I'm applying for the NYPD this cycle and I'm confused about the order of the different components. From what I can tell there's a written exam, a physical fitness test, a psychological eval, and a medical. Does the written come first or do they run them concurrently? I've been studying for the NYPD exam for about 8 weeks now but I don't even know when I'd actually sit for it.
My practice scores on the written portion are coming in around 88-92%, which I feel decent about. The reading comprehension and memorization sections feel manageable. The math - mostly arithmetic and some basic algebra - isn't hard but it's timed so you can't overthink anything.
More worried about the physical honestly. My 1.5 mile run time is around 11:40 right now and I've heard the standard is somewhere around 12:00 for my age bracket. Doing 3 runs a week plus some HIIT to get that number down before the test date. Anyone gone through the full process recently and can give a realistic timeline from written exam to academy?
The memorization section is harder than people expect because it's timed and the passages are dense. I got 94% overall but only 81% on memorization. Practice reading and recalling facts quickly under pressure.
Don't stress about exact timelines - NYPD moves at its own pace and there's nothing you can do to speed it up. Just keep your record clean, your fitness up, and your paperwork ready. Academy itself is about 6 months once you're in.
Your run time is fine, honestly. Focus more on the pushup and situp counts - those catch more people off guard than the run does. I trained 5 days a week for 10 weeks and felt way over-prepared on the physical.
Written comes first, then they call you back for the physical. The whole process from written to conditional offer took me about 14 months - background investigation is what drags it out the most. Don't slack off just because you passed the written.
Just went through this whole process so I can actually answer. The written exam (Civil Service Test) comes first and it's the gate — you don't even get scheduled for anything else until you pass that. Once you clear it, the physical fitness test (PAT) comes next, then medical and psych happen sort of in parallel depending on where you are in the list. The written isn't super hard but I didn't take it seriously the first time and had to wait for the next cycle, which pushed everything back almost two years.
The one thing that actually made the difference for me was drilling the deductive reasoning and memorization sections specifically, not just doing generic police exam practice. I found a breakdown of what to expect on the nypd salary page that also linked out to the actual job posting specs, and that helped me understand what the whole pipeline looks like from test to hire. Good luck — just don't sleep on the written thinking it's easy.
I actually went through this last year and failed my first attempt because I didn't understand the sequence at all. The written exam (Civil Service Test) comes first and it's the gatekeeper — you can't move forward without passing it. After that it's basically a background investigation, then medical, psychological, and the physical fitness test (POPAT). They don't run concurrently. I wasted time doing crazy cardio prep before I even had a test date, which was backwards.
Second time around I focused on the written first, specifically the deductive reasoning and pattern sections which tripped me up before. Once I cleared that, I had enough lead time to train for the physical. Also worth knowing: the nypd salary steps up pretty significantly once you're off probation, so it's worth grinding through all of it. Don't skip the psych prep either — a lot of people aren't ready for how scenario-based those questions get.