If you looking to understand exactly how the role-plays work, the skills and behaviours you are required to evidence, or perhaps you are concerned about the written exercises and how to layout a written proposal? All the answers can be found at:

police-recruitment-exercises.co.uk a website owned by David Vidgen, Recruitment Director of policeapplication.co.uk

Our advice is not to complete this section of the form when submitting it to your chosen force, no matter what your ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation etc. It is completely voluntary to complete and will not hinder your application. The same cannot be said however if you do complete this section. We have evidence that this information is being used to either deselect candidates from the process or provide unwanted ‘special treatment’ that can cause animosity and tension once you are in the job. Our advice is to provide them these details once you have a firm letter of appointment or when you start, but not before.

This includes 10 great examples for each of the application form competency questions (Race and Diversity, Team Working, Resilience and Effective Communications), all designed to help and inspire you to devise your own answers to the required standard. Examples have been drawn from everyday life to help you identify with ease your own examples. 40 Great Answers to the Police Officer Application Form is an electronic document, available for immediate download once your payment has been made – so no waiting for the post to arrive!

In addition to this, if you want us to check your form to ensure it meets the required standard, you can purchase both the 40 Great Police Officer Application Form Answers and Police Application Form Checking Service for just £25.00

40 Great Answers to the Police Application Form Competency Questions will shortly be available for candidates applying to the police service who want to make sure their application form meets the required competency standard.

10 answers to each of the competency questions (40 in total), these flash cards are ideal to help you understand how to meet the required standard. They will stimulate your own minds and help you identify and relate to situations where you have used such skills effectively.

To register your interest in this product, visit: http://www.policeapplication.co.uk/police-application-form

Dispatched via Royal Mail within 24-48 hours

The quickest force in recent time has been the Metropolitan Police with clients of ours successfully completing the whole recruitment process in about 6-7 months. Most forces on average take around 12-16 months to complete, although some of our clients have been kept waiting 2 years by their respective forces.

With applications taking such a long time to complete this obviously has implications for those seeking to join as quickly as possible, especially those who may have been made redundant during the current recession. If you are going to apply to the police, here’s our advice:

1. Be prepared for a two year recruitment process – that way if it is quicker it’s a bonus!
2. Never give notice or leave your current employer until you have received a formal job offer from the service.
3. Given the timescales you will have to wait if your initial application is rejected (6 months), it does pay to use our application checking service – the same applies for our 1-day assessment centre courses
4. It may be sometime from initial application to assessment centre, use the time between now and then to practice your written skills, paying particular attention to your spelling and grammar as there is a required standard you must meet if you are to be successful.
5. Expose yourself to different cultures and learn to be sensitive and adapt your behaviour so not to cause offence. For example, invite friends to dinner who may have religious or social reasons for not eating certain meats. Learn about their views and seek to adjust your behaviour by cooking different foods.
6. Even if you are unhappy at work, do NOT go sick (unless of course you are actually ill!). Forces are not keen to recruit individuals whom have had more than 21 days sickness in the past 3 years – however, if you exceed this is does not necessarily mean you are rejected – it means they will investigate further.

If you have any questions and you would like to talk to someone who has actually worked in police recruitment please feel free to contact us – we are more than happy to give impartial advice.

Completing the application form may not be a science, but it is certainly a tick box exercise. Forces are looking for predetermined and keyphrase answers that tick all the necessary boxes.

Where most candidates go wrong is:

a) They try to produce answers with the WOW factor. Unfortunately words such as WOW, exciting, stimulating, high-energy are not keywords or phrases that they are looking for.

b) Candidates simply don’t answer the question

Let’s take a look at question 2 (Team Working) for example:

Question: Provide an example of when you worked in a team and you were willing to share in less attractive tasks.

(i) Tell us what had to be done

(ii) How was it you became involved

(iii) What did you do and others do?

(iv) How was it decided things were going to be done?

(v) What did you do to ensure the team were able to get the result it wanted?

(vi) What benefits were there for yourself (if any)

Given the question above: what is the most important quality they are looking for?

HERE IS THE ANSWER: Your willingness to share in less attractive tasks. This means in sub question (iii) – you clearly describe a less attractive task (using these exact words) that you undertook. AND, you tell them about the tasks that your colleagues performed – It”s not all about you!!!

In sub question (v) where you are asked what did you do to ensure the team got the result it wanted? What do you think needs to be mentioned here?

HERE IS THE ANSWER: You were willing to get involved in less attractive tasks and support your colleagues no matter how trivial the task may be.

In sub question (vi) what benefits were there for yourself (if any)?

HERE IS THE ANSWER: The main benefit was to see the team perform well together and for the team to get the result we wanted. There was no personal benefit.

TIP: When answering questions, use the same words that feature in the question (mirroring) – that way you can ensure that you are providing exactly what they are asking for…

If you want to guarantee your application form is accepted, the police application form help and checking service will ensure your application meets the required standard.

