get the best mark you can, and ultimately get into the school or career of your choice.
When it comes to getting ready for the Ethos Police Test, preparation is key. The better your score, the better your chances of moving through the following stages of the hiring process. Practice is key. Don’t underestimate the importance of studying, particularly the math section involving by-hand math calculations.
Our practice test packages provide thousands of practice questions, along with full practice tests, for all major Canadian police officer tests.
One last note. Don’t stop here. If you are determined to get hired as a police officer, pursue all prep and study resources you can find. Good luck!
This study guide is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) license. This study guide makes use of other resources made available through similar Creative Commons licenses.
This study guide is available free of charge. It makes no guarantees or promises of high marks. The materials and images contained in this guide are from open sources made available under various Creative Commons licenses, or are made available without license or attribution requirements, or developed by TEST PREP HACKER. All recruitment and selection tests such as the ETHOS are the property of the the organizations that developed and administer them. Any resemblance of the practice questions in this guide to actual recruitment and selection test questions is purely coincidental. This guide does not contain any such actual questions, but rather questions of similar types and formats covering the subject areas tested during these tests.