Sergeant Exam
Revision Plan
There is no official figure for how long to study for the sergeants exam. A sensible plan for most people starts 8 to 12 weeks out, with somewhere around 70 to 85 hours of revision built on practice questions from week one, spaced reviews, mixed topics and at least two full 150-question sittings under time. This guide gives you three timetables, the research they rest on, how to prioritise the Manuals using the College's published question mix, and how to fit it all around shifts.
Independent information, not advice · Sources checked 4 October 2026 · England and Wales unless stated
Plan on 8 to 12 weeks if you can; 4 is workable for a resit or recent study. As a planning figure (not an official one), allow about 6 to 8 hours a week over 12 weeks or 9 to 10 over 8. Test yourself from the start instead of reading first, check every answer against the Blackstone's Manuals, bring each topic back after a gap, mix topics, and sit two or three full 150-question papers in 3 hours. Weight your time towards Crime and General police duties, which carried 60 and 49 of the 140 scored questions in March 2026.
The sergeants exam revision plan at a glance
This page is about how to prepare. For what the exam is, see the sergeant exam explained and the NPPF step 2 exam explained. For broader tactics, read how to pass the sergeants exam. Every exam fact below was checked against the College of Policing's own pages and PDFs on 4 October 2026.
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| The paper | 150 multiple-choice questions in 3 hours; 10 removed after the sitting, so you are scored on 140 (College candidate handbook, 2027 version) |
| Pass mark | 55% for sergeants, 77 of 140; 75% or more is graded exceptional. The debrief panel can change the pass mark in exceptional circumstances |
| Time per question | 72 seconds on average; the March 2026 paper was about 24,606 words, roughly 164 words a question |
| What to study | The Blackstone's Police Manuals: the syllabus is only contained within them (2027 edition for 2027 sittings) |
| How March 2026 was weighted | Crime 60, Evidence and procedure 31, General police duties 49 of 140 scored questions; the College says this does not predict future papers |
| Official study hours | None published. Our plans assume roughly 85 hours over 12 weeks, 70 over 8, 50 over 4 |
| What works best (research) | Practice testing with feedback, spacing reviews out, mixing topics, and full timed sittings; rereading and highlighting rated low utility |
| Free help | College practice questions and revision guide on the Knowledge Hub (login); our free study planner and mini mock |
| Sittings (as at 6 October 2026) | October 2026: Tue 6 to Thu 8 October. Then 16 to 18 March 2027 (registration 18 Jan to 18 Feb) and 5 to 7 October 2027 |
Stop treating practice questions as the test at the end of revision. Use them as the revision. People who read first and test later spend weeks feeling prepared because the text looks familiar, then find out in a mock that they cannot recall it. Testing yourself from week one, and checking every answer against the Manuals, is the most strongly supported technique in the research below.
Sitting the exam (6 to 8 October 2026 for the current sitting)? A calm last-48-hours plan
The October 2026 sergeants' exam runs from Tuesday 6 to Thursday 8 October. The handbook allows you to sit on any day in that period (your force exams officer confirms the arrangements), in a window between 8am and 8pm (you must start before 8pm). This sitting window is 6 to 8 October 2026; once it has passed, the same plan works for any sitting if you count back from your own exam day. In the last two days the most useful thing is not more volume. It is protecting your sleep, fixing a handful of known weak spots and arriving rested and organised. Whatever your practice scores look like, the last two days will not change your knowledge much, but they can change how well you use it.
| When | Study | Admin and wellbeing |
|---|---|---|
| Two days before (Sunday 4 October for a Tuesday 6 October start) | One mixed set of 30 to 40 questions; go through every mistake against the Manuals. Then stop | Write your 'numbers and authorities' sheet from your mistakes: time limits, ages, ranks, who authorises what |
| Day before (Monday 5 October for a Tuesday 6 October start) | Do the familiarisation exercise and system check if you have not. 20 to 30 mixed questions. Skim the error log | Plug-in, ethernet cable if you can, notifications off, a quiet room booked with the household |
| Night before your sitting | Nothing new. Read the numbers sheet once. Sleep | Decide your start time: your sharpest hours, not straight off a night shift |
| Exam day (6, 7 or 8 October 2026 for this sitting) | Checkpoints: question 50 by about 55 minutes, 100 by 1 hour 50, 150 by 2 hours 45 | Flag and move; answer every question; you must start before 8pm |
- Do not start new chapters. Anything you read for the first time now is unlikely to be recalled cleanly under time. Revisit what you half know instead.
- Do not sit a full mock. A three-hour paper the day before costs energy and the score is noise at this point.
- Do the familiarisation exercise. The College emails a link about a week before; it can be accessed only once and is available until 7pm on your exam day. It shows you the platform, the flag button and the countdown clock.
- The October 2026 paper is set on the 2026 Manuals, not the 2027 edition. The College's 2026 handbook names the 2026 edition; if you sit again in 2027, the 2027 handbook names the 2027 edition as the syllabus; see which Blackstone's edition.
- After the exam, do not discuss or post the questions. The College treats copying, photographing or sharing questions as a breach. Results are due within three weeks: by Thursday 29 October 2026 for this sitting, according to the 2026 handbook.
That feeling is common and it is not a forecast. In March 2026, 58.5% of the 3,215 candidates passed and only 1.4% scored below 30%. Sit it as well as you can, answer every question, and treat the subject-area breakdown in your feedback report as the starting point for your next plan if you need one. The next sergeants' sitting is 16 to 18 March 2027, with registration from 18 January to 18 February 2027. Before deciding not to sit, ask your force exams officer about your force's withdrawal and resit rules, because there is no national resit limit but forces may set one.
