Failed the
National Sift?
Not meeting the standard at the national sift is common and you can try again. The College's resit rules, what your result and feedback report can and cannot tell you, the habits that most often cost marks in the situational judgement test and a free trainer that targets the biggest one.
Independent information, not advice · Sources checked 21 October 2026 · England and Wales unless stated
You can resit from three months after the date you completed it, no more than twice in 12 months and you take both the SJT and the BSQ again. You cannot appeal on the result alone. Use the gap to practise the SJT: rate each action on its own merits, as your first response, using only the information given.
For police constable candidates in England and Wales who did not meet the standard at the College of Policing national sift. The rules come from the College's national sift candidate guidance (May 2026 edition, page updated 1 June 2026). Practice scenarios on this page are PolicePay's own, not College questions and our ratings are not the College's answer key, which is not published.
What a sift fail means and what it does not
The national sift is two online exercises: a situational judgement test (SJT) and a behavioural styles questionnaire (BSQ). The College says both are scored automatically, combined into an overall score and compared with a group of applicants to policing roles, shown as a percentile. You are told by email whether you met the national standard and receive a personalised feedback report with your score.
- It means your combined score was below the standard on that attempt. Since 17 March 2026 the Police Regulations require constable candidates, other than transferees, to pass the national sift, so your application cannot move on until you pass.
- It does not mean you are unsuitable for policing, that you are barred, or that a force will view your next application differently. The College sets resit rules precisely because people try again.
- It does not tell you which exercise cost you more. The College describes a combined score; we have not seen a report that splits it, so read yours carefully.
For more on the report, see national sift results and the feedback report.
The resit rules
| Rule | Detail | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Earliest resit | From three months after the date you completed your assessment. | National sift guidance |
| Attempts | No more than twice in a 12-month period. | National sift guidance |
| What you resit | Both exercises: the SJT and the BSQ. | National sift guidance |
| Appeal on the result | Not possible on the result alone. | National sift guidance |
| Force discretion | Forces can make local decisions on reapplications. | Pre-employment guidance, 2024 |
| One force at a time | You may sit the sift with only one force at a time. | Pre-employment guidance, 2024 |
The sift clock runs from the date you completed the sift. That differs from the online assessment process, where the College counts three months from the start of your assessment window. For every stage in one place, see reapplying after a rejection.
The first week after a sift fail
- Save your feedback report and note your completion date. Your earliest resit date runs from it.
- Write down what you remember about the SJT: scenarios where you hesitated, actions you were unsure how to rate.
- Ask your force whether it follows the College's three-month rule and when its next window opens.
- Try the trainer below. Eight scenarios take about 15 minutes and show whether you have the ranking habit.
- Plan regular short sessions. Twenty minutes, three or four times a week, beats one cram the night before.
Why people miss on the SJT
The College does not publish why individuals fall short and the BSQ is not something you should try to game. The SJT is where practice helps. The habits below are ones we see in practice answers; they follow from the College's own instructions:
| Habit | What the College says | The fix |
|---|---|---|
| Ranking the four actions | Rate each action independently; the same rating can be used more than once; you do not have to use the full range. | Judge each action against the situation, not against the other three. |
| Rating as if it were the whole plan | Consider each action as your first response to the scenario. | Ask: "if I did this first, would it help or harm?" |
| Adding facts | Base your ratings solely on the information in the scenario. | Do not assume a person is lying, dangerous or guilty unless the scenario says so. |
| Rewarding toughness | The scale runs from "make the situation worse" to "one of the best actions". | A public telling-off or heavy response often makes things worse. Proportion matters. |
| Rewarding avoidance | "Ineffective" is an action that will not help resolve the situation. | Passing it on, waiting or ignoring it rarely helps as a first response. |
| Picking the longest answer | Nothing in the guidance links length to effectiveness. | Read for what the action does, not how much it says. |
The five points on the scale, in the College's words:
- Counterproductive: an inappropriate action that will have a negative impact or make the situation worse.
- Ineffective: a poor action which will not help to resolve the situation.
