Passing the Police Officer Exam: Filling out police forms

One type of question that you will probably encounter on the Police Officer Exam's written examination is the police form question.  Each of the police form questions that appear on the exam will ask you to identify how a specific form should be filled out for a specific situation. These questions are primarily designed to test your ability to follow simple directions, so they are usually relatively easy to answer.  However, there are a number of simple mistakes that people commonly make while they are attempting to answer the police form questions.
 
There are actually two types of police form questions that you may see on the police officer exam.  

The first type of police form question is the form fill-out question.  These questions will present you with a form that has a series of lines marked with numbers and/or letters.  Each form will be accompanied by a passage that describes a scenario in which that type of form should be filled out.  You will then be asked to answer a series of questions related to which information should be placed onto each line in the form and/or how that information should be written on the form.  These questions are the most common type of police form question that you will see on the exam.
 
The second type of police form question is the completed form question.  This type of police form question will actually provide you with a form that is already filled out instead of a blank form.  These questions will not be accompanied by a passage that describes the scenario, but instead will be followed by a series of questions.  Each question will require you to use the information in the form in order to find the correct answer.  These questions are less common than the form fill-out questions, but they do appear on many versions of the exam.  In order to answer all of the police form questions that may appear on the exam, you will need to be able to understand how to fill-out each form and/or how to read each form.
 
Before you begin trying to answer any of the police form questions on the exam, take a minute to get an idea of the type of form that you will be using to answer the questions.  Look at the form that is associated with the question set, identify what the form is used for, how the form is set up, and what information needs to be written on the form (or is already included on the form).  It will be much easier for you to fill-out and/or read the form if you understand why the department uses the form and, more importantly, how the department fills out the form.  If you are having trouble determining what the form is used for, or how the form is used, you should look at the title and then look over the set-up of the form from top to bottom.  Most of the forms that appear on the exam will include a title that makes the purpose of the form very clear, and you will usually be able to figure out how the form works by looking at the way that the form is setup and how the information included in that set-up relates to the purpose of the form.
 
Once you have an idea of how the form is setup and what the form is actually used for, read over the questions that are related to the form (or at least the beginning of each question). This will help you to get an idea of the kinds of information that each question is asking you to identify so you can focus your attention on the appropriate sections of the form instead of wasting time looking over the entire form.  However, it is important to note that you may not need to read an entire question in order to determine what the question is asking.  Most of the police form questions will identify the type of information that the question is asking for in the first several words, so you may be able to find the information that you need without reading the entire question.  A good tip would be to read the beginning of the question instead of the entire question in order to identify the type of information the question is asking for if time is a concern.
 
Never assume anything about the scenarios related to a particular form or anything about the information included on the form that isn't outright stated.  The police form questions on the exam will never require you to draw any conclusions, make any judgments, or do anything else that might be based on an assumption.  Even though the exam's designers may include options that seem to be based off of logical assumptions, the information that you need in order to answer each question will always be included in the scenario or on the form.  No matter how reasonable the assumption may seem, an assumption will almost always lead you to the wrong answer.
 
Never assume that you know the correct answer to a question until you have read all of the options that follow the question.  Some of the questions will have options that are similar to the correct answer, but are incorrect because they are not exactly what the scenario or the form said.  This is especially important for any dates, descriptions, locations, names, and/or times.  In order for you to answer each of these questions correctly, you will have to make sure that you are using the correct information from the scenario or the form.
 
The completed forms and scenarios that accompany the police form questions will typically contain a large amount of information that you will have to search through in order to find the correct answer.  Many of the completed forms and scenarios will contain multiple dates, descriptions, locations, names, and times; the questions related to these forms and scenarios may ask you to identify any specific piece of information that is included in the scenario or on the form.  This makes it very difficult to keep the information straight.  To make sure that you are answering the question that is actually being asked, read the question again after you have chosen an answer.  This is especially important for the following types of information: 

1. similar names (such as Victoria Dales and Vincent Dales),
2. similar times (such as 1011 hours and 1110 hours),
3. similar dates (such as October 5th and October 15^{<small>th</small>}),
4. similar descriptions (such as 5'6' and 6'5'), or
5. any form or scenario that includes any other piece of information that may be confused with another piece of information in the same scenario or on the same form.