Exam-day rules, breaks and what to do if the tech fails are in NPPF online exam rules and exam day.
How long to study for the sergeants exam
The honest answer first: the College of Policing does not publish a recommended number of study hours, and we found no data that links hours studied to passing. Anyone quoting "you need 200 hours" is giving an opinion. What we can do is work back from the size of the syllabus (three Manuals), the format (150 questions in 3 hours), and what the research says about spacing, to plans that are realistic for a working officer.
| Timeline | Hours a week | Total | Best for | Trade-off |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 12 weeks | 6 to 8 | About 85 | Starting from scratch; first attempt; heavy or unpredictable shifts | Most spacing, least pressure, room to lose a week to work or illness |
| 8 weeks | 9 to 10 | About 70 | Some prior study, or a steady shift pattern you can plan around | Workable if you protect the hours; little slack |
| 4 weeks | 12 to 15 | About 50 | Resitters and people who studied the Manuals within the last year | Tight from cold; spacing is compressed and one bad week hurts |
Why more weeks beats more hours a week
The spacing research is the reason. In Cepeda and colleagues' 2008 study of more than 1,350 people, the best gap between study sessions got longer as the time to the test got longer. Spread over 12 weeks, a topic can come back three or four times with useful gaps in between. Squeezed into 4 weeks, the same hours give fewer, shorter gaps. Two officers with the same 70 hours are not in the same position if one spread them over 12 weeks and the other over 4.
Working out your own hours
- Count the weeks until your exam date. For March 2027 (16 to 18 March), a 12-week plan starts around 21 December 2026, an 8-week plan around 18 January 2027 and a 4-week plan around 15 February 2027.
- Look at your shift pattern and leave for those weeks and write down the hours you can genuinely protect, not the hours you hope to find.
- Multiply. If the total is well under 50, consider whether a later sitting gives you a better chance.
- Take off 10% for the weeks that go wrong: court, overtime, illness, family.
Our free exam study planner does this arithmetic for you and lays out the weeks along the lines of the timetables below. It is a planning aid only; it does not know your shifts better than you do.
The method, and the evidence behind it
Four techniques do most of the work: test yourself (retrieval practice), space the reviews out, mix topics together (interleaving), and rehearse the real conditions with full timed sittings. The table shows what the research found and what it means for this exam. One caveat in fairness: these studies were done with students and lab materials, not police officers and the Blackstone's Manuals. The principles are among the most replicated in learning research, but no study has tested them on the NPPF exam itself.
| Technique | What the research found | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Retrieval practice (testing yourself) | Roediger and Karpicke (2006): after 2 days and 1 week, students who had tested themselves remembered more than students who reread, even though rereading made them feel more confident. Dunlosky et al. (2013) rated practice testing high utility | Start questions in week 1, not after you have 'finished reading'. Close the book and recall before you check |
| Feedback on multiple choice | Butler and Roediger (2008): feedback after multiple-choice tests increased later correct answers and reduced the wrong options people went on to repeat | Check every answer, right or wrong, against the Manuals. A wrong option you never correct can stick |
| Spacing (distributed practice) | Cepeda et al. (2006), a review of 317 experiments: spacing beats cramming, and the best gap grows the further away the test is. Cepeda et al. (2008): the best gap was about 20 to 40% of a 1-week delay and about 5 to 10% of a 1-year delay | Plan each topic to come back several times: roughly the next day, the next week, and again two to three weeks later |
| Interleaving (mixing topics) | Rohrer and Taylor (2007): mixed practice beat blocked practice on a test a week later. Dunlosky et al. (2013) rated it moderate utility. The studies used maths problems, not law | Once a topic has been learned, practise it in mixed sets. The real paper does not tell you which chapter a question comes from |
| Full timed sittings | No study we found tests NPPF-style mocks directly; this is our reasoning from the timing and word count of the real paper | At least two 150-question sittings under time, to practise pacing and concentration over 3 hours |
| Rereading and highlighting | Dunlosky et al. (2013) rated both low utility. Rereading feels productive because the text becomes familiar | Use them sparingly, for a first pass or to check a point, not as your main method |
| Learning styles | Pashler et al. (2008) found no adequate evidence that matching study to a 'learning style' improves results | Pick methods by what the evidence says works, not by whether you think you are visual or auditory |
A daily session that uses all four
A 60-minute session on a work day might look like this:
- 10 minutes: cold recall. Without looking, write down what you remember of yesterday's chapter: the offence, the points to prove, the powers, any numbers. Then check.
- 20 minutes: new material, questions first. Attempt 10 questions on today's chapter before reading it, then read the chapter actively to find the answers.
- 20 minutes: mixed questions. 15 questions drawn from everything you have covered so far, not just this week.
- 10 minutes: error log. Record each mistake with its type (see the practice scores section) and the page reference.
On rest days, double it and add either a timed 75-question set or, later in the plan, a full sitting.
How spacing works in practice
The research gives a principle, not a timetable, so the gaps below are our application of it. Learn a chapter, then test it the next day, about a week later, and again two to three weeks after that. If you get it right comfortably, stretch the gap. If you get it wrong, shorten it. Flashcard apps that schedule reviews for you do the same thing, and so does the spaced review in our exam prep toolkit (a paid product: hundreds of checked practice questions, a timed 150-question sitting weighted like the real paper, spaced review and progress tracking). It is not a substitute for the Manuals, which are the syllabus.
