Preparing for Victoria Police's Reasoning & Personality & Emotional Intelligence Tests

If you are applying to join Victoria Police, you will be asked to complete a variety of tests as part of your entrance exam.

In the screening phase, you are asked to complete the following Psychometric tests:

• Numeracy Skills for Vic Police
• Verbal Reasoning for Vic Police
• Abstract Reasoning for Vic Police

In the second phase of your selection you will be asked to complete 2 additional psychological tests to assess your psychological suitability:

• Clinical Personality test
• Emotional Intelligence test

Disclaimer: please note that IPC is not in any way affiliated with or approved by Victoria Police.

Vic Police Verbal Reasoning Test

The Verbal Reasoning test for Vic Police has a set of multiple-choice questions that are designed to assess your verbal reasoning ability. The verbal reasoning test includes three types of test questions:

Type 1 - Logical questions:

In this type of question, you will be presented with a list of statements or facts. You will then be asked if one or more of the statements ‘prove’ or ‘disprove’ the conclusion in the test question.

Let’s look at the following example test question:

Which two statements together prove that boys are not girls?

A.   all boys have an earring in one eyebrow

B.   girls don’t like boys

C.   boys don’t like girls

D.   if you have an earring, you are not a girl

E.   if you are not a girl, you must have an earring

If you combine the first statement that ‘all boys have an earring in one eyebrow’ with the fourth statement, ‘if you have an earring, you are not a girl’, you will get: ‘all boys have an earring, and they are not girls’.

As you can see, this is factual nonsense, but you are not being asked about reality: only whether you can identify if specific statements (right, wrong or indifferent) support a particular statement (however silly). Your ability to apply logic is being tested, not your grip on reality. Therefore, the correct answer is A and D.

Type 2 – ‘Word list’ and ‘odd-one-out’ test questions

This type of question presents you with a list of words or phrases, and asks which one or two in the list are dissimilar to the others (i.e. find the ‘odd one out’).

Let’s review the following example:

Four of the following five options are alike in some way – select the one that is not.

A.   to acquit

B.   to esteem

C.   to exculpate

D.   to exonerate

E.   to vindicate

Most words in this list have a common theme: ‘to acquit’, ‘to exculpate’, ‘to exonerate’, and ‘to vindicate’ are all verbs that relate to being found or declared not guilty, or free from blame. However, ‘to esteem’ means to respect and admire and has a different meaning to the rest. This is the odd one out.

Type 3 – ‘Words relationship’ questions

For these, you will be given two words that are associated in some way (i.e. an analogy) and a list of options. You will then asked which of the options is most like the given word association. 

Let’s look at an example:

Cane : walk, as eyeglasses ?

A.   taste

B.   hear

C.   colour

D.   run

E.   observe

F.   sun

The association between ‘cane’ and ‘walk’ is that the cane is an ancillary instrumentto assist someone to walk. Therefore, we need to find a word in the list with a similar association to ‘eyeglasses’. ‘Eyeglasses’ are an ancillary instrument to help someone ‘observe’, so this forms the same relationship as exists between ‘cane’ and ‘walk’.

The challenge with these verbal test questions is to do them very quickly, as you have less than 40 seconds per question. To be able to keep up and correctly solve many questions, you must ensure that you are using the right techniques and you have mastered all the relevant material.

Vic Police Numeracy Skills Test 

Vic Police Numeracy test includes sets of test questions. In all of them you need to select the correct answer out of 4 or 5 answer options. in this test you will need to master simple multipliers, calculating avergaes, calculating percentages and calculating ratios.

Most sets of the numeracy test will have numerical information presented in tables or graphs. Each set includes around 4 to 5 test questions. Each question requires you to do some calculations based on the information provided. 

Let's review the following example for Vic Police numeracy test question:

If David purchased a basic package for 7 months and after 6 months the company increased its monthly charges by 20%, how much did he pay for viewing 50 daytime hours per month?

A. $144

B. $265

C. $569

D. $914

To answer this question, we need to review the information provided in the tables. Based on the table on the left we can learn that a Basic package monthly charge is $20. A 20% increase in monthly charges for a Basic Package is $20 x 1.20 = $24. If David paid for a 7 months Basic package then his monthly charges were 6 x $20 = $120 and then on the 7th month he paid $24 totalling $120+$24=$144. Then he paid for 50 viewing hours per month but had 6 free viewing hours (as part of the Basic package) which means that he only had to pay for 44 viewing hours per month. 44 hours at a rate of $2.50 = $110 per month or $110 x 7 = $770 for all 7 months. Therefore, David had to pay a total of $144 +$770 = $914, which is answer option D.

The challenge with the numeric test questions is that they can get much more complicated, for example calculating ratios, and you only have very little time to complete them. You will typically have around 45 seconds to complete each test question. You must ensure that you are taking a professional training that firstly offers you detailed answer explanations so you know how to approach a similar question in your real test and gives you all the important techniques how to master this section of your test.

Vic Police Abstract Reasoning Test

Vic Police Abstract Reasoning test includes multiple choice questions. each Abstract Reasoning test question includes a group of shapes that have some patterns in common. However, one of the shapes is missing. Your task is to find the missing shape using the patterns that you can identify among all the shapes. 

