Police BSQ Practice, Free and Honest
Get used to the Behavioural Styles Questionnaire format before the National Sift: 24 original statements on the official seven-point scale, plus ranking screens. No score, no sign-up.
The short answer
The BSQ is the second exercise in the National Sift, alongside the situational judgement test. You rate statements about your typical behaviour at work on a seven-point scale from completely disagree to completely agree, and you may be asked to rank statements. The national recruitment site says there are 80 statements and it should take about 20 minutes, untimed. It assesses six CVF competencies and three values, and its score is combined with the SJT's.
There are no right answers and you can't revise for it. What you can practise is the format, and answering honestly and consistently. This free tool does both: you see how your answers lean, never a score, and where your own answers to similar statements contradicted each other.
Sources: College of Policing national sift candidate guidance (updated 1 June 2026) and joiningthepolice.co.uk, both checked 16 October 2026.
Try the BSQ format
Rate each statement on the same seven-point scale the College describes, from completely disagree to completely agree, then try the ranking screens. At the end you see how your answers lean across the six competencies and three values, and where your answers to similar statements contradicted each other.
- 24 statementsOriginal PolicePay wording, one at a time. About 5 minutes.
- 2 ranking screensPick the statement most like you, then the more like you of the other two.
- No sign-up, nothing savedYour answers stay on this page and are gone when you leave it.
Answer as you are at work, not as you think you should be
There are no right or wrong answers here, and there's no score at the end. Think of how you typically behave in a job, a placement or volunteering. If you've not worked yet, think of school, college or a team you belong to. Don't spend long on any one statement.
The Sift Prep Pass adds a 72-statement set, all 6 ranking screens and a detailed profile PDF. You'll see the details after your free run.
What the BSQ is
The National Sift is the first online assessment for police constable applicants in England and Wales. It has two exercises: the situational judgement test (SJT), where you rate how effective actions would be in a scenario, and the Behavioural Styles Questionnaire (BSQ), which is about you. The SJT asks what would work; the BSQ asks what you're typically like.
| What it measures | Your typical behaviour and preferences at work. The College says its purpose is to assess whether you have the right behaviours and attitudes to be effective in the role. Source: College |
|---|---|
| Format | Statements about behaviour at work. For each one you decide how far you agree or disagree, on a seven-point scale. Source: College |
| Number of statements | 80, according to the national recruitment site. The College's own guidance doesn't give a number. Source: joiningthepolice.co.uk |
| Ranking screens | Depending on your responses, you may also be asked to rank statements: pick the one most like you from three, then the more like you of the remaining two. Source: College |
| Time | Untimed. Both the College and joiningthepolice.co.uk say it should take about 20 minutes. The College recommends one sitting, somewhere quiet. Source: College and joiningthepolice.co.uk |
| Practice area | The real platform has unscored practice questions that look like the real exercises. You can skip them, but if you do, you can't go back to them later. Source: College |
| Scoring | Automatic. Your BSQ and SJT scores are combined into one overall score, compared with a group of applicants and shown as a percentile. You're told by email whether you met the national standard, with a personalised feedback report. Source: College |
The seven-point scale
- 1 Completely disagree
- 2 Strongly disagree
- 3 Somewhat disagree
- 4 Neither agree nor disagree
- 5 Somewhat agree
- 6 Strongly agree
- 7 Completely agree
Labels as the College lists them. In the real BSQ you choose a label; the numbers here are only so you can answer with the keys 1 to 7 in our tool.
What it assesses
The College lists nine things the BSQ assesses: six competencies and three values from the Competency and Values Framework (CVF). The SJT assesses the same six competencies; the three values are listed for the BSQ only. The descriptions below are our plain-English summaries of what our practice statements cover, not the College's definitions.
Six competencies
- We analyse critically: checking facts, looking for causes and being able to explain the reasons for a decision.
- We are innovative and open-minded: being open to other ways of working, improving routine tasks and seeking views that differ from yours.
- We take ownership: owning mistakes, finishing what you agreed to do and asking for feedback.
- We are emotionally aware: noticing your own mood, adapting how you communicate, staying calm and looking after your wellbeing.
- We collaborate: sharing information, working across teams and building relationships with people you don't naturally click with.
- We support and inspire: helping newer colleagues, explaining why tasks matter, recognising good work and setting an example.
Three values
- Courage: speaking up about unacceptable behaviour, making and explaining unpopular decisions, and challenging instructions you believe are wrong.
