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ACER recommends that applicants prepare for the Victoria Police entrance exam with official material.

Neither ACER nor Victoria Police conduct Victoria Police entrance examination preparation courses. ACER and Victoria Police provide practice materials to assist candidates to prepare for the exam.

Preparation material

ACER provides 4 official options to help you prepare for the exam.

Please note: There are no past test papers available from ACER or Victoria Police.

Create an account and try a selection of sample questions for each of the assessments.

ACER recommends you use these free practice questions to become used to the look and feel of the tests. Try the online calculator in the numeracy test and practice using it to calculate common processes such as percentages.

You should attempt these questions to identify any areas that need development, then continue practising to improve your results. You can try several times so that you become familiar with the types of questions you will encounter in the exam. The free questions are untimed, however, it is also a good idea to time yourself, so you become familiar with time constraints.

Try the sample questions now

When you book your exam in the ACER Portal, you can purchase the online practice tests individually or as a full set, depending on which test components you feel you need the most help with (for example, Abstract reasoning and Numeracy).

The online practice tests include one sample test for each of the 8 test components. These tests match the display and computer functionality of the live assessment, with questions similar in design and difficulty to those included in the final exam.

The literacy, numeracy, abstract reasoning, verbal reasoning, and computer skills practice assessments provide scored, timed test experiences. The summary writing, extended writing, and oral assessment are provided as unscored experiential practice assessments.

Multiple attempts are permitted; however, the tests contain one set only. They can be accessed for 12 months from the time of purchase at a cost of $88 (incl. GST) for the full set or purchased individually at a lower cost.


You can purchase the ‘Practise Now! Victoria Police Entrance Exam’ book to help you build your confidence in each of the 8 areas assessed as part of the exam.

The book identifies specific skills required, describes the types of questions you are likely to encounter and provides detailed explanations of how correct answers may be reached. It also provides exam day tactics, including time management approaches.

It can be purchased from the ACER Shop or via the ACER Portal when registering for the test.

Key features:

  • Provides detailed breakdowns of the types of tasks involved in each section of the exam.
  • Suggests helpful strategies for building the kinds of skills required to overcome difficult problems.
  • Proposes exam-day tactics including time management approaches.


Victoria Police and ACER provide a full set of video tutorials to coach you through each test component. There are 8 videos in total, with videos ranging in length from 10 to 20 minutes.

It is highly recommended that you watch these videos as part of your exam preparation.

Watch the video tutorials here

Preparation strategies

To achieve the best possible results, a number of strategies can be used to prepare for the Victoria Police Entrance Examination.

Literacy skills

Literacy skills are improved through practising a combination of reading, writing, listening, and speaking.  To improve these literacy skills, it is suggested you read and write daily, and practice listening and speaking with others.

Reading

  • Read something different than what you normally would, and read more!
  • Read the newspaper completely every day. Read each article all the way through, then re-read it and identify the main points.
  • Practice scanning an article before you read it in full, as this will give you an understanding of what it’s about before you read the details.

Writing

  • After reading a newspaper article, type out a summary of the main points and key supporting evidence.
  • Watch something on television or YouTube and then type out a description of what you saw, and a summary of the footage.
  • Re-read your pieces of writing the next day – be critical about your work and challenge yourself to find areas you can improve.
  • Ask another person to review your writing and provide feedback.

Oral communication

  • Oral communication involves listening (including the ability to interpret information) and speaking (including the ability to convey the meaning of your message).
  • Speak as often as possible to as many people as possible – practising will help you improve.
  • Listen to a news bulletin or watch an article on television with another person then explain the details of what you saw to them.
  • Read aloud and listen for your mistakes.
  • Arrange social events where you can practice your speaking and listening skills with another person.

Digital literacy

To prepare for the digital literacy assessment, you need to make sure you are confident and competent at using a computer, keyboard and mouse. You should make sure that you understand and can use the features of common software packages to undertake everyday computer-based tasks.

Numeracy

Numeracy skills are improved through using and practising your maths skills to solve everyday maths problems. To improve your numeracy skills, practise doing a range of calculations with money, percentages, rates and ratios; doing some measurement-based calculations around area and volume; and reading and interpreting data and statistics, including when represented in graphs and charts.

An onscreen calculator is provided in the numeracy assessment, so practise making calculations using a basic scientific calculator at home. Look at marketing brochures you may receive in the mail and perform calculations based on the offers they make.

Reasoning tests

  • Verbal reasoning is the ability to understand and reason using concepts framed in words. The test examines your ability to think logically, understand relationships, solve problems and think critically, rather than simply understanding vocabulary.
  • Abstract reasoning is used to measure the ability to think clearly, solve problems and quickly identify patterns and logical rules based on abstract visual cues rather than numbers and words. It involves recognising the rule or rules that govern the progression of a pattern from one diagram to another in a series, or to identify the part that is missing from a diagram.

Test-taking strategy

The majority of the questions in the Victoria Police entrance examination are in multiple-choice format, except for the:

  • oral skills assessment
  • extended and summary writing assessments
  • numeracy and digital literacy assessments (data entry is required for some questions).

Watch the time and plan your assessment carefully. Do not spend too much time on any one question and move steadily through the test. Answer to the best of your ability and return to any of the more challenging questions if you have time at the end of the test. Points are not deducted for incorrect answers.

Bookmark any questions you are unsure of and come back later if you have time. 

All questions have the same value, therefore by attempting as many questions as possible you stand the best chance of maximising your score.

ACER and Victoria Police do not provide any preparation courses; however, we do provide official practice materials to assist candidates to prepare for the exam.

ACER and Victoria Police do not recommend or endorse any commercially available courses offering entrance exam preparation. Nor do we have knowledge of the content of such courses, or any involvement in their development, or any commercial interest in the programs. Thus, ACER and Victoria Police are unable to comment on their relevance or usefulness. It is possible that some commercial preparation courses might provide misleading information or advice to candidates.

Questions provided in the practice test are designed by the same authors who write questions for the live tests. They are examples of the types of items in the assessments but do not necessarily indicate the full range of questions or their difficulty. They are designed to provide some guidance about what to expect and to help you to prepare for the test. However, success in the practice questions does not guarantee or imply success in the actual assessment.

No, the practice tests and the Practise Now! book are non-refundable and are provided for your use immediately after purchase.

The test is the same for both roles. This allows for ease of transfer should you wish to change roles. The pass marks are different. 

More information about the role of a Protective Services Officer