How the behavioural scenarios test works
The prison officer online test, which HMPPS calls the Scenario-Based Test, checks the behaviours expected of a prison officer and basic numeracy. The behavioural part comes first: up to 20 minutes for 16 scenarios, about 75 seconds each. The whole test takes around 25 to 40 minutes.
Each scenario describes something that happens on a wing or in the wider prison and gives four possible responses. You mark one as the most effective and one as the least effective. The behaviours behind the answers are communicating and influencing, managing a quality service, making effective decisions, and caring.
You are told whether you passed after you finish both parts. If you pass, the next stage is a values-based assessment of up to 20 minutes. If you are unsuccessful, HMPPS has asked candidates to wait six months before applying again.
How to choose most and least effective
Judge each response against what a prison officer is there to do:
- First rule out anything unsafe or against the rules: breaking security, making private deals with prisoners, ignoring a risk. That is usually your least effective.
- Then look for the response that deals with the problem now, stays within the rules and keeps the prisoner informed. That is usually your most effective.
- Firm but fair beats both extremes. Dismissing a prisoner and giving in to a prisoner both rate badly.
- Prefer acting yourself where it is in your remit, and passing it on properly where it is not. Doing nothing and hoping it goes away is rarely right.
- Pick the least effective with as much care as the most. They are worth the same.
Worked example
A prisoner asks you to post a birthday card to his daughter today, because he has missed the wing post. A. Tell him you cannot post it yourself, and explain when the next collection is and how to send it through the proper route. B. Post it on your way home; it is only a card. C. Tell him it is his own fault for missing the post. D. Take the card and say you will see what you can do.
Most effective: A. It is honest, keeps to the rules and still helps him get the card sent. Least effective: B. Carrying items out for a prisoner breaks professional boundaries and bypasses the checks on prison mail, however harmless it seems. C is unhelpful and likely to cause friction, and D raises his hopes without a plan, but neither is as serious as B.
Tips for the real behavioural test
- Keep to about 75 seconds a scenario. Read the situation once, then the four responses.
- Safety, security and boundaries come first. A kind response that breaks a rule is rarely most effective.
- Treat prisoners with respect and explain your decisions. Caring is one of the four behaviours being assessed.
- Take the free practice test on the HMPPS site first. HMPPS says it does not see your practice results.
- Sit the test somewhere quiet with time to finish both parts in one go.
Practise the prison officer behavioural test on CogniPrep
Our Behavioural Scenarios test is 16 prison scenarios on a 20-minute clock. For each one you pick the most effective response, then the least effective; tapping a third time clears both picks so you can start again. There is no back button and no skip. You earn one mark for each correct pick, two per scenario, and get a percentage and a percentile against other CogniPrep users. That marking is our own, because HMPPS does not publish how it scores this part.