I'm preparing for the San Diego Police Department written exam and I'm getting conflicting information about the current test format. Some of the prep materials I've found online are from 2019-2021 and I don't know how current they are. Has the format changed significantly in the past couple years?
I have a BS in criminal justice and some security experience but no prior law enforcement. I'm 27 and this is my first application to any PD. I know the SDPD is competitive — I've heard they receive something like 3,000-4,000 applicants per cycle and hire maybe 60-80.
My main prep focus right now is reading comprehension and situational judgment since I've heard those sections are the most predictive. Is that correct or are there other sections I should be prioritizing?
Also — does the written score affect your total score going forward in the process or is it purely pass/fail at the initial screening stage?
The current format as of 2025 is reading comprehension, writing ability, situational judgment, and memorization/observation. The memorization section catches people off guard — you're shown a scenario and then tested on details. Practice that specifically.
Reading comprehension and situational judgment are absolutely the right focus. They're weighted heaviest and they're where the spread between candidates is largest. Criminal justice degree won't help much on those — they're aptitude-based, not knowledge-based.
The competition ratio you mentioned sounds about right for a typical cycle. Don't let it psych you out — a large portion of applicants are eliminated by basic disqualifiers before the written exam even scores matter. Just focus on your own performance.
The written score does carry forward as part of your overall ranking. It's not purely pass/fail — a higher score puts you higher in the hiring queue. Scoring in the top 20% vs. just passing can mean the difference between getting a background investigation offer quickly vs. waiting 12+ months.
I'm about three weeks out from my test date and just hit 78% on a full practice run last night, which honestly felt better than I expected. The reading comprehension and writing sections weren't as bad as I thought they'd be, but the situational judgment stuff definitely tripped me up at first until I got used to how they phrase things.
From what I've gathered the format hasn't changed dramatically from what's floating around online, so older prep materials are still mostly useful. Just don't sleep on the writing component because it counts more than you'd think. Good luck to everyone else testing soon.
I went through the SDPD written exam process last year and the format hadn't changed dramatically from what I'd seen in older materials — it's still heavy on reading comprehension, writing skills, and situational judgment. Don't stress too much about the sources being from 2019-2021, the core competencies they're testing are pretty stable.
The thing that actually helped me the most wasn't just drilling practice questions — it was figuring out why the wrong answers were wrong. Like if you miss a situational judgment question, don't just move on. Go back and ask yourself what assumption led you to that wrong choice, because the same flawed thinking will trip you up on a different question later. That shift in how I studied made a bigger difference than the number of questions I practiced.
Failed my first attempt last year, so I can actually speak to this. The format wasn't what tripped me up -- it was the reading comprehension section. I'd been drilling math and nothing else, which was a mistake. The test still covers the same general areas (reading, math, writing clarity), but the reading passages are longer than most old practice materials suggest and you really have to pay attention to detail in them.
Second time around I focused way more on reading comp and just understanding what they're actually testing, which is whether you can follow written information accurately. That shift made a huge difference. Whatever materials you're using, don't ignore that section just because it sounds easy. It's not hard, but it's easy to rush through and lose points you shouldn't lose.
I went through this same confusion a few months back. From what I found, the core sections (reading comprehension, writing clarity, situational judgment) haven't changed dramatically, but some older materials skip the reasoning behind answer choices entirely, which is where I think people trip up. The free sdpd written questions I used actually explain why the wrong options are wrong, and that made a huge difference for me because I stopped second-guessing myself on test day.
Honestly that's the shift I'd recommend regardless of format changes. If you understand why B is wrong and not just that C is right, you can handle a question you've never seen before. Don't just drill answers, drill the logic.
I went through this same confusion a few months back. The core format hasn't changed dramatically, but some older materials do hype up sections that aren't weighted as heavily now. Honestly, the biggest thing that helped me wasn't drilling answers — it was figuring out why each wrong answer is wrong. When you understand the logic behind a question, you stop second-guessing yourself on variations you've never seen before. I used the free sdpd written practice set to do that, and I'd read every explanation even for questions I got right.
The reasoning approach sounds slow but it's not. You'll cover less ground per hour, sure, but you'll actually retain it. A lot of people burn time re-memorizing stuff they already saw because they didn't understand it the first time. If you didn't get why a distractor was wrong, mark it and revisit it. That's what made the difference for me on test day.