- Respect and empathy: seeing the other person's point of view, listening fully and treating people with equal respect.
- Public service: taking pride in serving people, keeping them informed and thinking about public trust.
The College's guidance names the competencies with a lower-case "we" (for example "we collaborate"). For the national sift, it says the competencies review criteria is set at level 1.
How to approach it honestly
The College's advice, in short
- Read and think about each statement carefully before responding.
- Be as honest as possible about how far each statement reflects your typical behaviours and attitudes at work.
- Respond to every statement in terms of your typical work behaviour.
- Complete it in one sitting if you can, somewhere quiet and free from distractions.
Summarised from the College of Policing national sift candidate guidance, checked 16 October 2026.
Answer about work, as you typically are
The College asks you to respond in terms of your typical work behaviour. Not your best day, not your worst: what you usually do. If you haven't had a job, a placement, volunteering or a team at college is a fair stand-in.
Describe yourself, not the officer you imagine
The College's video puts it simply: the key is honesty, and you should think about how you genuinely behave at work rather than how you think you should respond. Answering as an imagined ideal officer is the habit this practice tool is built to show you.
Read each statement properly
Some statements are worded positively and some the other way round. Agreeing with both a statement and its opposite is the most common way honest people end up looking inconsistent, and it usually comes from skimming.
Use the whole scale where it's true
There's no reason to avoid 'completely agree' or 'completely disagree' if that's accurate, and no reason to force a strong view where you have none. 'Neither agree nor disagree' is a real answer, but using it for everything says very little about you.
Don't hunt for a pattern
The College doesn't publish how the BSQ is scored, so there's no known 'ideal' profile to aim at. Trying to steer your answers towards one is guesswork, and it's hard to keep up across many statements.
Keep a steady pace, in one sitting
It's untimed, so don't rush, but long deliberation over each statement tends to pull you towards the answer you think is wanted. First honest reaction, then move on.
Why consistent answers matter
A questionnaire with dozens of statements will touch the same idea more than once. "I check facts before I decide" and "I tend to go with my first impression" are about the same habit, worded opposite ways. If you completely agree with both, your answers cancel each other out, and neither tells anyone much about you.
Contradictions like that rarely come from dishonesty. They come from skimming a reversed statement, from answering one statement as you are and the next as you think you should be, or from fatigue. Our tool builds in 9 pairs of similar statements in the free set (36 in the full set) and, at the end, shows you any pair where your answers pointed in opposite directions, side by side, so you can see which answer was really you.
How this practice tool works, and what it isn't
- Original statements. Every statement is PolicePay's own wording. None is copied or adapted from the real BSQ, which isn't published.
- The official scale. Seven points with the College's labels, one statement at a time, then ranking screens in the format the College describes.
- How your answers lean. For each competency and value we describe whether your answers lean towards or away from the behaviours our statements describe, in words. There's no number, because a number would look like a score.
- Contradictions, shown. Any pair of similar statements where your answers pointed opposite ways, with both answers side by side.
- Not a prediction. The College doesn't publish how the BSQ is scored or what profile it looks for. Our profile describes your answers on our statements; it can't tell you how you'd do on the real one.
- Private. No sign-up, and your answers aren't saved or sent anywhere. We only count anonymous events such as "a practice run finished", with its consistency band.
What's free, and what the Sift Prep Pass adds
Free, no sign-up
- 24 BSQ practice statements and 2 ranking screens
- How your answers lean, and your contradictions shown
- 15 SJT practice scenarios and one free timed SJT mock
Sift Prep Pass, £19.99 for 90 days
- 72 BSQ statements, 36 similar pairs checked and 6 ranking screens
- A statement-by-statement BSQ profile with interview examples to prepare, and a PDF
- All 148 SJT scenarios, unlimited timed mocks, drills, review and an SJT result PDF
- Or with the 90-day Mock Interview pass as a bundle for £45.99
One payment, nothing renews. 14-day refund, no reason needed (refund policy). The pass is PolicePay's own practice material, not College of Policing questions, and no product can promise you'll meet the national standard. You can buy it from the end of a free practice run above.
What to do next
Practise the SJT, free
15 original scenarios with the reasoning for every rating, and a free timed mock. Unlike the BSQ, the SJT has judgement you can sharpen.
The BSQ explained
More on what it measures, the ranking screens and how it combines with the SJT.
