How the police national sift SJT works
Each scenario describes a situation and lists four possible actions. You rate every action on its own using a five-point scale: Counterproductive, Ineffective, Slightly effective, Effective or Very effective. The College publishes a definition for each point, and two or more actions in one scenario can share a rating.
The test has 15 scenarios and no clock; the College expects it to take around 45 minutes. It is built around six competencies from the Competency and Values Framework at level 1: we analyse critically, we are innovative and open-minded, we take ownership, we are emotionally aware, we collaborate, and we support and inspire. You do not need any knowledge of policing.
Your SJT result is added to your behavioural styles questionnaire result and compared with other applicants to policing roles as a percentile. You are told whether you met the national standard and get a personalised feedback report. Those who pass go on to eligibility checks and the online assessment centre.
How to rate each action
The College gives five rules for the test. Turned into a routine:
- Use only the information in the scenario. Do not add facts or guess what happened before.
- Rate each action as if it were your first response, not something you would do after other steps.
- Rate each action on its own merits. Do not rank the four against each other.
- Ask two questions: does it make things better or worse, and does it fully deal with the problem? Worse is Counterproductive, no real effect is Ineffective, partly helpful is Slightly effective, and full fixes are Effective or Very effective.
- Use whatever ratings fit. Two actions can both be Very effective, and you do not have to use every point on the scale.
Worked example
You arrive at a minor road collision. Nobody appears badly hurt, but one driver is shouting at the other in the road and traffic is building up.
Separate the drivers, check that nobody is injured, then take details from each in turn: Very effective. It deals with safety, the conflict and the task in one step. Ask the shouting driver to step aside and tell you what happened while the other waits by their car: Effective. It calms things down, but nobody has checked for injuries yet.
Take the calmer driver’s account first, because they seem more reliable: Ineffective. It prejudges the facts and leaves the shouting driver wound up. Tell the drivers to sort it out between themselves and leave: Counterproductive. It walks away from a conflict in a live road.
Tips for the real police SJT
- Read the scale definitions before you start, and keep them in mind. Counterproductive means the action makes things worse, not just that it fails.
- Do not ration the top rating. If two actions both fully deal with the problem, rate them both Very effective.
- Actions that pass the problem to someone else without acting first rarely rate highly.
- There is no clock, so take the time to read every scenario fully. Expect to spend about three minutes on each.
- The practice area is unscored and gives no feedback. If you skip it, you cannot go back to it later.
- You have seven days to complete the sift. Do it on a laptop or desktop if you can, although a tablet or phone is allowed.
Practise the police SJT on CogniPrep
Our National Sift Situational Judgement test is 15 scenarios with four actions each, rated on the College’s five-point scale with the definitions on screen. There is no clock. You must rate all four actions before you can submit a scenario, and you cannot go back. We mark each rating against our model answer: an exact match earns full credit and one point away earns half. That marking is ours, because the College does not publish how it scores the SJT. Your result is shown on its own, not combined with the questionnaire.