What to prioritise: the College's published question mix
The College publishes a subject area breakdown after each sitting. For the March 2026 sergeants' paper it lists one row per scored question. We counted the rows: Crime 60, Evidence and procedure 31, General police duties 49, making 140. The document also says how many questions were removed in each area during validation: Crime 6, Evidence and procedure 3, General police duties 1. That means the paper you actually sat had 66, 34 and 50 questions in the three areas.
| Area | Scored | Share of 140 | Removed | On the paper | Most frequent topics |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Crime | 60 | 43% | 6 | 66 | Mens rea and actus reus, theft and related offences, assaults, sexual offences, child protection, criminal damage, drugs, weapons |
| Evidence and procedure | 31 | 22% | 3 | 34 | PACE Code C detention, interviews (Codes C, E, F), release and bail, identification (Code D), exclusion of evidence, disclosure |
| General police duties | 49 | 35% | 1 | 50 | Powers of arrest, stop and search, entry search and seizure, public order, hatred and harassment, road policing, domestic abuse |
| Total | 140 | 100% | 10 | 150 |
The breakdown says it is only useful and valid for the March 2026 exam and should not be used to try to work out what will be tested in future examinations. Use it to split your time roughly, not to skip chapters. Every chapter in the syllabus can be examined, and the College's results report gives your score broken down by subject area, so a weak area is visible afterwards.
Below the area level, these were the topics with four or more scored questions in March 2026. They are a fair guide to which chapters are large and question-rich, not a list of what will come up next time.
| Topic (College 'skill') | Area | Scored questions |
|---|---|---|
| Non-fatal offences against the person | Crime | 6 |
| Theft and related offences | Crime | 6 |
| Child protection | Crime | 5 |
| Criminal damage | Crime | 5 |
| Misuse of drugs | Crime | 5 |
| Sexual offences | Crime | 5 |
| Weapons | Crime | 5 |
| Interviews: PACE Codes C, E and F | Evidence and procedure | 5 |
| Release of person arrested (bail and remands) | Evidence and procedure | 5 |
| Entry, search and seizure | General police duties | 5 |
| Public order offences | General police duties | 5 |
| Detention and treatment: PACE Code C | Evidence and procedure | 4 |
| Exclusion of admissible evidence | Evidence and procedure | 4 |
| Court procedure and witnesses | Evidence and procedure | 4 |
| Hatred and harassment offences | General police duties | 4 |
| Powers of arrest | General police duties | 4 |
How to turn the weighting into a timetable
- Split new-learning time roughly 45 / 20 / 35 across Crime, Evidence and procedure and General police duties, then adjust for your own weaknesses.
- Do not under-revise Evidence and procedure. 31 questions is still more than a fifth of the marks, and PACE material is detailed. If you need a refresher, PACE 1984 for sergeants covers the supervisory angles.
- Do not leave General police duties to last. It had more scored questions than Evidence and procedure and is broad, with many short chapters.
- Weight by weakness as well as size. A chapter worth 5 questions where you score 90% needs less time than a chapter worth 3 where you score 30%.
For the full breakdown and the inspector paper's mix, see what comes up in the sergeants and inspectors exam.
How to read the Manuals efficiently
The College says the syllabus is "only contained within" the Blackstone's Police Manuals and that they are the only resource it endorses. They are not optional, and nothing on this page is a substitute for them. The question is how to use them, because reading three volumes cover to cover, then again, then again, is the slowest route to recall. Officers and staff in England and Wales can get 30% off the Manuals through College Learn.
A five-step chapter routine
- Skim the structure (5 minutes). Headings, offence boxes, the key points. You are building a map, not learning.
- Attempt questions before you read (10 minutes). You will get many wrong. That is the point: it tells your reading what to look for.
- Read actively. For each offence or power, find the points to prove, the defences, who can authorise what, the time limits and any age or value thresholds. Ask yourself why each rule exists; explaining a rule to yourself (elaborative interrogation and self-explanation, rated moderate utility by Dunlosky and colleagues) beats highlighting it.
- Close the book and recall. Write or say the key points from memory. Then open the book and check what you missed.
- Test again later. Fresh questions on the chapter the next day and the next week, mixed in with other topics.
Keep two short lists, not a second Manual
Many candidates spend dozens of hours rewriting the Manuals as notes. Summarising is rated low utility in the Dunlosky review, and it costs time you could spend testing. Two short lists earn their place instead:
- Numbers and authorities. Time limits, review periods, ages, values, and which rank or role authorises what. Learn them in context: the handbook says the exam is not aimed at pure factual recall and will not test recall of information contained solely in the Manuals' tables.
- Your error log. Every question you got wrong, why, and the page. In the final week this becomes your main revision document.
The exam tests the law as it appears in the edition set for your sitting, and later changes are only examined in exceptional circumstances with prior notice. Revising from your force's current practice or from memory of how the law works on the street can lose marks where the two differ. Which edition applies to which sitting is set out in which Blackstone's edition.
