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What is on the Illinois State Police Master Sergeant Job Knowledge Exam

The Merit Board publishes an exact reading list with a per-source item count: 50 closed-book multiple-choice items drawn from ISP Directives, two separate collective bargaining agreements, Illinois Compiled Statutes, ISP Shift Briefings, ISP Law Bulletins, and one current commercial leadership book.

Format
50 closed-book, multiple-choice items
ISP Directives
26 final items (50 named sections, effective April 1, 2026 — the same list Sergeant's exam draws on)
Illinois Compiled Statutes
5 final items, drawn from the statute chapters and articles the Board dated February 26, 2026
ISP Shift Briefings
5 final items (nine dated briefings)
Troopers/Special Agents/Sergeants CBA
3 final items, drawn from an eligible pool of 19 articles running July 2023 through June 2027
Master Sergeants CBA (Teamsters Local 700)
3 final items — the smallest eligible pool on the list, just 3 articles, covering the same July 2023 through June 2027 term
ISP Law Bulletins
2 final items (five dated bulletins)
Commercial leadership book
6 items — same current title as Sergeant's list: "Leaders Eat Last" by Simon Sinek (entire book eligible)

The same source pool as Sergeant, roughly half the items

The Board's 2026 Target Master Sergeant Written Exam Reading List names the identical 50 ISP Directive sections, the identical 19 eligible Troopers/Special Agents/Sergeants CBA articles, the identical named statute chapters, the identical 9 Shift Briefings, the identical 5 Law Bulletins, and the identical current book as the Sergeant reading list — confirmed by comparing both documents directly, not assumed. Only the final-item count per source differs, at roughly half of Sergeant's allocation, and the exam itself is 50 items rather than 100.

One statute citation is an exception worth knowing about: both reading lists cite '410 ILCS 705, Article 10' in their statute table. Sergeant's list labels it 'Personal Use of Cannabis', which matches that chapter correctly. Master Sergeant's list labels the identical citation 'Choke-Saving Methods Act' — which is actually a different Illinois chapter entirely (410 ILCS 10), unrelated to cannabis. This looks like an error in the Board's own table. RankHigh does not author against this specific row under either label until the Board's own document is clarified.

One genuinely new source: the Master Sergeants' own CBA

Unlike Sergeant, Master Sergeant candidates are tested on TWO separate collective bargaining agreements: the same Troopers/Special Agents/Sergeants CBA Sergeant candidates study (because Master Sergeants supervise the ranks it covers), and their own separate agreement — the Master Sergeants CBA, Teamsters Local 700. See the two-CBA page for how these differ.

Two categories are not yet covered, and here is exactly why

The reading list's seventh category is a commercial trade book — currently 'Leaders Eat Last' by Simon Sinek, worth 6 of the 50 final items. RankHigh has not read this book, and no item may be written against a book nobody here has read. The '410 ILCS 705, Article 10' statute row described above is also not covered, because its own citation is internally inconsistent in the Board's document.

What the Board does not publish

There is no published passing score for the Job Knowledge Exam alone. There is no published breakdown of exactly which named directive sections, statute articles or CBA articles receive the most final items beyond the category-level counts above. And, as the scoring page explains, there is currently no published individual split between the Job Knowledge Exam and the Assessment Exercise for this rank.

Sources

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