 
Forms or scenarios that contain two similar, but different, pieces of information can be extremely confusing because they make it more difficult for you to recognize which piece of information is the appropriate answer for the question being asked.
 
Example
You are instructed to read a passage in order to fill out a complaint report.  The passage includes two sentences that state:'Victoria Dales arrived at Celestial Park at approximately 11:15PM to meet her husband Vincent Dales.  According to her statement, she was attacked from behind by an unidentified assailant and robbed at gunpoint after waiting for Mr. Dales for approximately 30 minutes.'  
 
Question: 'What time should be placed on line 11?' 
After looking at the form, you find that line 11 is looking for the time of the incident.  Options include (A) 11:15PM(B) 11:15AM(C) 11:45PM(D) 11:45AM.  
 
All of these options look very similar and two of these options are actually discussed in the passage.  The correct answer is option C because option A is describing the time that Mrs. Dales arrived at the park and not the time of the incident, option B is the time that Mrs. Dales arrived at the park with AM instead of PM, and option D is the time of the incident with AM instead of PM.  Read each form, option, question, and scenario very carefully in order to choose the correct answer because these questions are designed to present you with information that can be easily confused.
 
In order to answer some of the police form questions that may appear on the exam, pay attention to what's missing as well as what's included.  You may encounter a question in which the answer is not stated on the form or in the passage.  If this is the case, the question will include a 'not included' option such as 'unknown,' 'not known,' 'cannot be determined,' 'unidentified,' 'none,' or any other similar term that makes it clear that the information was not included.  Each of these 'not included' options will be correct if the information is not stated on the form or in the scenario.  However, remember that you should only choose one of the 'not included' options if all of the other options are incorrect.  Treat each of the 'not included' options like a 'none of the above' option and rule out any other possible answers before choosing your answer.
 
If you encounter a question that asks you to identify the time at which something occurred, you should make sure that you know if the form requires the time to be written in military time or standard time.  Most of the forms will require you to use military time, and you may see both standard time and military time options for a particular question.  Make sure that you are not only identifying the correct time, but the correct format for the time as well.  In most cases, the form or scenario will express the times in the format that they should be written in, should be a relatively easy tip to remember. 
 
Example Scenario: 'Victoria Dales arrived at Celestial Park at approximately 2315 hours to meet her husband Vincent Dales.  According to her statement, she was attacked from behind by an unidentified assailant and robbed at gunpoint after waiting for Mr. Dales for approximately 30 minutes.'  
 
Question: 'What time should be placed on line 11?'  
Line 11 is looking for the time of the incident, and your options are (A) 11:15 PM(B) 11:45PM(C) 2315 hours(D) 2345 hours
 
Options B and D are both technically correct, but you can eliminate one option by identifying the correct format to be placed on the form.  Most forms require you to place each time in military time so, for this particular example, let's assume that the form states that all times must be expressed in military time.  If this is the case, the correct time would be 2315 hours + 30 minutes or 2345 hours so option D is correct.
 
It is important to note that there may be exceptions, and certain questions require you to convert military time to standard time (or vice versa).  If a question requires you to convert the time format, the exam will always include instructions on how to make the conversion.  
 
Example scenario from above:
'Victoria Dales arrived at Celestial Park at approximately 11:15PM to meet her husband Vincent Dales.  According to her statement, she was attacked from behind by an unidentified assailant and robbed at gunpoint after waiting for Mr. Dales for approximately 30 minutes.'  
 
This scenario would include the same question, options, and instructions as the example above - except that there would be an additional set of instructions with the form that explained how to convert standard time to military time.  These instructions would be something similar to: 'Military time = PM time + 12 hours for evening times or Military time = AM time for morning times. The exception is anytime from 12:01AM - 12:59AM, which is designated as 0001hours to 0059 hours - instead of 2401 hours.'  
 
Standard time of the incident = 11:45 PM
11:45 + 12 hours = 2345 hours
 
Remember that the exam will always include instructions on how to convert time formats if you need to make the conversion, so you don't need to memorize the conversion instructions.
 