The maths of 150 questions in 3 hours
180 minutes for 150 questions is 72 seconds a question. That sounds generous until you add the reading. The College says the March 2026 paper was approximately 24,606 words for all 150 questions, about 164 words a question. As an illustration only: at a steady 200 words a minute, simply reading every word once would take about 2 hours 3 minutes; at 250 words a minute, about 1 hour 38 minutes. Those reading speeds are our assumptions, not measured figures, but the point stands: much of your time goes on reading, so thinking time per question is shorter than 72 seconds suggests.
| Point | Clock | Target | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Start | 0:00 | 150 to go | Settle, read the first question twice if you need to |
| Checkpoint 1 | 0:55 | Question 50 done | If you are behind, flag faster and stop rereading options |
| Checkpoint 2 | 1:50 | Question 100 done | Comfort break here if you need one: the clock keeps running |
| Checkpoint 3 | 2:45 | Question 150 done | Every question has an answer, even the flagged ones |
| Review | 2:45 to 3:00 | Flagged questions | Change an answer only for a clear reason, not a feeling |
What the marks mean
- You need 77 of the 140 scored questions for 55%, the sergeants' pass mark, and 105 for 75%, the exceptional band.
- You do not know which 10 are removed. The College removes the questions that "performed least well". Treat every question as if it counts.
- Answer every question. A blank cannot score. The handbook does not describe negative marking, and we found nothing saying a wrong answer costs marks (see the not verified section).
- The pass mark can move. The debrief panel can change it in exceptional circumstances, so plan for a margin rather than exactly 55%. More in the pass mark explained.
Flagging
The online platform lets you move freely between questions and flag a question to return to. A sensible rule is to flag and move on after about 90 seconds, having put down your best answer first. The exception: if you have scheduled breaks as a reasonable adjustment, the College says you cannot return to flagged questions from an earlier section, so answer everything in a section before moving on. Comfort breaks are allowed but the clock keeps running.
12 week revision timetable (about 85 hours)
For a first attempt from a standing start. Every week also includes daily retrieval of earlier topics: as a rule of thumb, about half your time on new chapters, a third on mixed questions from earlier weeks and the rest on your error log. From week 9 almost all of it is mixed and repair.
| Week | Hours | Focus | What to do |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 6 | Set-up; Crime foundations | Take a cold mixed diagnostic (our free mini mock or 50 mixed questions). Read the College handbook. Crime: mens rea, actus reus, incomplete offences, general defences. Start your error log |
| 2 | 7 | Crime | Theft and related offences, fraud, criminal damage. Daily: 15 to 20 questions on this week's chapters, 10 on week 1 |
| 3 | 7 | Crime | Non-fatal offences, sexual offences, child protection, homicide. Re-test week 1 topics after the gap |
| 4 | 7 | Crime | Misuse of drugs, firearms, weapons, deprivation of liberty, racially or religiously aggravated offences. End of week: 75-question mixed Crime set, timed at 65 seconds a question |
| 5 | 7 | Evidence and procedure | PACE Code C detention and treatment, interviews (Codes C, E and F), release, bail and remands. Keep 20% of time for Crime review |
| 6 | 7 | Evidence and procedure | Code D identification, exclusion of evidence, disclosure, court procedure and witnesses, instituting proceedings. Mixed set across Crime and E and P |
| 7 | 8 | General police duties | Powers of arrest, stop and search, entry search and seizure, public order, hatred and harassment |
| 8 | 8 | General police duties | Road policing and drink driving, domestic abuse, mental health powers, terrorism, licensing, complaints and misconduct, unsatisfactory performance, equality, plus the remaining chapters (land and premises, processions and protests, football, communications, administration of justice, protecting citizens orders). Weekend: full 150-question timed sitting 1 |
| 9 | 8 | Repair | Work through sitting 1 by area and by error type. Re-read only the sections behind your mistakes. Daily 40 mixed questions |
| 10 | 8 | Mixed and spaced | Full timed sitting 2 (fresh questions). Repair. Revisit every topic not touched for three weeks |
| 11 | 7 | Mixed and spaced | Full timed sitting 3, no later than 5 days before the exam. Error log twice through. Numbers and time limits list |
| 12 | 5 | Taper | Short mixed sets only, error log, familiarisation exercise, system check, sleep. See the last-week plan |
For the March 2027 sitting (16 to 18 March), week 1 starts around 21 December 2026, which puts the holiday period in weeks 1 and 2. If that is a write-off for you, start a week or two earlier rather than squeezing the plan. Registration for March 2027 runs 18 January to 18 February 2027 (week 5 to 9 of this plan), and your force may close earlier; the registration checklist covers eligibility and deadlines.
8 week revision timetable (about 70 hours)
For officers with some earlier study, or a stable shift pattern. It covers the same ground faster and fits two full sittings. The 8 week plan has less room for a lost week, so build in one catch-up evening per week from the start.
| Week | Hours | Focus | What to do |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 9 | Set-up; Crime | Cold diagnostic. Crime foundations (mens rea, actus reus, incomplete offences, defences) plus theft, fraud and criminal damage. Error log from day one |
| 2 | 9 | Crime | Assaults, sexual offences, child protection, homicide. Re-test week 1 topics |
| 3 | 9 | Crime | Drugs, firearms, weapons and the remaining Crime chapters. 75-question mixed Crime set at the weekend |
| 4 | 9 | Evidence and procedure | PACE Code C, interviews, release and bail, Code D, exclusion of evidence, disclosure, court and witnesses, instituting proceedings. Daily Crime retrieval |
| 5 | 9 | General police duties | Powers of arrest, stop and search, entry search and seizure, public order, hatred and harassment, domestic abuse |
| 6 | 10 | General police duties; first full sitting | Road policing, terrorism, licensing, mental health powers, complaints and misconduct, remaining chapters. Weekend: full sitting 1 |
| 7 | 10 | Repair and mixed | Repair from sitting 1. Full sitting 2 at least 5 days before the exam. Mixed daily sets |
| 8 | 5 | Taper | Short mixed sets, error log, numbers list, familiarisation exercise and system check |
4 week revision timetable (about 50 hours)
A 4 week plan is a diagnostic-first plan. It assumes you already know a fair amount and need to find and fix the gaps quickly. That makes it a reasonable choice for a resit, where your feedback report shows your scores by subject area, or for someone who studied the Manuals in the last year. Starting from nothing, it is very tight: see if you are behind.
