Sergeant and Inspector
Exam Pass Mark
The sergeants' exam pass mark is 55% and the inspectors' is 65%. Both papers have 150 questions, but 10 are removed after the sitting, so 55% means 77 correct out of 140 and 65% means 91 correct out of 140. This guide explains how those numbers are set, when they can change, what the exceptional grade is, and what every College of Policing results overview we could find since 2021 actually shows.
Independent information, not advice · Sources checked 4 October 2026 · England and Wales unless stated
Sergeants need 55%, which is 77 correct answers out of the 140 scored questions. Inspectors need 65%, which is 91 out of 140. You sit 150 questions, but the 10 that performed least well are removed for everyone after the exam. 75% (sergeants) or 85% (inspectors) earns an exceptional grade. The NPPF debrief panel can alter the pass mark in exceptional circumstances, but in all 17 results overviews we read it applied the standard mark.
The pass marks at a glance
Everything below comes from the College of Policing's candidate handbooks for 2026 and 2027, its online exams candidate guide and its published results overviews, all read on 4 October 2026. The 2026 handbook set the dates and results dates for the October 2026 sergeants' sitting (6 to 8 October) and the November 2026 inspectors' sitting (3 to 5 November). The 2027 handbook, updated on 10 September 2026, says it supersedes all earlier handbooks and covers the four 2027 sittings. The pass marks are identical in both, and the same as in the 2023 and 2025 handbooks, so nothing on this page turns on which one applies.
| Sergeants | Inspectors | |
|---|---|---|
| Questions on the paper | 150 multiple-choice questions, three hours | 150 multiple-choice questions, three hours |
| Questions scored | 140 (10 removed after the sitting) | 140 (10 removed after the sitting) |
| Pass mark | 55%: 77 correct out of 140 | 65%: 91 correct out of 140 |
| Wrong answers you can afford (of 140 scored) | 63 | 49 |
| Exceptional grade | 75% or more: 105 correct | 85% or more: 119 correct |
| Low-band fail | Below 30%: 41 or fewer correct | Below 35%: 48 or fewer correct |
| One question is worth | About 0.71 percentage points | About 0.71 percentage points |
| How the mark is set | Absolute cut score, not a curve | Absolute cut score, not a curve |
| Can it change? | Only by the NPPF debrief panel, in exceptional circumstances | Only by the NPPF debrief panel, in exceptional circumstances |
| Latest published pass rate | 58.5% (March 2026, 3,215 sat) | 37.0% (May 2026, 1,739 sat) |
| Range in the sittings we checked | 43.9% to 59.5% (9 sittings, 2021 to 2026) | 24.4% to 52.7% (8 sittings, 2021 to 2026) |
The pass mark is a percentage of the 140 scored questions, not of the 150 you answer. 77 correct out of 150 is only enough for sergeants if all 10 removed questions happen to be ones you got wrong. Nobody can plan on that. The table in the next two sections shows what you actually need.
If you are new to the exam itself, start with the NPPF step 2 legal knowledge exam explained and come back here for the scoring detail.
What 55% and 65% mean in questions
The College states the pass marks as counts: "77 correct answers out of 140" for sergeants and "91 correct answers out of 140" for inspectors. Every threshold happens to land on a whole number of questions, so there is no rounding to worry about. 77 is exactly 55.0%; 76 is 54.3% and fails. The NPPF operating manual says a score "equal to or above" the set pass mark is a pass.
| Correct (of 140) | Percentage | Sergeants' exam | Inspectors' exam |
|---|---|---|---|
| 41 | 29.3% | Low-band fail | Low-band fail |
| 42 | 30.0% | Fail (35 short) | Low-band fail |
| 48 | 34.3% | Fail (29 short) | Low-band fail |
| 49 | 35.0% | Fail (28 short) | Fail (42 short) |
| 70 | 50.0% | Fail (7 short) | Fail (21 short) |
| 76 | 54.3% | Fail (1 short) | Fail (15 short) |
| 77 | 55.0% | Pass | Fail (14 short) |
| 84 | 60.0% | Pass | Fail (7 short) |
| 90 | 64.3% | Pass | Fail (1 short) |
| 91 | 65.0% | Pass | Pass |
| 98 | 70.0% | Pass | Pass |
| 104 | 74.3% | Pass (1 short of exceptional) | Pass |
| 105 | 75.0% | Exceptional | Pass |
| 112 | 80.0% | Exceptional | Pass |
| 118 | 84.3% | Exceptional | Pass (1 short of exceptional) |
| 119 | 85.0% | Exceptional | Exceptional |
Three things stand out from the table:
- Each question is worth about 0.71 percentage points. A swing of seven questions moves your score by five points. That is why a "near miss" and a "comfortable pass" can be closer together than they feel.
