The NYC Correction Officer Exam Format
A computer-based multiple-choice test of eleven cognitive abilities, with 70% required to pass. DCAS publishes the abilities and the pass mark and does not publish a question count, a time limit or a weighting — so any source quoting one is guessing.
- Abilities measured
- Eleven, all cognitive
- Passing score
- 70%
- Format
- Computer-based, multiple choice
- Question count
- Not published by DCAS
The eleven abilities
Written comprehension, written expression, memorization, problem sensitivity, number facility, mathematical reasoning, deductive reasoning, inductive reasoning, information ordering, spatial orientation and visualization.
Every one is cognitive. There is no personality inventory, no integrity questionnaire and no situational-judgment section in the scored multiple-choice test — a real difference from many current public-safety selection batteries, and the reason the whole of this examination can be honestly prepared.
What the notice does not tell you
There is no published number of questions, no published time limit and no published weighting between the abilities. Preparation material quoting a specific figure is repeating another preparation site rather than the notice.
RankHigh's own practice tests use an even split across the eleven, described as RankHigh's design rather than as the shape of your examination.
Passing, and where you land
Seventy per cent is the bar. Past it, appointment runs down a ranked eligible list built from scores, so the question that decides when you are called is not whether you cleared the bar but how far above it you sat.
That is why the marks worth chasing are the ones you are currently dropping for an avoidable reason — a mis-set calculation, a heading you did not fix, a detail you never attached to a name.
Applying
DCAS publishes a Notice of Examination for each exam number, each with its own filing period. Those change every series, so check the current notice at nyc.gov/dcas rather than any third-party summary — including this one.