| Week | Hours | Focus | What to do |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 14 | Diagnose, then Crime | Day 1 or 2: a full 150-question timed sitting, even if it goes badly, to find your gaps. Then Crime chapters in order of weakness times weighting. Daily 30 mixed questions |
| 2 | 14 | Evidence and procedure, General police duties | The heaviest-weighted chapters first (see the table above). Daily mixed sets across all three Manuals |
| 3 | 14 | Second sitting and repair | Full sitting 2 early in the week. Repair the weakest area. Mixed sets every day |
| 4 | 7 | Final sitting and taper | Full sitting 3 no later than 5 days out if you can fit it, otherwise a 75-question set. Then taper: error log, short sets, rest |
Use the timed mixed sets to stay honest. If you want a short starting point before committing to a full sitting, our free mini mock gives you a quick read. Its questions are original practice questions, not real exam questions, and a short set tells you less than a full 150-question sitting.
Fitting revision around shifts, rest days and leave
Most revision plans are written for people with the same hours every day. Shift workers need a plan built around the rota, with the hard work on the days you have the most in the tank.
| Day type | Best slot | Best use | Avoid |
|---|---|---|---|
| Early turn | Afternoon: 30 to 45 minutes after a break | Mixed retrieval on topics from previous weeks; error log review | Long new reading when you are flagging |
| Late turn | Morning: 60 to 90 minutes before work | New chapters: questions first, then active reading | Studying after a late finish |
| Night shift | Before the first night only, if at all | 15 to 20 questions or flashcards on your phone | New heavy reading after nights |
| First rest day after nights | Short session late in the day, or none | Light review | A full timed sitting |
| Other rest days | Your main blocks: two sessions of 90 minutes with a long break | New chapters, full sittings, repair work | Six straight hours of reading |
| Annual leave | Spread across the plan: a day or two before each full sitting | Full sittings and repair | Spending all your leave in the last week |
| Court, training or rest day cancelled | Whatever slot is left | The daily 15 questions, so the habit survives | Abandoning the week: move the block, do not delete it |
Practical rules
- Plan by rota, not by calendar week. Put your new learning and full sittings on rest days and late-turn mornings; give earlies and nights the light, mixed work.
- Keep a floor, not a ceiling. Fifteen questions a day, every day, keeps the spacing going even in a terrible week. It takes 15 to 20 minutes.
- Phone time counts if it is retrieval. Questions or flashcards on a refreshment break are useful; reading the Manual on a phone usually is not.
- Use leave for sittings, not cramming. A day of leave before a full sitting gives you a fresh three-hour block and time to review the results.
- Ask about study time. Some forces offer study leave or support for promotion candidates; policies vary and we have not checked them. Your force exams officer or Federation representative will know.
- Tell the people you live with. A rota on the fridge with your study blocks and the exam date avoids a lot of friction.
Tiredness on shifts is real and affects concentration; our guide to shift work and cognitive fatigue covers it in more depth. If revision is tipping into stress you cannot manage, confidential support is in the police mental health support directory.
Using practice scores honestly
Practice scores are the part of revision most likely to mislead you, in both directions. They do not predict your result. Here is why, and what they are good for.
Why a practice score is not a forecast
- Different writers, different difficulty. No commercial or free question bank, ours included, is calibrated against the real paper. A 70% in one bank and a 60% in another may mean the same level of knowledge.
- Repeats inflate scores. Once you have seen a question, you are partly testing your memory of that question. Scores on repeated sets climb even when your understanding has not.
- Topic-blocked sets flatter you. Ten questions on one chapter you just read are easier than the same questions mixed into a 150-question paper.
- The real paper's pass mark can move. In exceptional circumstances the debrief panel can change it.
What to track instead
- First-attempt scores on fresh, mixed, timed questions. This is the closest you will get to exam conditions.
- The trend over weeks, not one result. A single bad sitting after a run of nights tells you about the nights.
- The spread by area. The weakest area is where marks are cheapest to win.
- Why you lost marks. Use the error types below. A score that is low because of timing needs a different fix from one that is low because of knowledge.
| Type | What it looks like | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| Did not know it | The law was not in your head | Re-read that section of the Manual, make one retrieval card, re-test in a few days |
| Half knew it | You recognised it but mixed up a detail (an age, a time limit, who authorises) | Add it to a 'numbers and authorities' list and test that list daily |
| Misread | Missed 'not', 'most', 'must', or a fact in the scenario | Slow down on the stem; underline the question being asked before reading options |
| Fell for a distractor | Picked an option that is true law but does not answer this question | Write why the right answer is right and why your choice was wrong |
| Ran out of time | Guessed or rushed at the end | Practise checkpoints; flag and move after about 90 seconds |
We would want to see first-attempt scores on fresh timed mixed questions sitting about 10 percentage points above 55% for a few weeks before feeling comfortable. That is our judgement, not College guidance, and no score guarantees a pass. If your scores are near 55%, that is not a reason to panic: it is a reason to look hard at which error type is costing you most.
