Briefing Exercise
Simulator
Practise the OAC briefing exercise the way it runs on the day: untimed preparation material, then 12 questions in three parts, each with up to 60 seconds to think and three minutes to answer. One community scenario is free, with a marking checklist for every question.
Independent information, not advice · Sources checked 21 October 2026 · England and Wales unless stated
Run a full scenario against the clock: read the preparation material (about 10 minutes), then answer four questions aloud with up to 60 seconds to think and three minutes each, take in new information and answer four more, twice. Review each answer for public service, emotional awareness, ownership and openness to new ideas. The simulator below does this free.
For police constable candidates in England and Wales preparing for the College of Policing online assessment process. The scenarios are original PolicePay practice material written to the College's published format. They are not College scenarios and the marking checklist is ours, not the College's.
The briefing exercise simulator
Choose a scenario and start. You can switch on recording (it stays in your browser) or tick the option to type your answers. When you finish all 12 questions, the review shows each question with your recording or text and a checklist of what a strong answer would show.
Riverside Park and the new skate area
FreeYou are a police constable on the neighbourhood team for Riverside, a mixed residential area in the fictional town of Harbridge. Your sergeant has asked you to take the lead on the issues below and to answer questions about how you would deal with them.
12 questions in three parts. About 10 minutes to prepare, then about 50 minutes.
Two more scenarios
A market moving to a car park and a new estate losing its evening bus. Each has 12 questions in three parts, with AI feedback on typed answers.
Checking your access...Plan for about an hour, as on the day. If you only have 20 minutes, read the preparation material and answer part one, then come back for the full run another time.
The real briefing exercise format
The College's online assessment candidate guide (updated 21 July 2026) describes the exercise in four stages:
| Stage | What happens | Time |
|---|---|---|
| Preparation | Read the initial information and think about part one. You can make notes. Not assessed. | Untimed; about 10 minutes suggested |
| Part one | Four questions. A recorded assessor reads each question, which also appears on screen with prompts. | Up to 60 seconds to think, then 3 minutes to answer, per question |
| Part two | New information about the scenario, then four more questions. | Same timings |
| Part three | More new information, then the final four questions. | Same timings |
The whole exercise takes about 60 minutes. The College notes that the remaining time, beyond 12 answers of up to four minutes each, goes on watching the video questions and moving through the platform. You take the role of a police constable who has responsibility for dealing with the issues. You are asked to use only the information provided and not to add anything and to prepare alone without other materials.
On the Tazio platform you first set up your camera and microphone, take an identification photo and record a practice answer with one minute to speak. You can skip the thinking time on any question and you can submit an answer before the three minutes are up. If you use all three minutes, the recording stops on its own.
How the simulator mirrors the real thing
- Practice question first. A one-minute practice answer, not scored, so you can check your microphone and get used to the countdown.
- Preparation material. Four short items: an email from your sergeant, a summary of contacts, a note from a partner and something from the community. Take as long as you need and make notes in the box.
- Twelve timed questions. Each shows on-screen prompts, a 60-second thinking countdown you can skip and a three-minute answer countdown with three suggested bands.
- New information. Before parts two and three you get an update that changes the picture, as the College describes.
- Review. Every answer with your recording or text, a checklist of three points a strong answer covers and a practice score for the whole scenario.
What it does not do: it does not show a video assessor and it does not mark you the way a trained College assessor would. Your practice score is the share of the checklist you tick after an honest listen.
What the briefing exercise assesses, in plain English
The College lists four CVF areas for the briefing exercise. Here is what each tends to look like in a three-minute answer. The descriptions are our paraphrase of the 2024 framework at level 1.
| Area | What it means | How it shows in a briefing answer |
|---|---|---|
| Public service | Working in the public interest and building trust and confidence. | Thinking about everyone affected, including people who are not complaining; being honest about what the police can and cannot do; following up so people see a result. |
| We are emotionally aware | Understanding your own and other people's emotions and responding to them. | Acknowledging anger or fear before explaining; adapting how you speak to an upset resident, a young person or a colleague; staying calm when criticised. |
| We take ownership | Taking personal responsibility for your actions and decisions. | Saying what you would do first and why; telling your sergeant; committing to an update and keeping to it; not passing the problem on. |
| We are innovative and open-minded | Being open to new ideas, learning and adapting. | Welcoming ideas from partners or the community; trying something on a small scale; checking whether it worked; reflecting on what you would do differently. |
Courage, respect and empathy are not in the College's list for this exercise, although treating people fairly will come through naturally in a good answer. For which areas each exercise covers, see OAC competencies by exercise.