- The inspectors' paper needs 14 more correct answers. A score of 90 out of 140 (64.3%) is 13 marks clear of the sergeants' pass mark and still a fail on the inspectors' paper.
- The exceptional grade sits 20 points above the pass mark on both papers: 28 more correct answers in each case.
The College's candidate guide says all questions are equally weighted, so no question is worth more than another. The handbook sets one pass mark for the whole paper and no separate pass mark for any subject area: your total over the 140 scored questions decides the result. Your feedback report does break the score down by subject area, which is useful for a resit (see your score and a resit).
How many questions you can get wrong and still pass
On the 140 scored questions, sergeants can get 63 wrong and inspectors 49. The complication is that you answer 150 and do not know which 10 will be removed. So there are really two numbers: the score on the full paper that guarantees a pass whatever is removed, and the lowest score that could ever pass if the removals fell your way.
| Sergeants | Inspectors | |
|---|---|---|
| Correct answers needed, of the 140 scored | 77 | 91 |
| Wrong (or blank) answers you can afford, of the 140 scored | 63 | 49 |
| Correct out of all 150 that guarantees a pass, whichever 10 are removed | 87 (58.0%) | 101 (67.3%) |
| Wrong out of all 150 you can afford with that guarantee | 63 | 49 |
| Lowest correct out of 150 that could ever pass (only if all 10 removed questions were ones you got wrong) | 77 (51.3%) | 91 (60.7%) |
| Correct needed for an exceptional grade, of 140 | 105 (35 wrong allowed) | 119 (21 wrong allowed) |
| Score that is a low-band fail, of 140 | 41 or fewer | 48 or fewer |
| Average time per question | 72 seconds | 72 seconds |
How the guaranteed figure is worked out
Take the worst case: all 10 removed questions are ones you answered correctly. You then need 77 correct among the other 140, so 87 correct in total (77 plus the 10 that were removed). On the full paper that is 87 out of 150, or 58%. For inspectors it is 91 plus 10, so 101 out of 150, or 67.3%. Anything at or above those totals on the full paper is a pass however the removals fall. That assumes, as the handbook says, that exactly 10 questions are removed and the published pass mark is applied; see the Not verified section on queried questions and the debrief panel's power to alter the mark.
The best case is the reverse: all 10 removed questions were ones you got wrong, so 77 correct out of 150 (51.3%) would scrape a sergeants' pass and 91 out of 150 (60.7%) an inspectors' pass. Real results sit somewhere in between, and you cannot know where until your feedback report arrives.
We do not know whether the removed questions tend to be ones most candidates got wrong. The College says they are the 10 that "performed least well" against its standard criteria, but it does not publish those criteria or the statistics. In exam design, a question can perform badly because almost everyone got it wrong, because almost everyone got it right, or because strong and weak candidates did equally well on it. Any claim that "the removed questions are the hard ones" is a guess.
Blank answers
The College expresses the pass mark as a number of correct answers, and neither the handbook nor the online candidate guide mentions any deduction for a wrong answer. We found no sentence that says in terms "there is no negative marking", so treat this as our reading rather than a College statement. On that reading a blank and a wrong answer both score nothing, so a blank can never help you. The platform shows how many questions are unanswered and flagged before you submit, and anything you have answered is submitted automatically if time runs out. With 180 minutes for 150 questions you have an average of 72 seconds each. Exam-day mechanics are in NPPF online exam rules and exam day.
Why 10 questions are removed, and how
Every handbook we checked, back to the 2023 version, contains the same rule. The 2027 handbook puts it like this, in summary:
- Every question is evaluated after the sitting against standard criteria, to check it performed as expected and gave a fair test of the syllabus.
- The marking panel removes the 10 that performed least well, and the NPPF debrief panel ratifies the removal.
- It applies to everyone. The same 10 are removed from every candidate's paper, and they are "not marked or included in anyone's score under any circumstances".
- You are not told which ones. You do not get your score on the removed questions either.
- No appeals. The College says it cannot accept appeals about the removal.
The stated purpose is "to ensure that the exam is valid and does not unfairly penalise candidates". Put simply, it is a quality filter. Questions are written by trained question writers and checked by the College's legal services unit and independent legal experts before use, but a live sitting with thousands of candidates still reveals items that did not work as intended. Removing a fixed number every time keeps the scored paper the same length, which is why the pass mark can be stated as a fixed count of 77 or 91.