For context only: in March 2026, 12.0% of sergeant candidates scored 75% or more (exceptional), 46.5% passed below that, 40.1% failed with 30% or more, and 1.4% scored under 30%. Progress tracking in our toolkit shows your scores by area over time; it does not predict your result either.
The last week and exam day
The aim of the final week is to arrive rested with your weakest topics patched, not to cover the syllabus again. Taper the volume and keep the retrieval going.
| When | What to do | Why |
|---|---|---|
| 7 to 5 days before | Last full timed sitting (or 75-question set). Mark and log it | Leave enough days to act on what it shows |
| 4 to 3 days before | Repair the two or three weakest topics; mixed sets of 30 to 40 | No new chapters from scratch |
| 2 days before | Error log, numbers and authorities list, 20 to 30 mixed questions. Do the familiarisation exercise and system check | The familiarisation link can be opened only once |
| Day before | Light: 20 questions and a skim of your error log. Prepare the room, cable, charger. Early night | No full mock |
| Exam day | Normal meal, start at your sharpest time, know your three checkpoints, answer every question | You must start before 8pm |
Exam day checklist (from the College's online exams candidate guide)
- Laptop, computer or tablet, not a mobile phone; an up-to-date Chrome, Edge or Safari; landscape screen.
- Plugged into power, ideally on an ethernet cable; avoid a VPN that limits bandwidth; notifications and background apps off.
- System check done and the familiarisation exercise completed (one access only, available until 7pm on exam day).
- Start time chosen: you can start any time from 8am but must start before 8pm. Choose your sharpest hours; do not start straight off a night shift if you can avoid it.
- Know the support route: the College has an exam support page with contact details. If your connection drops, the platform saves responses offline and you may be sent an encrypted file to email to the College.
- No AI tools, no copying or photographing questions, and do not try to pause the timer.
Full detail is in NPPF online exam rules and exam day.
What to do if you are behind
Almost everyone falls behind a plan at some point. The fix is to cut scope deliberately rather than read faster and remember less.
- Recount your real hours. Weeks left times hours you can protect. Write the number down.
- Switch to questions-first everywhere. If you are still reading chapters in full before testing, stop. Questions first, then read only what the questions show you do not know.
- Triage by size and weakness. Use the March 2026 topic list as a guide to which chapters are large. A large chapter you are weak on comes first; a small chapter you know comes last.
- Thin out, do not skip. For smaller chapters, learn the definitions, points to prove and key powers, then rely on questions. Any chapter can be examined.
- Protect two full sittings. If something has to go, cut new reading before you cut a timed sitting.
- Keep the daily floor. Fifteen mixed questions a day, even on the worst days.
- Consider the next sitting. If the honest arithmetic is well under 50 hours from a cold start, a later sitting with a 12 week plan may serve you better. Sergeants' sittings in 2027 are 16 to 18 March and 5 to 7 October; see NPPF exam dates 2027. Check your force's withdrawal rules first.
If you are behind because of the cost of materials, the College's own free practice questions and revision guide are on the Knowledge Hub; see free sergeant and inspector exam resources and, for a fair comparison of the paid options, revision resources compared.
Worked scenarios
Illustrative examples, not real officers, to show how the plans flex. They do not predict any outcome.
Common revision mistakes
- Reading all three Manuals before attempting a question. It feels thorough and delays the feedback you need. Test from week one.
- Highlighting and rereading as the main method. Both were rated low utility in the Dunlosky review. Rereading builds familiarity, which is not the same as recall.
- Only ever doing topic-by-topic sets. The real paper is mixed. Interleave once a topic is learned.
- Repeating the same question bank until the scores look good. You end up testing your memory of those questions.
- Never sitting a full paper under time. Three hours of concentration and 150 decisions is a skill in itself.
- Not checking answers against the Manuals. An explanation in a question bank is helpful, but the Manuals are the syllabus.
- Revising from the wrong edition. Each sitting examines a named edition; the law in an older edition, or on the street, may differ.
- Leaving General police duties to the last fortnight. It carried 49 of the 140 scored questions in March 2026.
- Cramming the night before. Spacing beats cramming in the research, and a tired brain reads more slowly.
- Treating any practice score as a prediction. See the practice scores section.
Related reading: sergeant vs inspector exam differences, and if you are sitting the inspector paper next, the inspector exam revision plan.
Myths about revising for the sergeants exam
Revision plan checklist
- Exam date confirmed and the edition of the Manuals for that sitting in hand (30% off through College Learn).
- Force deadline for registration noted, and step one eligibility confirmed with your line manager.
- Weekly hours counted against your actual rota, with 10% held back for bad weeks.
- Timeline chosen: 12, 8 or 4 weeks, and the plan written into your calendar by rota.
- Knowledge Hub "Candidate Online Examination Guidance" group joined for the College's free practice questions and revision guide.
- Cold diagnostic done in week 1; error log started.
- Time split roughly by the published area mix and your own weaknesses.
- Daily floor of 15 mixed questions agreed with yourself.
- At least two full 150-question timed sittings booked in, the last no later than 5 days before the exam.
- Numbers and authorities list kept up to date.
- Familiarisation exercise and system check done two days before.
- Exam-day start time, room, power and cable sorted.
When you are ready for the next stage, the promotion board, see common promotion board mistakes, and for the whole process, the promotion hub.
Results day: what to do next
Leave your email and we will email you ourselves around results day with what to do next, whether you passed or not: the resit plan and dates if you need them, the next steps if you passed. Also exam dates and rule changes as they happen. No automatic emails.