- Slightly effective: an action that will have a small positive impact on the situation.
- Effective: a reasonable action that will help to resolve the situation.
- Very effective: one of the best actions that could be taken to resolve the situation.
Free trainer: rate, don't rank
Every scenario below has at least two actions that deserve the same rating, so ranking them costs you accuracy. Rate each action from 1 to 5, check your ratings and read why. At the end you see your average accuracy and how often you ranked instead of rating.
Free trainer: rate, don't rank
Scenario 1 of 8
The parked car on the zigzags
Parents complain that a car is regularly parked on the zigzag lines outside a primary school at home time. The same car was there again today.
Rate each action on its own as your first response. You can give the same rating to more than one action.
A. Note the registration and check whether the owner can be identified.
B. Speak to the driver next time to explain the danger to children.
C. Tell the parents parking enforcement is a council job, not a police one.
D. Ignore it, because nobody has been hurt.
1 Counterproductive, 2 Ineffective, 3 Slightly effective, 4 Effective, 5 Very effective.
Accuracy here is against our model ratings, scored the same way as the site's free SJT practice (exact match full credit, one point off two thirds, two points off one third). It is practice, not a prediction of your sift result.
Fixing the SJT: a practice method
- Read the scenario twice. Note who is at risk, who is upset, what you actually know and what you do not.
- Before reading the actions, decide what a good first response would do. Protect people? Find out facts? Speak to someone directly?
- Rate each action alone. Cover the others with your hand if it helps.
- Use "Effective" (4) for sound but incomplete actions. Many reasonable actions help without being the best possible.
- Review your misses by type. Did you overrate firm actions, or underrate listening? Patterns matter more than single misses.
- Use different scenarios each session. Memorising ratings for scenarios you have seen does not transfer.
Practise by value too: our free pages of courage, respect and empathy and public service scenarios each have two original scenarios with explanations and the free SJT practice has more.
The BSQ: what to do differently (mostly nothing)
The College's guidance describes the BSQ as statements about how you behave, rated on a seven-point scale from "completely disagree" to "completely agree" and, depending on your responses, sometimes a ranking task where you choose which of three statements is most like you, then which of the remaining two. It assesses the six competencies and the three values.
- Answer as you usually are. Guessing what police want can make your answers inconsistent.
- Use the whole scale where it fits. "Somewhat agree" is a real answer.
- Take your time. It is untimed; read each statement fully.
If you want to understand the format, our BSQ explainer and practice pages walk through it. Then put your effort into the SJT.
A three-month plan before your resit
| Weeks | Focus | Practice |
|---|---|---|
| 1 to 2 | Understand the scale | Learn the five definitions; do the rate, don't rank trainer. |
| 3 to 5 | Value by value | Courage, respect and empathy, public service scenarios; note your miss patterns. |
| 6 to 8 | Volume with review | Five to ten new scenarios a week; review every miss by type. |
| 9 to 11 | Full runs | A full set of scenarios in one sitting, untimed but without breaks, to build focus. |
| 12 | Rest and set-up | Light practice; plan a quiet time in your seven-day window. |
When your window opens, do the unscored practice questions first: the College says if you skip them you cannot go back to them. Then aim to do each exercise in one sitting, as the College recommends. The technical problems page covers access codes and time-outs.
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.
Appeals and extenuating circumstances
- No appeal on the result alone. The College is explicit about this.
- Concerns during the assessment should be raised with your force immediately. If they are not resolved, a written appeal with evidence goes to the force you are applying to.
- Only if you did not meet the standard. Appeals are considered further only then, though procedural issues are still investigated.
- Extenuating circumstances are serious events such as illness, accident, injury or the death or serious illness of a family member. Lack of preparation or a heavy workload does not count. If you know beforehand, ask your force for an extension.
- Technical problems go to the sift's technical support (supportservicesintl@talogy.com) and, if they affected your assessment, recruit@college.police.uk.
Other forces, specials and PCSOs
You can apply to a different force after a sift fail, but the College's rules on resit timing and attempts still apply and you can sit the assessments with only one force at a time. Forces can make local decisions on reapplications, so ask the new force how it treats a recent sift attempt.