Using the preparation stage well
The preparation stage is not timed and not assessed, but it shapes all 12 answers. The College suggests about 10 minutes. A routine that works:
- Read everything once for the story. Who is involved, what has happened, what is being asked of you.
- List the people affected. Usually more groups than the complaint mentions: in the free scenario, residents, young people, parents, the council and the people posting online.
- Separate safety from nuisance. A threat to "sort out" young people is a different order of issue from litter.
- Note the partners. Who could help: council officers, schools, youth workers, community groups.
- Note what is missing. You must not invent facts, but you can say what you would find out.
- Draft first steps for part one. A few words each, not sentences.
Keep notes short. You will glance at them in 60-second thinking windows and a page of prose is no use at that speed.
A simple structure for a three-minute briefing answer
Three minutes is enough for a clear answer to one question, not a speech about everything. This is our suggested shape, shown as bands on the simulator's timer:
| Time | Say |
|---|---|
| 0:00 to 0:40 | Your first step and why: answer the question directly. |
| 0:40 to 2:10 | How you would do it and with whom: the people you would speak to, how you would speak to them, what you would want to achieve. |
| 2:10 to 3:00 | Risks and follow-up: what could go wrong, how you would keep people informed and how you would know it had worked. |
Use the prompts on screen. The College encourages you to use them to structure your answer and they usually point at what the question is really about.
A worked answer to a part one question
Question (free scenario, part one): "How would you respond to the social media post?" The post says the police do nothing and that "some of us will" sort out the young people and comments name individual young people. Below is an illustrative answer at a natural speaking pace. It is not a script to learn.
"My first concern is the safety of the young people named in the comments. The post talks about residents taking matters into their own hands, so I would treat it as a risk, not just as criticism of the police. I would tell my sergeant straight away and follow our force's guidance on social media, rather than replying informally from my own account.
"I would want to know whether any of the named young people are at risk, so I would check our systems and, with my sergeant's agreement, make sure their families are aware. I would also look at whether the comments need to be reported to the platform to be taken down.
"At the same time, the post tells me residents feel unheard. I would ask the team's community engagement lead about posting a short, calm message: that we know about the concerns at Riverside Park, that we are working with the council and the young people and that there is a meeting next week where people can talk to us. That gives people somewhere to put their frustration other than the comments.
"Before the meeting I would contact the person who wrote the post, if they can be identified, to listen to their concerns directly and invite them along. I would follow up after the meeting so they can see something is happening. If it worked, I would expect the tone online to calm and the threats to stop and I would keep checking the page with the team."
Why it works against the checklist: it treats the threat as a safety risk (ownership), tells the sergeant and follows guidance rather than acting alone (ownership), recognises the frustration behind the post (emotional awareness) and offers a constructive outlet and follow-up (public service). It uses only the information in the scenario: it does not invent an offence, a name or a history.
A worked answer to a part three question
Question (free scenario, part three): "The figures show calls have fallen. How would you judge whether the problem is really getting better?" By part three, noise calls have dropped from seven to two over four weeks, a clean-up day has gone ahead and one resident has complained to a councillor. An illustrative answer:
"Fewer calls is encouraging, but I would not rely on that number on its own. People sometimes stop calling because they have given up, not because things are better and two calls is still two households affected.
"So I would ask people directly. I would knock on doors on Mill Lane, including the resident who wrote to the councillor and ask how evenings feel now compared with a month ago. I would also speak to the young people at the skate area and the parent whose daughter felt unsafe, because getting better has to mean better for them too.
"I would check with the parks officer about litter and damage, since that is something they record and ask the councillor what they are hearing. If the different sources agree, I would be more confident. If they do not, that tells me where to look next.
"I would share what I found at the next residents' meeting and agree a date to check again, so people can see we are not just relying on one figure."
Against the checklist: it questions what the figure might hide (open-mindedness), asks residents and young people directly (public service), uses more than one source and sets a follow-up (ownership). It stays inside the scenario: every source it mentions is one the material introduced.
Twelve answers in a row: managing your energy
The briefing exercise is the longest spoken exercise: about an hour, with up to 36 minutes of answering. Most people find the last few questions harder than the first, simply from fatigue. Practical ways to manage it:
- Use the thinking time to reset. Take one slow breath before you plan. Sixty seconds is enough for a breath and three key words.
- Do not try to fill every three minutes. A complete two-minute answer saves energy for later questions.
- Re-read your preparation notes before part two and part three. New information is easier to fit into a picture you have refreshed.
- Keep water nearby. Twelve answers is a lot of talking.
- Take breaks between exercises, not during. The College's adjustments guide says you can take breaks between exercises, but once started an exercise must be completed in its time.