How the National Sift is scored
Percentiles, the national standard, and what the College says about retakes.
CVF interview questions
The same competencies and values come back at interview, where you need real examples.
Sift and recruitment alerts
Know when the sift or the application windows change
Forces open and close recruitment windows without much notice, and the national sift can change. Leave your email and we will tell you when forces open applications and when the sift or the entry rules change. Occasional emails, written by hand. Unsubscribe any time.
Sent by a person when there is news, not on a schedule. Unsubscribe any time. See our privacy policy.
Police BSQ questions answered
Is this the real BSQ?
No. The College of Policing doesn't publish the BSQ's statements, and this tool doesn't use them. Every statement here is original PolicePay wording, written so you can get used to the format: rating statements on the College's seven-point scale and the ranking screens. Use the official practice area in the assessment platform too, once you're invited.
Can you pass or fail this practice?
No. There's no score, no pass mark and no right answers. The tool shows how your answers lean across the six CVF competencies and three values, and where your answers to similar statements contradicted each other. It doesn't predict your real BSQ result, and it doesn't claim to work the way the College scores the BSQ, which isn't published.
How many statements are in the real BSQ, and how long does it take?
joiningthepolice.co.uk says the BSQ has 80 statements and should take about 20 minutes, although it isn't timed. The College's candidate guidance also says it's untimed and expected to take about 20 minutes, and recommends completing it in one sitting where possible. The College's guidance doesn't state the number of statements.
What scale does the BSQ use?
A seven-point agreement scale: completely disagree, strongly disagree, somewhat disagree, neither agree nor disagree, somewhat agree, strongly agree, completely agree. This practice tool uses the same seven labels.
What does the BSQ assess?
The College lists six competencies (we analyse critically, we are innovative and open-minded, we take ownership, we are emotionally aware, we collaborate, we support and inspire) and three values (respect and empathy, courage, public service). These come from the Competency and Values Framework (CVF). The SJT assesses the same six competencies; the three values are listed for the BSQ only.
Why does the tool check for contradictions?
Because answering honestly and steadily is the one thing you can practise. The tool includes pairs of statements that mean much the same thing, some worded the opposite way round, and shows you any pair where your answers pointed in opposite directions. The College doesn't say whether or how the real BSQ checks consistency, so this is a practice habit, not a copy of the College's method.
Can you game the BSQ?
Nobody outside the College knows what an 'ideal' BSQ profile looks like, because the scoring isn't published. The College's advice is to be as honest as possible. Trying to answer as an imagined ideal candidate is guesswork, and it tends to produce exactly the contradictions this tool shows you.
What does the Sift Prep Pass add to the BSQ practice?
The free version has 24 statements (9 similar pairs checked) and 2 ranking screens. The Sift Prep Pass (£19.99, 90 days, one payment, nothing renews) adds a 72-statement set with 36 pairs and 6 ranking screens, a statement-by-statement profile with an interview example to prepare for each competency and value, and a PDF of your profile. The same pass unlocks the full SJT practice bank of 148 scenarios and unlimited timed SJT mocks.
Does the BSQ count as much as the SJT?
The College says the two scores are combined into one overall score, but it doesn't publish the weighting between them. Treat both as part of the same result.
Sources and what we couldn't verify
- College of Policing, National sift candidate guidance (first published 11 April 2023, updated 1 June 2026), checked 16 October 2026: the scale, the ranking screens, untimed and about 20 minutes, one sitting, honesty advice, the competencies and values assessed, the practice area, and how scores are combined and reported.
- joiningthepolice.co.uk, What does the sift involve?, checked 16 October 2026: 80 statements, about 20 minutes, not timed.
- College of Policing, Competency and values framework (CVF) (first published 8 May 2024), checked 16 October 2026: the six competencies and three values.
Not verified
- How the BSQ is scored, what profile it looks for, and how it's weighted against the SJT. None of these is published.
- Whether the real BSQ checks consistency between statements, and what triggers the ranking screens.
- The number of statements in the College's own guidance: only joiningthepolice.co.uk gives a figure (80).
Related
Facts about the National Sift checked against College of Policing and joiningthepolice.co.uk pages on 16 October 2026. Official processes change, so always confirm with your recruiting force. This page and practice tool are independent PolicePay.co.uk material and are not affiliated with, or endorsed by, the College of Policing. All statements are original and do not reproduce any real assessment content.