College pages updated on 5 October 2026 say special constable and PCSO applicants complete a national sift and an in-force interview if their application progresses. If you are considering those roles while you wait, check how your force applies the sift rules to them. Transferring officers are the one group the Police Regulations exempt from the four recruitment stages.
Paid practice for the resit
The free practice on this site is enough to understand the format and spot your habits. If you want more original scenarios, timed mocks, drills by value and progress tracking over the three-month gap, National Sift Prep covers 90 days.
Worked example: reviewing a missed scenario
How to learn from a scenario you got wrong in practice. From the free trainer above, "The group outside the shop": a shopkeeper says teenagers gather every evening and customers feel uneasy; no offences are reported. A candidate rates the four actions like this:
| Action | Candidate | Our rating | The lesson |
|---|---|---|---|
| Talk to the teenagers in a friendly way | 3 | 5 | Engaging without assumptions is a strong first response when no offence is involved. |
| Ask the shopkeeper what made customers uneasy | 4 | 4 | Getting facts is reasonable. |
| Ask the youth service about somewhere else to go | 2 | 4 | Working with partners is reasonable; the candidate ranked it last instead of rating it. |
| Order the group to move on every time you pass | 5 | 2 | With no offence, repeated dispersal is disproportionate. |
The pattern behind the misses: rewarding the firm action and ranking the four instead of rating them. Write the pattern down ("I overrate tough responses when no offence is involved") and look for it in the next ten scenarios.
Keep a miss log
A simple log turns practice into improvement. After each session, note:
| Column | Example entry |
|---|---|
| Scenario theme | Group gathering, no offence |
| Action I misjudged | Repeated dispersal |
| My rating vs model | 5 vs 2 |
| Why I misjudged it | Assumed the residents were right |
| Rule for next time | No offence: engage and find facts first |
After three or four sessions, the same two or three rules usually account for most misses.
If your resit is in four weeks
Sometimes a force window means less time. A compressed version of the plan:
- Week 1: the five scale definitions, the rate, don't rank trainer and a first miss log.
- Week 2: the three value pages and ten scenarios from the free practice.
- Week 3: volume with review; fix your top two rules.
- Week 4: one full set in one sitting, then rest; set-up checklist before the window.
The College's three-month minimum from your completion date still applies, whatever the force's window.
Myths about failing the sift
"You can resit straight away with another force." The three-month and twice-in-12-months rules come from the College and apply across forces.
"Some forces do not use the national sift." Since 17 March 2026 the Police Regulations require constable candidates other than transferees to pass it.
"There is a 50th percentile pass mark." The College does not publish the standard as a percentile or a score.
"The BSQ has right answers." It asks how you usually behave. Answer honestly.
"Give each action a different rating." The College says the same rating can be used more than once.
Who to ask
- Your force recruitment team: its resit rule, the next window and anything about your application.
- Talogy technical support: supportservicesintl@talogy.com, Monday to Friday 9am to 5.30pm, excluding bank holidays.
- The College: recruit@college.police.uk for questions your force and technical support cannot answer. Put your force in the email header.
What we could not verify
- The score or percentile that meets the national standard. Not published.
- Whether the feedback report shows the SJT and BSQ separately. The College describes a combined score.
- How the 12-month period for the two-attempt limit is counted.
- The number of SJT scenarios and BSQ statements. The College does not give counts; the national recruitment site says 15 scenarios and 80 statements.
- Results timing for your force. One force (Devon and Cornwall) says results are instant; others take longer.
Frequently Asked Questions
What happens if you fail the police national sift?
You are told by email that you have not met the national standard and you receive a personalised feedback report with your score. Since 17 March 2026 constable candidates (other than transferees) must pass the sift, so your application cannot progress until you pass a later attempt.
How long before I can resit the national sift?
The College of Policing's national sift guidance says you can resit from three months after the date you completed your assessment. You can attempt it no more than twice in a 12-month period and you must complete both exercises again.