What we could not verify
- How many hours successful candidates study. We found no College data or credible study on this. Our hour figures are planning assumptions.
- Negative marking. The candidate handbook says 140 questions are scored but does not describe marking per question, and the candidate guide says all questions are equally weighted. We found no statement that wrong answers lose marks; we have not seen a statement ruling it out in those words either.
- Future question mix. Our weighting figures come from the March 2026 sergeants' breakdown only. We have not compared earlier sittings for this page, and the College says the breakdown should not be used to predict future papers.
- How the learning research transfers. The studies we cite used students and lab or classroom materials (prose passages, word lists, facts, maths problems), not police law. The spacing gaps we suggest are our application of the research, not tested figures for this exam.
- Reading speed. The 200 and 250 words a minute in the pacing section are illustrative assumptions; the word count is the College's figure for March 2026 and may differ on other papers.
- Study leave and withdrawal rules. These are set by forces. We have not checked individual force policies.
- How your sitting day is set. Both handbooks say there is flexibility to sit on any day within the exam period and that the College gives forces more information. How each force allocates or lets candidates choose a day is not published; check with your force exams officer.
Frequently Asked Questions
How long should I study for the sergeants exam?
The College of Policing does not publish a recommended number of hours, and we found no reliable data linking study hours to passing. As a planning figure, our timetables below come to roughly 85 hours over 12 weeks, 70 over 8 weeks and 50 over 4 weeks. Starting 12 weeks out is the safest choice if you have not studied the Manuals before, because spacing your revision over a longer period helps you remember it on the day.
How do I revise for the sergeants exam?
Do practice questions from the start rather than reading the Manuals first and testing later. Check every answer against the Manuals, log the mistakes, revisit topics after a gap, mix topics together in your practice sets, and sit at least two full 150-question papers under time. Research reviewed by Dunlosky and colleagues (2013) rated practice testing and spreading study out over time as the two most useful techniques, and rereading and highlighting as low utility.
What should a sergeants exam study plan include?
Weekly hours you can actually protect around your shifts, coverage of all three Manuals in proportion to how they are examined, daily retrieval practice, a planned gap before each topic comes back, at least two full timed sittings and a lighter final week. The March 2026 paper scored 60 Crime, 31 Evidence and procedure and 49 General police duties questions out of 140, which gives a rough guide to how to split your time, though the College says the mix can change.
Which subject area should I revise first?
There is no rule, but starting with Crime makes sense for most people. It carried the most scored questions in March 2026 (60 of 140), and its foundation chapters on mens rea, actus reus and incomplete offences recur in other offences. Do not leave General police duties to the end: it carried 49 scored questions in March 2026, more than Evidence and procedure.
Do I need to read the Blackstone's Manuals cover to cover?
You need to cover the whole syllabus, because the College says the exam content is only contained within the Manuals. You do not need to read them cover to cover several times. A better pattern is to attempt questions on a chapter, read that chapter actively with the questions in mind, close the book and recall the key points, then come back to it with fresh questions days later.
How long do I get per question in the sergeants exam?
150 questions in 3 hours is 72 seconds per question on average. The College says the March 2026 paper was about 24,606 words for the full 150 questions, roughly 164 words per question, so a large share of your time goes on reading. Practise at about 65 seconds a question so that you have around 15 minutes left to return to flagged questions.
Can I flag questions and go back in the online exam?
Yes. The College's online exams candidate guide (updated 5 August 2026) says you can move freely between questions and flag a question to review later. The exception is candidates with scheduled breaks as a reasonable adjustment: they cannot return to flagged questions from an earlier section, so they should answer every question in a section before moving on.
What practice score do I need before the sergeants exam?
No practice score predicts your result. Question banks are written by different people at different difficulty, and scores rise when you repeat questions you have seen. The useful signals are your first-attempt score on fresh, mixed, timed questions, the trend over several weeks, and the gap between your weakest and strongest areas. As a cautious personal rule, we would want a margin of around 10 percentage points over the 55% pass mark on fresh timed questions, and even that is not a guarantee.
Is 4 weeks enough to revise for the sergeants exam?
It can be for someone resitting or who has studied the Manuals recently. Starting cold, 4 weeks means covering three Manuals at around 12 to 15 hours a week, with little time for spacing, which is what makes revision stick. If that is you, read the 'if you are behind' section and think honestly about whether the next sitting would serve you better: the next sergeants exam after October 2026 is 16 to 18 March 2027.
Should I do a full mock exam the day before?
We would not. A full 150-question sitting takes three hours plus marking and review, it is tiring, and a bad score the day before tells you little you can still act on. Do your last full sitting four to seven days before the exam and keep the final two days to short mixed sets and your error log.
When is the next sergeants exam?
The October 2026 sitting runs Tuesday 6 to Thursday 8 October 2026, so it was under way when this page was last updated on 6 October 2026, and its registration closed on 10 September 2026. The next sitting after it is March 2027. The College's 2027 dates are 16 to 18 March 2027 (registration 18 January to 18 February 2027) and 5 to 7 October 2027. Forces often set their own earlier deadlines, so check with your force exams officer. 2027 sittings examine the 2027 edition of the Blackstone's Police Manuals.
Can I use AI to help me revise?
For revision, that is your choice, but check anything it tells you against the Manuals, which are the syllabus; AI tools can state law confidently and wrongly. During the exam itself the College says using artificial intelligence is strictly prohibited, and copying or sharing exam questions is a breach of the rules.