Question queries are a separate route
If you think a question was legally wrong or unfair, you can raise a query with the College's exams team no later than three days after you sat. The marking panel reviews queries alongside questions that did not perform as expected, and the handbook says any question "deemed to be unfair for inclusion in any way" is removed for all candidates. The handbook does not say whether such a question counts as one of the 10 or is removed on top of them; see the Not verified section. You must not copy or photograph a question to support a query: the handbook treats copying or sharing exam content as a breach of the rules.
How the pass mark is set: an absolute standard, not a curve
The College's results overviews all open with essentially the same sentence: the results were fully analysed and "an absolute cut score of 55%" (or 65%) "was applied to all candidates". The NPPF operating manual (July 2024) describes the pass requirement as "an absolute standard (set pass mark)". The handbook says the pass mark is "a standard agreed with the NPPF governance board and ratified by the NPPF debrief panel after each exam".
In practice that means:
- There is no quota. If every candidate scored 77 or more, every candidate would pass. Your result depends on your score, not on how the rest of the cohort did.
- There is no published scaling. Your percentage is your number of correct answers out of 140. We found nothing in the handbooks, the candidate guide or the operating manual describing any adjustment for paper difficulty.
- The cohort is still watched. The debrief panel "will compare the results of this year's examination with previous years to ensure that the delivery of the exams has been fair". That comparison is what could trigger the power described in the next section.
Who sits on the debrief panel matters, because it explains the checks: a moderator nominated by the National Police Chiefs' Council, a member of the Police Federation of England and Wales, a member of the College's legal services team, a representative of its workforce development unit and a representative of its occupational psychology community. The panel considers the impact of any unscheduled events and ratifies results before release. It does not consider individual extenuating circumstances.
When the pass mark can change, and when it cannot
The handbook keeps one power in reserve. The debrief panel "reserves the right to alter the pass mark in exceptional circumstances if they see a significant deviation in the success rate for exams, whether higher or lower, and/or if they have evidence to show that a change in the pass mark would result in a fairer outcome".
- It works in both directions. The wording covers a success rate that is unusually high as well as unusually low, so it is not a promise of leniency.
- It applies to the whole sitting, not to individuals. The handbook says the pass mark "will therefore not be lowered for individual candidates in any circumstances".
- It is not something to plan around. In all 17 results overviews we read (nine sergeants' sittings from 2021 to March 2026 and eight inspectors' sittings from October 2021 to May 2026), the College states that the standard 55% or 65% cut score was applied.
Only 413 of 1,693 inspector candidates passed in November 2025, a pass rate of 24.4% against 34.5% six months earlier. The College's overview still says an absolute cut score of 65% was applied. Whatever the debrief panel considered, it did not lower the mark that time. We cannot see the panel's deliberations, so we do not know whether it discussed doing so.
Special consideration: the only individual adjustment
If something outside your control disrupts your exam, you can report an unscheduled incident to the College through your force examinations officer within three days of sitting (for the 2027 sittings the handbook gives deadlines of 8pm on 21 March, 16 May, 10 October and 7 November 2027). If the report is accepted, the marking panel, with the debrief panel, may apply special consideration: an allowance of 1% of the total raw marks available to every affected candidate, not just those who reported. The handbook says this can make the difference between a pass and a fail, but it is applied only in "very exceptional circumstances" that are significant, outside your control and likely to have had a substantial and prolonged impact.
Many things are excluded outright, including your own or your force's testing environment, local connection problems, device or setup issues, a heavy workload or lack of preparation, illness (yours or a family member's), and issues you knew about when you started. The handbook does not say how a 1% allowance is turned into whole marks.
What nobody can do
- Remark your paper: "there is no provision for candidates to contest their result once results have been released, or to request to have their examination remarked".
- Add marks because you were close: "there is no provision to add additional marks for candidates who score just below the pass mark".
- Turn a fail into a pass on appeal: the reports and disqualifications panel "cannot change a fail result into a pass or add additional marks under any circumstances". It can recommend that your force disregards that attempt where a local resit limit would otherwise stop you sitting again.
The exceptional grade and the low-band fail
Your feedback report gives you one of four grades. The College's results overviews report the share of candidates in each.
Does an exceptional grade do anything?
It is recorded on your feedback report, and the NPPF operating manual (July 2024, paragraph 4.8) says chief officers of candidates who achieve exceptional scores will be notified through the force examinations officer. We found no national rule that gives it weight at step three, shortens any later stage or extends validity. Whether your force takes any notice of it is a local question. It is worth knowing about, but not worth chasing at the expense of a safe pass.