While you are reading each passage or looking over each completed form, pay close attention to who was involved in the situation and what each person did.  There may be many people involved in each situation, and each person that is involved will play their own distinct role.  Each individual's role may be difficult to determine because many words that have similar sounds and/or meanings will be used to describe a different type of action that was taken by the individuals involved in the scenario.
 
Distinguishing between what different people did in a particular situation will help you to identify each individual.  Look for words such as 'aided,' 'administered,' 'attacked,' 'filed,' 'reported,' 'arrested,' 'responded,' 'suspected,' and other similar word that indicate a criminal, police officer, or victim has taken a specific type of action.  Each of these words may sound similar, but each word is used to refer to a different action within the scenario.  
 
Examples:
'Filed' and 'reported' can be used interchangeably in some cases, but on the Police Officer Exam these words will always be used to refer to two distinct actions:·    'Filed' usually refers to the act of creating a written report for a police department, so the 'time of filing' is the time that the written report was filed with the police department and the 'filing officer' is the officer that filled out the report.  ·    'Reported' is used to refer to the act of informing a police department or, in some cases, a law enforcement officer that a crime has taken place so the reportee, the individual reporting, or the reporting officer, is the individual that informed the police department that the crime occurred.  
 
'Reported' and 'responded' look and sound very similar, but they are just like the words in the paragraph above as they refer to two very different actions:·    'Reported,' as we know from the paragraph above, refers to the act of informing law enforcement that a crime has taken place.  ·    'Responded,' on the other hand, refers to the act of investigating a reported crime so the 'responding officer' is the officer that actually went to the scene to investigate the report.  
 
Remember that in order to answer all of the police form questions that may appear on the exam, you will need to look out for words that can be easily confused.  Understand the meaning of each word that the passages and/or the forms use to describe the actions of the individuals within the scenario.
While you are reading each of the passages or looking over each of the completed forms, look for anything that explains how a particular action was performed or anything that explains how the department became aware of a particular piece of information.  Most of the situations in which a police officer would have to investigate involve witnesses, victims, and suspects that may or may not be telling the truth, so you must make it clear which events occurred, how each event occurred, who informed the department that those events occurred, and how reliable is the source of each piece of information.  Indicate which information is confirmed and which information is not confirmed by using words such as 'states' and 'said' to make it clear who provided the information.
 
Example
 'Victoria Dales states that she arrived at Celestial Park at approximately 2315 hours to meet her husband Vincent Dales.  According to her statement, Mrs. Dales was attacked from behind by an unidentified man and robbed at gunpoint after waiting for Mr. Dales for approximately 30 minutes.  Mrs. Dales called 911 at 2355 hours and Officer Steven Jones responded to the call.'  
 
Question:
'What information should be written on line 21?' 
 
Line 21 is looking for the actions that the victim took prior to the robbery.  The four options might include:(A) Mrs. Victoria Dales was attacked from behind by an unidentified assailant and robbed at gunpoint(B) Mrs. Victoria Dales was waiting for her husband in Celestial Park(C) Mrs. Dales states that she was waiting for her husband in Celestial Park for approximately 30 minutes(D) Officer Steven Jones saw an unidentified assailant attack and rob Mrs. Victoria Dales at gunpoint
 
Options A, B and C all appear to be reasonable options while option D is obviously incorrect because you know that Officer Jones was the responding officer so he didn't see the crime take place.  Once you have eliminated option D, look at the wording of the question, the wording of the form, and the wording of each option very carefully in order to determine the correct answer:
After looking at the wording of the form, it is obvious that option A is incorrect because the form wants you to write what the victim was doing prior to the incident and not what occurred during the incident.  
Option B also to be correct and it does, in fact, describe what the victim was doing prior to the crime, but option B is incorrect because it doesn't make it clear that the description is what Mrs. Dales said she was doing prior to the attack.  
As a result, option C is the correct answer because it is the only option that makes it clear that Mrs. Dales stated that she was waiting for her husband.  
 
The wording of the option is extremely important because there is always the possibility that Mrs. Dales could be lying, so you must make it clear that there is the possibility that the statement may be false by using the word 'said' or the word 'states.'