With more candidates chasing fewer positions it is even more important now that not only does your form meet the required standard, but if possible be one of those with the highest scores. Some forces put forward those with the highest scores first to their assessment centre!

Our application form checking service will not only guarantee that your form meets the required competency standard, but we’ll also ensure that it’s amongst those with the highest pass marks. We we continually work with you until your form is at this standard.

When you purchase this service, within approx 10 mins, you receive a unique login and password giving you immediate access to the required help / sample police competency question answers. No waiting 24 hours or the next working day!

Once you have produced and submitted your draft answers for evaluation, feedback is normally with you within 72 hours – often less where tight closing dates apply. We will then continually work with you until your form meets the high standard required, in most cases this can be achieved within the first feedback report.

The cost of this service is just £25.

More details… Police Application Form Checking Service

Despite popular belief the police service is not short of candidates wishing to become police officers so you will find that most forces do not issue application forms 365 days a year. Smaller forces may only have one or two windows of opportunity throughout the year, while larger forces may be open for considerable months at a time.

Each force is responsible for issuing their own application forms and each have their own methods – some are online while others use a traditional paper-based application form. So to obtain an application form you first need to contact your chosen force – using Google simply search ‘the name of your force, followed by the word ‘recruitment’ i.e., Metropolitan Police Recruitment – this will narrow your search and save you time having to navigate through the whole of their website to find the page you really want.

Some forces only accept applications from candidates whom have attended a recruitment event, so be prepared to have to visit them. Others, if currently sending out application forms will simply send you one via the post, or as an email attachment.

The application form is a 22-page competency based document, so you will need to evidence your suitability for the role by answering a series of questions. This section is pass / fail so it is important that your answers provide the necessary evidence. 60% are rejected at application stage because their answers do not tick the correct boxes. If you would like helpwith your police application form I can provide this assistance, ensuring that your form meets the necessary standard.

Once you have had confirmation that your form meets the required standard you will then be called to attend a police assessment centre. An assessment centre is a process, not a place. It is during this process that you will again be asked to demonstrate your suitability for the role by completing a series of exercises. These  include role-plays, written reports, interview, Maths and English test, in all it is a five hour day!

In order to pass an assessment centre there are four pass marks that must be achieved – Overall, Race and Diversity, Oral Communications an finally Written Communications. Written Communications is your spelling and grammar, so extra care and attention should be given to the written reports you write. Forces do have differing pass marks for assessment centres, so although you may be unsuccessful with your current force, others may accept your scores, this will prevent you from having to reapply at a later date. Please refer to my earlier post ‘Assessment Centre Pass Marks 50% or 60%’

In sections 4 to 10 of your police / PCSO application form, you must not exceed ten errors , while in the assessment centre this is limited to no more than 5 spelling or 4 grammatical errors in each written proposal exercise.

If you exceed this in your application form, or you exceed this amount in both written proposals, you will be rejected. To help candidates I have compiled the following advice:

Let’s have a look at when to use capital letters

Which is correct?

• I attended School between the ages of four and eighteen
• I attended school between the ages of four and eighteen

Answer: I attended school between the ages of four and eighteen

The word ‘school’ only needs a capital letter at the start when it is part of a name of a specific school. It does not need one when it appears on its own. The same is true for other places, institutions, organisations, and buildings.

When using capital letters in titles (for a film, book, ‘role’, period or event) however, be careful only to use them for the start of the first and key words, and not for small words within the title.

Which is correct?

• an Officer and a Gentleman
• An Officer And A Gentleman
• An Officer and a Gentleman

Answer: An Officer and a Gentleman

The above examples throw up a few additional points to remember. People’s titles should always have capital letters, for example: Prime Minister, Princess Royal.

Periods have titles, and begin with a capital letter: Gothic, the Renaissance, the Depression.

Countries begin with a capital letter, but so too do languages and nationalities, for example: English, Kurdish, Chinese, Arabic, French, Polish. Note that all words that are formed from, or are connected to, these base words also begin with capital letters, for example: Frenchman, Arabia, Chinese lantern.

Which is correct?

• It is far warmer in the south, especially in the summer
• It is far warmer in the South, especially in the summer
• It is far warmer in the south, especially in the Summer
• It is far warmer in the South, especially in the Summer

Answer: It is far warmer in the south, especially in the summer

Note that although capital letters are used for days of the weeks and months of the year, they are not needed for the points of the compass, or for seasons.

Let’s have a look at when to use commas

Commas should be used in a sentence to indicate where someone reading the sentence would pause (for a fraction of a second only), perhaps to take a breath. As a rule, longer and more complex sentences are more likely to need commas than short sentences.

i.e. While teaching my recent assessment centre training course, a client whom I never met before, kindly introduced themselves on arrival as Julie Smith.