- Practise the whole thing at least once. Stamina is a skill. Running all 12 questions in the simulator before the day shows you where your energy dips.
Practising with a friend or family member
Someone listening can catch things you miss. Give them the checklist from the simulator's review, not the scenario text, so they judge what you actually say. Ask them to note two things per answer: whether you answered the question asked and whether you said how you would follow up. Swap roles if they are applying too, using a scenario they have not seen.
Do not rehearse the same scenario until you can recite it. The real scenario will be different and the College treats prepared notes or scripts as grounds for automatic failure. The aim is a habit of structure, not a set of words.
Handling the new information in parts two and three
Parts two and three change the scenario. The College says you will be given new information to consider before each part. In practice scenarios the updates tend to do three things and good answers respond to each:
- Raise the stakes. A complaint escalates, a meeting goes badly or a vulnerable person appears. Re-prioritise out loud: "this changes my first step".
- Bring criticism. Someone says the police have taken sides or turned up too late. Acknowledge the feeling, explain your role calmly and invite them in.
- Offer an opportunity. A partner offers help or an idea. Welcome it, think through how it would work and how you would know it had helped.
Do not throw away what you said in part one. The strongest part three answers show the thread: what you started, what changed and how you are adapting. That is open-mindedness and ownership in one.
How the marking checklist works
Each question in the simulator has three things a strong answer would show. After the scenario you tick the ones your answer clearly showed. For example, for "How would you approach the young people who use the skate area?" the checklist is:
- Engages them at the park in a relaxed way, not as suspects.
- Listens to their side, including the loss of the youth club and their own safety concerns.
- Looks for a shared solution they would sign up to, such as an agreed finish time.
The checklists are our marking notes, written in 2024 CVF language at level 1. They are not the College's criteria, which are not published and there is no pass mark here or in the real exercise. Ticking honestly is the point: an answer that "sort of" covered something usually means the assessor would have had to guess.
Listen to two answers back to back: your best and your worst. Note one thing the best one did that the worst did not. That is usually the most useful thing to practise next.
Interview and assessment centre updates
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Speaking or typing your answers
The real exercise is spoken: you answer on camera and the recording is assessed. Speaking aloud is the skill to practise, including pace, signposting ("my first step would be") and finishing before the time runs out.
The simulator lets you type instead, because sometimes you cannot speak aloud. Typed practice is useful for:
- planning the content of answers when you are short of time or somewhere public;
- getting AI feedback on your answer with the pass, since the review works on text;
- seeing whether you answered the question asked before you work on delivery.
Aim for at least one fully spoken scenario before the day. If you record, the audio stays in your browser and is gone when you close the page.
If you have an extra time adjustment, your thinking time is longer: the College's reasonable adjustments guide lists 69 seconds with 15% extra time, rising to 90 seconds with 50%. The three-minute answer time does not change. The simulator uses the standard 60 seconds.
What the 90-day pass and the toolkit add
The free scenario is complete and has no time limit on how often you use it. The 90-day Mock Interview Pass (£39.99) and the 6-month OAC and interview toolkit (£69.99) add:
- two more full briefing scenarios: a market moving to a car park and a new estate losing its evening bus;
- AI feedback on any typed answer, in 2024 CVF language, with a practice score out of 10 and the single most useful change;
- the full timed OAC mock: the interview, written and briefing exercises of two papers;
- unlimited scored answers in the mock interview and full feedback in the written exercise trainer.
The 30-day pass does not include the extra scenarios or the full mock. Every purchase has a full refund within 14 days, no reason needed. The offer inside the simulator shows the price you would actually pay, including any credit for a pass you already hold.
Common mistakes in the briefing exercise
- Answering a different question. Three minutes on everything you would do in the scenario, when the question asked about one group or one step.
- Taking sides. Treating the people who complain as right and everyone else as the problem. Most scenarios reward balancing different groups' needs.
- Inventing facts. Adding an offence, a history or a name that the material does not give. Say what you would find out instead.
- Promising what the police cannot deliver. New lighting, a bus route or a council budget. Say who you would raise it with.
- No follow-up. Ending with the first action. Ownership and public service show in keeping people informed and checking what worked.
- Ignoring the update. Answering part two as if nothing had changed.
- Running out of time mid-sentence. Watch the clock and leave the last 20 to 30 seconds for follow-up.
- Reading notes written in advance. The College treats prepared notes as grounds for automatic failure.
Myths about the briefing exercise
"It tests police procedure." The College says you do not need to know law or procedure and asks you to use only the information given.
