La Crosse Police Written Exam (NPOST)
Preparation guide for the La Crosse Police Department written exam, Stanard's National Police Officer Selection Test
National Police Officer Selection Test tasks La Crosse Police Department uses
Police officer written exam: 75 questions in 1 hour 15 minutes.
- Arithmetic
- Reading comprehension
- Grammar
- Incident report writing: Written answers, marked by a person
Source: City of La Crosse Police Officer Selection Test page, checked 2026.
Which test La Crosse uses
The La Crosse Police Department in Wisconsin does not write its own officer exam. Its recruiting pages say: "The National Police Officer Selection Test (POST) written exam is one step in the hiring process for the position of Police Officer with the La Crosse Police Department." The test comes from Stanard & Associates and is sold to police departments and sheriff's offices across the US, so the format below is the same one other agencies use.
Do not confuse it with California's POST test. California's commission is also called POST and its written exam is the PELLETB, a different test with no maths section. Material written for the PELLETB will not prepare you for La Crosse.
What is on it
The city gives 75 questions over four sections, set in a law enforcement context but needing no knowledge of police work:
| Section | What you do |
|---|---|
| Arithmetic | Word problems set in police work, worked without a calculator |
| Reading comprehension | Answer questions from short passages and report forms |
| Grammar | Choose the right word for a sentence and spot misspellings |
| Incident report writing | Write answers out in full sentences, marked by a person |
You have 1 hour 15 minutes for the test itself, and the city tells you to allow 1 hour 45 minutes for the whole session, so expect instructions and paperwork either side of the clock. The NPOST guide has the question count and time for each section.
The pass mark
La Crosse does not publish a pass mark for the written exam, and it is set by the department rather than by Stanard. For comparison, Iowa's state rule asks for at least 70 percent on each of the four sections, but that is Iowa's line, not La Crosse's. Answer every question, because nothing is taken off for a wrong answer, and do not let one section fall behind the others.
Study material
The city points candidates to two paid products from Stanard's recruitment site: the POST study guide at $7.50 and a practice exam at $17.50. The practice exam is a timed, full-length test whose questions do not overlap with the real one, and it shows you feedback on the items you got wrong. Both are worth having alongside the practice below.
Practise the NPOST
Each of these follows the real section: the same number of questions, the same clock, five answer options in mathematics and no penalty for a wrong answer.
- Full POST (Sections I to III) (65 questions · 60 minutes) - Sections I to III back to back, each on its own clock, so you feel the length of the sitting before your La Crosse date.
- POST Mathematics (20 questions · 20 minutes · free) - Arithmetic word problems set in police work, worked by hand. Start here: it is free.
- POST Reading Comprehension (25 questions · 25 minutes) - Short made-up rules and incident reports, answered from the passage alone.
- POST Grammar and Spelling (20 questions · 15 minutes) - Choose the word that completes a sentence, then pick out the misspelled word.
For how the sections are scored and how other agencies set their lines, see the NPOST provider page and the Iowa guide.