The CBP Officer Writing Skills Test
Grammar, usage, punctuation, spelling and paragraph order, across four question formats. Fail it and you are not invited to the Logical Reasoning Test.
- Time allowed
- 63 minutes
- Format
- Computer adaptive · four options per question
- Deadline
- Within 5 days of the Experience Record
- If you do not pass
- Removed from the process
What it covers
CBP describes the scope as basic rules of English grammar, syntax, usage, sentence and paragraph organization, and punctuation. Its guide works through sentence components, types of clause, verbs, nouns, pronouns, adjectives and adverbs, conjunctions and the organization of sentences within paragraphs.
It is a computer adaptive test like the reasoning test: no skipping, no going back, and no published number of questions. CBP's published pacing works out at about a minute and a half per question.
The four question formats
They fail differently and it is worth practising all four rather than the one you find easiest.
- Choose the correction a sentence needs — with "no correction is necessary" available as an answer
- Choose which of four sentences is correct and suitable for a formal letter or report
- Choose which sentence is spelled correctly, where the options differ by one word or an apostrophe
- Choose the paragraph order that makes a passage coherent — again with "no correction is necessary" available
"No correction is necessary" is a real answer
On two of the four formats it is offered, and it is sometimes right — CBP's own published practice set keys it on one of its four correction items. A candidate who has trained themselves to always find a fault will pick a wrong answer on those questions with total confidence.
Read the whole sentence before you look at the options. On this format the error, when there is one, is often not where your eye lands first.
Sources
- CBP — CBP Officer Entrance Examination Preparation Guide (rev. 12.31.2025) · checked 2026-08-22
- CBP Careers — CBP Officer Entrance Exam · checked 2026-08-22