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ACER

Can You Cheat the ACER Police or Fire Entrance Exam?

ACER does not run its entrance exams in a browser. You install its app, a proctor watches your room and your screen through it, and nothing else on the machine is reachable.

Short answer: no.

You sit it inside a downloaded exam application under live human supervision, with a webcam, a microphone and a room scan. There is no second window to open and no second person who can be in the room.

Where it runs
The ACER Test App, downloaded onto your own computer at least three days before the session. Not a browser.
Supervision
ProctorU, through the Guardian Browser, with live webcam and microphone throughout.
What is blocked
Work and school computers, tablets, phones, Chromebooks, Linux, virtual machines, Boot Camp, remote-access tools and Microsoft Edge.
Alternative
Sit it at a venue. Camberwell in Melbourne for Victoria Police, Brisbane for Queensland Police, several Victorian centres for Fire Rescue Victoria.
Appeals
None. ACER and Fire Rescue Victoria state they will not enter into appeals about results.

The exam is not a web page, so there is nothing to open beside it

Almost every shortcut people describe for an online test assumes it runs in a browser tab: another tab, another window, a phone beside the keyboard. ACER's entrance exams do not work that way. You install the ACER Test App onto the computer you are going to use, at least three days before your booked session, and it will not log in until the session starts.

On top of that, remote sittings are supervised by ProctorU through the Guardian Browser. A human invigilator sees your webcam and hears your microphone for the whole exam and sees what is on your screen. ACER explicitly rules out tablets, phones, Chromebooks, virtual machines, Boot Camp and remote-access software, which between them are every technical arrangement a shortcut would need.

The mechanism that actually defeats it
The thing to understand about this exam is that the environment is the anti-cheat, not the questions. You are inside an application you do not control, on a machine that has been checked, watched live by a person whose only job is to watch you. There is no gap in that to put a shortcut into.

There is no single paper, so there are no answers to find

ACER does not run one fixed form. It says so on its own results page for the Fire Rescue Victoria test: "Multiple test forms are used for the WST. Although test developers follow defined parameters, so that test versions are broadly comparable in difficulty, some differences are unavoidable... The analysis of WST results accounts for differences in test difficulty and places all test versions on a single scale."

Two things follow. Someone who sat the exam last month did not sit your paper, so anything they wrote down is worth nothing to you. And because ACER equates the forms afterwards, an easier form is not an easier pass: the scale absorbs the difference. ACER also warns that unscored trial questions may be inserted, with extra time added, so even the question count is not fixed.

The parts most people want to shortcut are the parts a shortcut cannot help with

The abstract reasoning component runs at 45 questions in 20 minutes for Victoria Police, about 27 seconds a question. Even if you could look something up, there is nothing to look up: the answer to a shape sequence is not a fact. The report writing component gives you 35 minutes to write 300 to 350 words with spell check, grammar check, dictionary, cut and paste and all formatting disabled, which removes the tools a copied answer would need. The numeracy component provides its own calculator, so the one thing an outside device would offer is already on screen.

What working on it actually looks like

The honest route is cheap by comparison. ACER sells practice tests for these exams at $25 AUD each or $80 for a set of four, plus Practise Now! books written by the people who build the items. Our ACER practice testsrun the real item counts and clocks, and the abstract reasoning one lets you choose which employer's pace you are practising at, because Victoria Police runs the same construct 2.6 times faster than Fire Rescue Victoria and Queensland Police do.

Do
Install and test the ACER Test App on the exact machine, days before the session.
Practise each component separately and at its own clock, because that is how the exam runs.
Answer every question. ACER states that points are not deducted for a wrong answer.
Use the free navigation within a component: mark something, move on, come back.
If you fail one component, re-sit that one. Your other passes stay valid.
Do not
Do not plan to use a work or school laptop, a tablet or a phone. They are unsupported.
Do not go looking for leaked ACER answers. Multiple parallel forms mean they would not transfer even if they existed.
Do not expect an appeal. ACER and FRV state plainly that they do not enter into appeals about results.
Do not prepare from material written before late 2025 for Victoria Police. The exam was rebuilt that year.

The cost of being caught is the whole application

These are police and fire service entrance examinations. Integrity is not a side condition of the job you are applying for, it is the job, and the exam sits early in a process that later includes background checks and psychological testing. A candidate removed for misconduct at stage three is not removed from a test, they are removed from a career, and there is no appeal.

Frequently asked questions

Can you cheat the Victoria Police entrance exam?

No. The exam runs inside an application you download onto a specific machine days beforehand, and a ProctorU invigilator watches you live through your webcam and microphone while the Guardian Browser locks down the computer. There is no second window to open, no second screen and no second person who can be in the room.

Are ACER test answers available online?

No, and the way ACER builds the exam is why. It runs multiple parallel forms and equates them afterwards, so the paper the person before you sat is not the paper you will sit, and its answers would not transfer. ACER sells its own practice tests and Practise Now! books, which are the only genuine ACER material in circulation.

Can I sit the ACER exam on my work laptop?

Almost certainly not. ACER lists work and school computers as unsupported, alongside tablets, phones, Chromebooks, Linux, virtual machines and remote-access tools. A managed laptop will usually refuse to install the app. Test the actual machine days ahead, because discovering this on the morning costs you the sitting.

Does ACER use AI proctoring?

ACER uses ProctorU, which candidates book through the ACER Portal and which requires the Guardian Browser. That is live supervision with a webcam and microphone rather than a recording reviewed later, so anything unusual is noticed while it is happening.

What if I fail one component?

You re-sit only that component. Victoria Police charges $135 for one, $191 for two and $284 for three or more, and says all pass marks you already hold remain valid. That is the legitimate route back, and it is cheaper and faster than any shortcut.

Practise the ACER assessment instead

Realistic simulations with scored feedback, so you walk in having already done it once. Free to start.

What to do with the time instead

Practise instead

ACER practice tests

The Australian Council for Educational Research, and specifically the tests it runs for employers rather than for schools or universities. ACER delivers the Victoria Police entrance examination, the Queensland Police Service Entrance Assessment (QPSea) and the Fire Rescue Victoria Written Selection Test, each built from the same components: literacy, abstract reasoning, numeracy, mechanical reasoning and a typed report. It also sells ACER Select, the Test of Abstract Reasoning (TAR) and the Mechanical Reasoning Test (MRT-2) off the shelf. If you are sitting GAMSAT, HPAT, ISAT, STAT, HAST or a school scholarship test, those are also ACER but they are education admissions and are not covered here. Australia.

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Queensland Police Service assessment guide

What the Queensland Police Service process involves, stage by stage, and where ACER sits in it.

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