I've got my NTN Police exam coming up in about five weeks and trying to figure out where to put most of my energy. I played college soccer so the physical fitness component doesn't worry me much — my mile time is around 6:45 and I'm hitting the push-up and sit-up benchmarks easily. What I'm less sure about is the written portion.
Started prepping for the National Testing Network Police Test cognitive sections about three weeks ago and I'm scoring 71% on reading comprehension and about 65% on the incident report writing questions. The video-based incident recall section is weird — I've never practiced anything like it and not sure how to get better at it other than just doing more of them.
Anyone have a realistic picture of how the written scores actually affect hiring? Some departments say it's just pass/fail but others seem to weight the percentile ranking heavily.
The written section varies a lot by department. For most mid-size agencies it's really a percentile game — passing isn't enough, you want to be in the top 20-25% to get competitive consideration. I scored 84th percentile and got interviews at every agency I applied to.
The video recall is the weirdest part to prep for but it's also pretty coachable. Watch the clips, then immediately write down everything you remember in structured order — person descriptions, vehicle info, sequence of events. Do it 10-15 times and your retention improves noticeably.
I was at 68% on the report writing three weeks out and ended up at 79% by test day. There's a specific format they're looking for — chronological, objective, complete — and once you internalize that structure the scores jump fast.
Physical is almost never the differentiator unless someone genuinely can't meet minimums. If you're already at your fitness level, shift 90% of remaining prep to the written sections. That's where candidates separate themselves.