QPSea Practice: Queensland Police Entrance Assessment

Who runs the assessment

ACER states it plainly on the site it operates for the assessment: "The Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) delivers the QPSea on behalf of Queensland Police Service (QPS)." Queensland Police's own recruiting FAQ describes the same arrangement from the employer side, with QPS vouchers covering the assessment and candidates paying ACER directly for re-sits beyond two components. ACER also names Queensland Police entrance testing in its own October 2025 media release about its online testing programme.

What is in it

The QPSea is a 1 hour 45 minute online assessment and, in ACER's own words, "each of the three components is scored and timed separately". That is the most important structural fact about it: it is not one long paper, and a strong component cannot rescue a weak one.

• Literacy skills. 30 questions in 35 minutes. About six texts of different kinds, some including graphs, charts, diagrams and maps. Most questions are multiple choice and some are answered true or false, or yes or no.
• Abstract reasoning. 30 questions in 35 minutes. Three item styles ACER names itself: next in sequence, complete the pattern, and middle of sequence.
• Writing. One task in 35 minutes. A typed response with spell check, grammar check, dictionary, cut and paste and formatting disabled.

The writing task, which we do not simulate

The QPSea's third component is a 35-minute typed response. ACER runs the equivalent component at Victoria Police to a published expectation of approximately 300 to 350 words with an onscreen word count, rated on selecting relevant information, writing clearly, objectively and in a logical order, forming paragraphs, creating complex sentences, and spelling and grammar.

We do not offer a practice version, because a written response cannot be scored the way our practice tests are scored and a word-count proxy would hand you a number that means nothing. Practise it directly: a 35-minute timer, a set of source documents, the spell checker off, and around 320 words.

How it is marked and what happens next

Outcomes are reported per component as "Standard met" or "Standard not met" rather than as a percentile. Points are not deducted for incorrect answers, so a blank is the only answer that cannot score, and you can move backwards and forwards within a component, so the right play is to mark something against everything and return to the hard ones. Results are valid for three years.

Most applicants sit it sponsored by QPS at no cost; unsponsored candidates pay ACER, which publishes a fee of $279. Beyond the two component re-sits QPS covers, further re-sits are at your own cost.

Sitting it

The assessment runs in the ACER Test App, downloaded onto the computer you will use at least three days beforehand and not loggable-into before the scheduled session, with ProctorU supervision through the Guardian Browser for remote sittings. Tablets, phones, Chromebooks, work and school computers, virtual machines and Microsoft Edge are unsupported. There is a Brisbane venue option five times a year. ACER does not accept bookings from members of the public: the invitation comes through QPS recruiting.

Practise the components

• ACER Literacy Skills (30 questions · 35 minutes · free) - Six texts including tables, charts, maps and procedures, 30 questions in 35 minutes. The QPSea runs this component at exactly this length.
• ACER Abstract Reasoning (TAR) (45 questions · 20 or 35 minutes · free) - Choose the Fire Rescue Victoria and Queensland Police preset: 30 questions in 35 minutes, about 70 seconds each. Do not practise this at the Victoria Police pace unless that is also an application you have open.

Also available under the same publisher, though not part of the QPSea:

• ACER Numeracy (30 questions · 35 minutes) - Not part of the QPSea. Queensland Police runs three components, not four. Useful conditioning if you are also applying to Victoria Police or Fire Rescue Victoria.
• ACER Select Verbal (34 questions · 15 minutes) - Not part of the QPSea, but the same publisher’s verbal reasoning at a faster pace. Useful conditioning for the literacy component.
• ACER Mechanical Reasoning (MRT-2) (32 questions · 20 minutes) - Not part of the QPSea. Fire Rescue Victoria includes it; Queensland Police does not.

Full detail on how ACER builds and marks these components is on the ACER provider page, with tactics at ACER entrance exam tips.