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New York Local Police Sergeant exam format

The Police Supervisors/Investigators Series is one test the New York State Department of Civil Service writes and local civil service commissions administer. Here is what the Department publishes about it, and what it does not.

Format
Multiple choice, four options
Time allowance
5 hours 30 minutes for the series
Passing score
70.00
Calculators
Not permitted
Item count
Not published
Per-area weighting
Not published

Five subject areas for a Police Sergeant

The Department's guide describes fifteen subject areas across the whole series and says in its own words that not all of them are included in every examination, and that the Examination Announcement lists the areas for the particular test you are taking.

Four Sergeant announcements read in full — Oneida County, the City of Watertown, Suffolk County and Lewis County — all reproduce the same five.

  • Law enforcement methods and practices
  • New York State Laws — a sampling of job-related sections of the Penal Law, Criminal Procedure Law, Vehicle and Traffic Law and Family Court Act
  • Preparing written material in a police setting
  • Understanding and interpreting written material
  • Supervision

What the Department does not publish

There is no published item count for this title and no published weighting between the subject areas. The guide gives an overall time allowance for the series and nothing more, so anybody quoting a number of questions is estimating.

That is why nothing on this site states a percentage of the examination. What can honestly be said is a count of subject areas.

Areas 6 and 7 are for the Detective titles

Evaluating information and evidence, and investigative techniques and criminalistics, sit in the same series for Detective, Criminal Investigator and Detective Sergeant. A Police Sergeant announcement does not list them.

Subject areas 8 to 15 belong to state Environmental Conservation, Forest Ranger and Park Patrol titles and are outside this examination entirely.

Sources

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