Here is an example of an abstract reasoning test question:

Which is the missing shape?

To answer this question we need to find what patterns can be identified in this group of shapes going from left to right. In this group, we have an outer square containing one of three shapes (circle, square and triangle) and a number of lines across the corners of the square. There are two underlying patterns to this series. The first pattern is that the three inner shapes always repeat in the same order. The second pattern is more complicated, as we need to count the lines. Given that the missing shape is in the middle, we best to start from the shapes after the missing shape. In the first shape (left to the missing shape) we have 2 lines across the top left corner and one line across the other corners. In the next shape there is no change in the lines. In the next shape we see a drop of one line from the top left corner. Then in the following shape we see another line drops. This time from the bottom left corner. In the next shape there is no change in the number of lines. This means that the pattern is one line drops from the first shape. Then in the next shape another line drops. Then there is a pause in the next shape. Then the pattern repeats. Therefore, shape D is the correct answer.

Vic Police Personality test

Vic Police psychologists tend to use two types of special personality tests to assess any abnormalities and areas of risk for Vic Police. The clinical test will have over 300 questions. The test will assess whether you have personality disorders that may prevent you from performing your tasks as a police officer. For example, they will want to know whether you suffer from depression or paranoia as this will very much impact your behaviour as a police officer. Both test are administered online and take around 60 minutes to complete.

For example, an item from a clinical personality test might be:

I like to read about criminals. Yes? or No?

Such an item was designed to measure your anti-social behaviour.

Vic Police Emotional Intelligence test

As part of your selection with Vic Police you might be asked to complete an Emotional Intelligence test includes 144 forced-choice test questions. The Emotional Intelligence test measures your emotional reasoning based on several sections such as:

1. Identify emotions in facial expressions
2. Identify emotions that will facilitate certain behaviours
3. Identify emotions based on behaviours
4. Identify how effective are certain actions in facilitating emotions
5. Identify emotions in abstract drawings and scenery images.
6. Identify associations for emotions
7. Identify effective emotions

Please review the following example of an emotional intelligence test question:

Joan felt stressed, and became a bit anxious when she thought about all the work she needed to do. When her manager brought her an additional project, she felt ____.  (Select the best choice.)
a) Overwhelmed

b) Depressed

c) Ashamed

d) Self-conscious

e) Jittery

The correct answer is overwhelmed. Joan felt stressed before her manager brought her more work. The additional work given to her when she already was feeling under stress only increased the feeling and made her overwhelmed.

Another example for an emotional intelligence test questions is:

How much is each feeling below expressed in this picture?

Happy 1-5

Sad 1-5

Fear 1-5

Anger 1-5

Disgust 1-5

Here you need to analyse the content and colours to identify the correct emotions and the intensity of each emotion on a scale of 1 to 5.

Another example for a test question measuring your emotional intelligence is:

How much is each feeling in the list below expressed by this face?

Happiness (1-5)

Sadness (1-5)

Fear (1-5)

Anger (1-5)

Disgust (1-5)

Here you need to analyse the facial expression to identify the correct emotion and the intensity of the emotion on a scale of 1 to 5.

How the Instiute will assist you to prepare for your Reasoning tests & Personality test & Emotional Intelligence test with Victoria Police

The Institute’s Psychometric test experts have prepared several full preparation solutions for these tests. They include:

Reasoning Tests Preparation:

Tailored Practice Reasoning tests online for the Abstract Reasoning, Verbal Reasoning and Numeracy :

• All tests are based on ACER's tests.
• All tests have step by step answer explanations so you know how to answer in your real test.
• You get tests scores in comparison to others' performance.
• You get effective advice about how to improve your scores.
• Immediate Access.

Personal Tutoring for your Reasoning Tests:

• Delivered by experienced Australian Psychometric test traines.
• Offered face to face or via Skype live.
• Your coach works with you to improve your skills and scores.
• Immediate Access.

Personality test preparation:

Tailored Practice Personality tests online for your test with Vic Police

• All tests are based on similar style test questions.
• All tests have step by step answer explanations so you know how to answer in your real test.
• You get tests scores in comparison to others' performance.
• You get effective advice about how to improve your scores.
• Immediate Access.

Personal Tutoring for your Vic police Personality test:

• Delivered by experienced Australian Psychometric test trainers.
• Offered face to face or via Skype live.
• Your coach works with you to identify areas of risk in your personality test.
• Immediate Access.

Emotional Intelligence Test Preparation:

Personal Tutoring sessions (Face to face or Skype live)

• Delivered by experienced Psychometric test trainers.
• Your psychometric test trainer will teach you everything you need to know about the Emotional Intelligence test including example test questions.
• Prior to your coaching sessions you will be given special practical material and information about the emotional intelligence test that Federal Police will ask you to complete.
• You will also be asked to complete a practice emotional intelligence test to allow your coach to identify your areas of strength and weakness

Please note that IPC is not in any way affiliated with, endorsed or authorised by state or federal police and that your training courses are not approved by or based on any official state and federal police training courses.

Start preparing for Victoria Police tests