How the Personality Profile works
Every NZ Police applicant sits two online assessments: the ability test and this Personality Profile. The profile has 100 short statements and no time limit, though NZ Police expects it to take about 15 minutes. It is used to build a picture of your likely strengths and weaknesses in personality areas relevant to police work.
NZ Police’s testing provider is Podium, whose own questionnaire is the PQ10: 90 untimed questions measuring ten aspects of personality that group into the Big Five. NZ Police does not name the questionnaire it uses. In Podium’s practice version you rate each statement on a five-point scale from Strongly Disagree to Strongly Agree.
The PQ10 reports each scale as a sten from 1 to 10 between two poles: Conventional to Inquisitive, Pragmatic to Creative, Subdued to Empowered, Reserved to Sociable, Indifferent to Compassionate, Tough-Minded to Diplomatic, Relaxed to Driven, Unstructured to Orderly, Sensitive to Composed, and Apprehensive to Confident. It also checks for over-positive answers (Social Desirability) and for sticking to the middle option (Central Tendency).
How to answer the statements
Keep these rules in mind as you go:
- Answer as you are now, not as you think a police officer should be. NZ Police asks for exactly this.
- Give your first reaction rather than weighing every word.
- Where a statement could apply to different situations, think of your working life.
- Use the whole scale. Strongly agree or disagree when you mean it, because leaning on the middle option is measured too.
- Do not try to look perfect. Over-flattering answers are flagged by the social desirability check.
Tips for the NZ Police Personality Profile
- It falls in the same five-day testing window as the ability test, so plan time for both.
- Do not rehearse answers. NZ Police says the profile is not something you need to prepare for.
- Try Podium’s free personality practice to see the rating scale before the real thing. It gives no results.
- If you need adjustments, raise them with NZ Police before you start. Podium says the inviting organisation arranges them.
Practise the NZ Police Personality Profile on CogniPrep
Our PQ10-style profile has 100 statements, 10 to a page, rated from Strongly disagree to Strongly agree, with no time limit. Ninety cover the ten PQ10 scales, nine each, and ten check for over-flattering answers. You can go back to earlier pages, and every statement must be answered. The result is a profile on the ten two-ended scales, not a score, and it is free.