Can I appeal a failed national sift?
Not on the result alone. The College says a written appeal to your force, with evidence, is possible for extenuating circumstances or procedural concerns that affected your performance. If you knew about extenuating circumstances beforehand, you should have asked for an extension instead.
How is the national sift scored?
Automatically by the assessment platform. The College says your SJT and BSQ scores are combined into an overall score, scored against a comparison group of applicants to policing roles and shown as a percentile. It does not publish the score needed to pass.
Do I have to redo the BSQ as well as the SJT?
Yes. The College says you must complete both exercises in the national sift again when you resit.
Why do people fail the national sift?
The College does not publish reasons. In practice, common SJT habits that cost accuracy include ranking the four actions instead of rating each one, rating firm or punitive actions too highly and rating avoidance or 'pass it on' actions too generously.
Can I apply to another force after failing the sift?
You can apply to another force, but the College's resit rule follows you: three months from the date you completed the sift and no more than two attempts in 12 months. The College's pre-employment guidance also says you can sit the assessments with only one force at a time.
Should I answer the BSQ differently next time?
Answer it honestly both times. The BSQ asks how you usually behave, on a seven-point agreement scale and may ask you to rank statements. Trying to guess an ideal profile can produce inconsistent answers. Spend your practice time on the SJT.
Is the national sift timed?
No. Both exercises are untimed. The College suggests about 45 minutes for the SJT and about 20 for the BSQ and you have a seven-day window. Its adjustments guide says the home screen times out after 20 minutes of inactivity and you can pause up to ten times.
What does the free rate, don't rank trainer do?
It gives you eight original scenarios in the sift's format, each with at least two actions that deserve the same rating. You rate each action, see our model ratings and reasons and it counts how often you ranked the actions instead of rating them.
Do special constables and PCSOs sit the national sift?
Yes, according to College pages updated on 5 October 2026: if your application is progressed you complete a national sift and an in-force interview. Ask your force how its resit rules apply to these roles.
Sources and how we checked them
Every factual claim on this page was written from the sources below, read on 21 October 2026. Rules and figures change, so check the source for the date you are reading this. Where we could not confirm something from an official or independent source, the page says so rather than guessing. Spotted something out of date? See our corrections policy.
- College of Policing: National sift candidate guidance (May 2026 PDF; page updated 1 June 2026) : SJT rating scale and independent rating; BSQ scale and ranking; automatic scoring, combined score, percentile; results email and feedback report; resit from three months after completion, twice in 12 months, both exercises; appeals; extenuating circumstances (accessed 21 October 2026)
- College of Policing: Reasonable adjustments and accommodations guide for online assessments candidates (updated 25 August 2026) : sift untimed, no extra time; pause up to ten times in the seven-day window; 20-minute inactivity time-out (accessed 21 October 2026)
- Police (Amendment) (Recruitment Standards) Regulations 2026 (SI 2026/154) : regulation 10(1)(eb): candidates other than transferees must pass the national sift test from 17 March 2026 (accessed 21 October 2026)
- College of Policing: Police constable pre-employment guidance (April 2024) : reapplying three months after rejection unless the force says otherwise; one force at a time; twice in 12 months; force discretion (accessed 21 October 2026)
- College of Policing: Joining as a special constable (updated 5 October 2026) : national sift and in-force interview for specials (accessed 21 October 2026)
- College of Policing: Joining as a PCSO (updated 5 October 2026) : national sift and in-force interview for PCSOs (accessed 21 October 2026)
- Devon and Cornwall Police: Police officer selection process : one force's example: sift results received instantly with a feedback report (accessed 21 October 2026)
On this topic elsewhere
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Disclaimer
PolicePay.co.uk is an independent guide. It is not affiliated with the College of Policing, the Home Office or any police force and it does not recruit, vet or assess applicants. Recruitment standards, assessment formats and vetting decisions are set by the College of Policing and each force and change from time to time: check the force you are applying to before relying on anything here. Details apply to England and Wales unless stated. Details are as checked on 21 October 2026.