Passing the Police Officer Exam: Type identification questions

This type of question will ask you to identify the category that a specific situation, individual, or piece of information can be placed into based on the information provided.  These questions often cause undue stress for a large number of exam-takers as this type of reading comprehension question is not typically seen on other exams.  These questions are usually much easier to answer than they might appear at first glance because answering these questions is simply a matter of reading and applying the information in the passage.  There are some key details about these questions and some techniques that you may want to remember in order to make these questions much easier to answer.
 
Question setup
In order to answer each of the type identification questions, you need to understand how a type identification question is set up and what it is asking you to do.  These questions are set up differently from most of the other reading comprehension questions on the exam.  Each question will always be related to a passage that describes several different categories (types of crimes, victims, or any other set of categories in which each category shares some sort of relationship with the other categories).  The questions will then describe a situation in the passage that you will need to classify based on the information that you have available about the different categories.  Choose the category that the situation, or piece of information, fits into based on the information in the passage.
 
Example
A passage includes the following information:'Burglary is defined as a criminal act in which an individual enters or attempts to enter a building or another similar structure in order to commit a felony or steal another individual's property.  Extortion is defined as a criminal act in which an individual convinces another individual or attempts to convince another individual to surrender his or her property or the property of another by threatening the individual with any undesirable act other than the immediate use of force.  Robbery is defined as a criminal act in which an individual steals or attempts to steal another individual's property through the use of force or by threatening the individual with the immediate use of force.'  
 
Question related to the passage states: Victoria Dales was sitting in Celestial park when an unidentified man approached her from behind.  Before the young woman was able to turn to see her attacker, the man pulled out a gun, pressed the gun against the back of her head, and demanded that she turn over her purse immediately or he would pull the trigger.  If Mrs. Dales' assailant is caught, he would be charged with:  (A) burglary(B) extortion(C) robbery(D) nothing as the passage doesn't state whether Mrs. Dale's purse was actually taken or not.
 
In order to answer this question, use the information in the passage to choose the option that identifies the type of crime that occurred, which in this particular case is option C because the unidentified man used the threat of immediate force to steal Mrs. Dales' purse, which is considered a robbery regardless of whether the man succeeded in stealing the purse or not according to the passage. 
 
Identify categories
Most of the passages for the type identification questions on the exam will mark the beginning or the end of the description for each of the categories in the passage by placing the name of each category in bold, italics, or next to a dash or similar mark.  This will allow you to identify each of the categories very quickly.  Some of the passages on the exam, however, will provide you with all of the information, but they will not clearly mark the categories.  If this is the case and it isn't obvious whether a phrase is describing one category or another, underline or circle the description of each separate category within the passage.  This will allow you to find each of the descriptions without rereading the entire passage, which will make it easier for you to pick out the information that you will need in order to answer each question.
 
Similar categories
Each of the type identification questions will be related to a passage that describes several different categories, and the descriptions for each category will usually be very similar.  Slight differences in the wording can make a large difference in the meaning of each category.  
 
Example:
Passage above states: 'Extortion is defined as a criminal act in which an individual convinces another individual to surrender his or her property or the property of another by threatening the individual with any undesirable act other than the immediate use of force.  Robbery is defined as a criminal act in which an individual steals or attempts to steal another individual's property through the use of force or by threatening the individual with the immediate use of force.'  
 
The two descriptions in this example sound very similar and they can both be applied in very similar situations, but there is a key difference between the two types of crimes.  Extortion, according to the passage, refers to any theft carried out by the threat of an undesirable act other than the immediate use of force while robbery refers to a theft carried out by the use of force or the immediate threat of force.  In order to answer each of these questions correctly, you will need to pay special attention to the wording that is used to describe each category so you can identify the difference between the categories.
 
Double-check the description
If you think you have found the correct answer to one of the type identification questions on the exam, double-check the description for the category before you finalize your answer.  Since the categories described in each passage are almost always related, all of the categories will sound very similar, and it is very easy to confuse the description of one category with the description of another.  Make sure that you know the actual description for each category that the passage describes so you can choose the category in which the situation or the information appears to fit.