Is there a free sergeants exam study planner?
Yes. Our free study planner at /officers/promotion/exam-study-planner/ turns your exam date and available hours into a week-by-week plan along the lines of the timetables on this page. The College's own free practice questions and a revision technique guide are in the Candidate Online Examination Guidance group on the Knowledge Hub, which needs a login.
Sources and how we checked them
Every factual claim on this page was written from the sources below, read on 4 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: NPPF step two legal examinations candidate handbook (2027 version, updated 10 September 2026) — 150 questions in 3 hours, 140 scored; the 10 removed are those that performed least well; pass marks 55% and 65%, exceptional 75% and 85%, debrief panel discretion; syllabus only contained within the 2027 Manuals; later law changes only with prior notice; results broken down by subject area; Knowledge Hub group with practice questions, exam tips and a revision technique guide; familiarisation exercise advice; exam not aimed at pure factual recall and no questions on information contained solely in tables; AI prohibited; no national resit limit; 2027 dates. The main site blocked our reader, so we read the same page on the College's production mirror (accessed 4 October 2026)
- College of Policing: NPPF step two legal examinations candidate handbook 2026 (PDF, September 2025) — 2026 sittings examine the 2026 edition of the Blackstone's Police Manuals; October 2026 sergeants' exam Tuesday 6 to Thursday 8 October 2026; flexibility to sit on any day in the exam period; results by Thursday 29 October 2026 (accessed 4 October 2026)
- College of Policing: NPPF step two exam hub — October 2026 sergeants' sitting dates (Tuesday 6 to Thursday 8 October); links to the results and subject breakdown PDFs (accessed 4 October 2026)
- College of Policing: Online examinations candidate guide (updated 5 August 2026) — familiarisation exercise emailed about a week before, one access only, available until 7pm on exam day; free navigation and flagging; all questions equally weighted; scheduled-break exception; countdown clock; comfort breaks do not stop the timer; start before 8pm; equipment and connection advice; offline saving if the connection drops (accessed 4 October 2026)
- College of Policing: NPPF sergeants' step-two legal examination, subject area breakdown, March 2026 (PDF) — one row per scored question: we counted 60 Crime, 31 Evidence and procedure and 49 General police duties (140); questions removed: Crime 6, Evidence and procedure 3, General police duties 1; full paper approximately 24,606 words; the College's warning that the breakdown is only valid for March 2026 (accessed 4 October 2026)
- College of Policing: NPPF sergeants' step-two legal examination, results and analysis overview, March 2026 (PDF) — 3,215 candidates, 1,882 successful (58.5%); 387 exceptional (12.0%), 1,495 pass (46.5%), 1,288 fail (40.1%), 45 low band fail below 30% (1.4%) (accessed 4 October 2026)
- Roediger, H. L. and Karpicke, J. D. (2006). Test-enhanced learning: taking memory tests improves long-term retention. Psychological Science, 17(3), 249-255 — the testing effect: on final tests 2 days and 1 week later, prior testing beat restudying, although restudying made students more confident (accessed 4 October 2026)
- Butler, A. C. and Roediger, H. L. (2008). Feedback enhances the positive effects and reduces the negative effects of multiple-choice testing. Memory and Cognition, 36(3), 604-616 — feedback after multiple-choice questions increased later correct answers and reduced the wrong options people later repeated (accessed 4 October 2026)
- Cepeda, N. J., Pashler, H., Vul, E., Wixted, J. T. and Rohrer, D. (2006). Distributed practice in verbal recall tasks: a review and quantitative synthesis. Psychological Bulletin, 132(3), 354-380 — meta-analysis of 839 assessments of distributed practice in 317 experiments; the best gap between study sessions grows as the time to the test grows (accessed 4 October 2026)
- Cepeda, N. J., Vul, E., Rohrer, D., Wixted, J. T. and Pashler, H. (2008). Spacing effects in learning: a temporal ridgeline of optimal retention. Psychological Science, 19(11), 1095-1102 — over 1,350 people; the optimal gap was about 20 to 40% of a 1-week test delay, falling to about 5 to 10% of a 1-year delay (accessed 4 October 2026)
- Rohrer, D. and Taylor, K. (2007). The shuffling of mathematics problems improves learning. Instructional Science, 35(6), 481-498 — mixed (interleaved) practice beat blocked practice on a test 1 week later; the study used maths problems, not law (accessed 4 October 2026)
- Dunlosky, J., Rawson, K. A., Marsh, E. J., Nathan, M. J. and Willingham, D. T. (2013). Improving students' learning with effective learning techniques. Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 14(1), 4-58 — review of 10 techniques: practice testing and distributed practice rated high utility; interleaved practice, elaborative interrogation and self-explanation moderate; summarisation, highlighting, keyword mnemonic, imagery and rereading low (accessed 4 October 2026)
- Pashler, H., McDaniel, M., Rohrer, D. and Bjork, R. (2008). Learning styles: concepts and evidence. Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 9(3), 105-119 — found no adequate evidence that matching teaching to a person's 'learning style' improves results (accessed 4 October 2026)
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Disclaimer
PolicePay.co.uk is an independent guide. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by or produced by the College of Policing or Oxford University Press (Blackstone's). Exam rules, dates, syllabus editions and prices change, so check the College of Policing's current candidate handbook and exam pages before you register or buy. Practice material on this site is original and is not real exam content. Details apply to England and Wales unless stated. Details are as checked on 4 October 2026.