"It is a crime scene exercise." The College's guidance points to the issues raised and how the police can build positive relationships. Practise community scenarios.
"The preparation time is timed." It is not timed and not assessed. About 10 minutes is the College's suggestion.
"You get extra time to answer with an adjustment." Extra time adds to thinking time; answers stay at three minutes.
"It is a role-play." There is no role-play in the current process. You answer recorded questions on camera.
Who to ask
- Your force: your assessment window, reasonable adjustments and results timing.
- Tazio technical support: the button at the bottom of the platform, 8am to 6pm Monday to Friday. Do not finish an exercise while you have a technical problem.
- The College: recruit@college.police.uk if a technical issue affected your assessment.
- This simulator: andrew@policepay.co.uk if something in a scenario does not work or looks wrong.
What we could not verify
- The real scenarios. The College does not publish them, so we cannot say how closely ours resemble them beyond following the published format and guidance.
- How assessors weigh the four areas, or how many questions target each. Nothing is published.
- Whether the preparation material stays visible during the questions. The guidance does not say; the simulator keeps your own notes visible.
- How many prompts appear under each real question. The College says there are prompts and you may need to scroll; ours show two or three.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the police briefing exercise?
One of the three exercises in the College of Policing online assessment process. You take the role of a police constable dealing with issues in a developing scenario, read some preparation material, then answer 12 questions aloud on camera in three parts of four. Parts two and three bring new information.
How long is the briefing exercise?
About 60 minutes. The College suggests about 10 minutes to read the preparation material, which is not timed or assessed, then about 50 minutes for the 12 questions. Each question gives up to 60 seconds of thinking time and then three minutes to answer.
Is there a free police briefing exercise simulator?
Yes. The simulator on this page runs one full community scenario free, with the real timings, optional recording that stays on your device and a marking checklist for every question. It is unofficial practice material written to the College's published format, not College content.
What does the briefing exercise assess?
The College lists four areas: public service, we are emotionally aware, we take ownership and we are innovative and open-minded. They are assessed at level 1 of the 2024 Competency and Values Framework, the level for people starting out in policing.
Are briefing exercise scenarios about crime?
The College does not publish its scenarios. Its guide asks you to consider the issues raised and how the police can build positive relationships, so practising community scenarios is sensible. You do not need knowledge of law or police procedure.
Can I make notes in the briefing exercise?
Yes, during the preparation stage and after you receive each question. You cannot use notes or scripts prepared before the assessment: the College says evidence of these may result in an automatic failure. Destroy your notes afterwards.
What happens if I run out of time on a briefing question?
The recording stops automatically when the three minutes are up and you move on. You can also submit an answer early. Use the last 20 to 30 seconds to say how you would follow up, so an answer is not cut off mid-thought.
Can I answer the briefing exercise by typing in the simulator?
Yes. The real exercise is spoken, so speaking is better practice, but the simulator lets you type answers if you cannot speak aloud where you are. Typed answers also work with the AI feedback in the 90-day pass and the toolkit.
How is the briefing exercise different from the interview?
The interview asks about your own experiences, in the past or how you would act in future. The briefing exercise gives you a scenario and asks what you would do in it, using only the information provided, over 12 shorter answers of up to three minutes.
Does the simulator give AI feedback?
The free scenario gives you a marking checklist and the points a strong answer covers. AI feedback on typed answers, in 2024 CVF language, plus two more scenarios, comes with the 90-day Mock Interview Pass (£39.99) or the 6-month toolkit (£69.99).
Does extra time change the briefing exercise?
With an approved extra time adjustment the thinking time per question rises (for example to 69 seconds with 15% or 90 seconds with 50%) while each answer stays at three minutes. The College's reasonable adjustments guide sets out the timings.
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: Online assessment process candidate guide (updated 21 July 2026) : briefing exercise role, preparation, three parts of four questions, 60 + 180 second timings, assessed areas, positive relationships, notes rules (accessed 21 October 2026)
- College of Policing: Sift and online assessment process (Tazio walkthrough) : practice question, skip thinking time, recording stops at three minutes, 100% dashboard and confirmation email (accessed 21 October 2026)
- College of Policing: Reasonable adjustments and accommodations guide for online assessments candidates (updated 25 August 2026) : briefing thinking time with 15% to 50% extra time; blur your own video; breaks between exercises only (accessed 21 October 2026)
- College of Policing: Competency and values framework : the 2024 values and competencies; level 1 behaviours (accessed 21 October 2026)
- Police (Amendment) (Recruitment Standards) Regulations 2026 (SI 2026/154) : the online assessment process is a legal stage for constable candidates from 17 March 2026 (accessed 21 October 2026)
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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.