Does a low-band fail do anything?
Nationally, we found nothing beyond the grade itself. The handbook says there is no national limit on resits and that any restriction is a local force decision, so a force could in principle treat a low-band fail differently when deciding whether to support another attempt. If you are in that position, ask your force examinations officer what its policy says before you register again.
What the published results actually show
The College publishes a short "results and analysis overview" after each sitting, with the overall pass rate, the four grade bands, breakdowns by sex and ethnicity, and a force table. Its exam hub currently links only the latest sergeants' and inspectors' overviews, but older ones are still on its document server, and the 2021 and 2022 ones survive in the Internet Archive. We read every one we could find. All figures are candidates who sat; "passed" includes exceptional passes.
| Sitting | Sat | Passed | Pass rate | Exceptional | Low-band fail |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| March 2026 | 3,215 | 1,882 | 58.5% | 12.0% | 1.4% |
| October 2025 | 3,040 | 1,566 | 51.5% | 7.9% | 1.7% |
| March 2025 | 3,507 | 1,967 | 56.1% | 10.8% | 2.3% |
| October 2024 | 3,842 | 1,831 | 47.7% | 8.5% | 2.3% |
| March 2024 | 4,268 | 2,012 | 47.1% | 6.8% | 1.8% |
| October 2023 | 4,208 | 1,849 | 43.9% | 6.1% | 2.0% |
| March 2023 | 5,641 | 3,269 | 58.0% | 10.0% | 1.0% |
| 2022 | 5,875 | 2,985 | 50.8% | 7.1% | 1.6% |
| 2021 | 7,538 | 4,484 | 59.5% | 13.5% | 1.4% |
| Sitting | Sat | Passed | Pass rate | Exceptional | Low-band fail |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 2026 | 1,739 | 644 | 37.0% | 2.3% | 1.6% |
| November 2025 | 1,693 | 413 | 24.4% | 0.6% | 1.5% |
| May 2025 | 1,682 | 581 | 34.5% | 0.5% | 0.9% |
| November 2024 | 1,822 | 606 | 33.3% | 0.3% | 1.6% |
| May 2024 | 1,739 | 677 | 38.9% | 1.1% | 1.1% |
| November 2023 | 1,885 | 784 | 41.6% | 1.9% | 0.4% |
| May 2023 | 1,696 | 827 | 48.8% | 1.8% | 0.5% |
| October 2022 | Not located | Not located | Not located | Not located | Not located |
| October 2021 | 2,156 | 1,136 | 52.7% | 4.1% | 0.6% |
Pooling those sittings, 21,845 of 41,134 sergeant attempts passed (53.1%) and 5,668 of 14,412 inspector attempts passed (39.3%). Those are attempts, not people: an officer who failed in March and passed in October appears twice.
- Sergeants: about half to three in five pass. The rate has stayed between 43.9% and 59.5%, with the March 2026 sitting (58.5%) one of the highest.
- Inspectors: a long slide, then a partial recovery. From 52.7% in October 2021 to 24.4% in November 2025, then 37.0% in May 2026.
- Fewer people sit each paper than in 2021. Sergeant candidates per sitting fell from 7,538 in 2021 to 3,215 in March 2026, but there are now two sergeants' sittings a year, so the yearly total is less different than it looks (6,547 attempts across the two 2025 sittings).
- Low-band fails are rare. On both papers, almost everyone who fails is in the ordinary fail band. The College does not publish how many were within a few marks of passing.
The overviews show the grade bands as a pie chart, and the numbers can come out of the PDFs in a jumbled order. We matched each figure to its band by checking that exceptional plus pass equals the published number of passes, and fail plus low-band fail equals the number of unsuccessful candidates. Every sitting reconciled except one figure in November 2025, explained in the Not verified section.
The Met effect and what force tables show
Each overview includes a pass rate for every force that nominated candidates. The single biggest feature is the Metropolitan Police Service: it supplies roughly 30% to 40% of candidates on both papers and its pass rate has been well below everyone else's in every sitting we checked. The "all other forces" column is our own calculation, taking the Met's published numbers away from the national totals.
| Sitting | Met candidates (share) | Met pass rate | All other forces (our calculation) |
|---|---|---|---|
| March 2026 | 1,148 (35.7%) | 40.8% | 68.4% (1,414 of 2,067) |
| October 2025 | 970 (31.9%) | 33.1% | 60.1% (1,245 of 2,070) |
| March 2025 | 1,357 (38.7%) | 36.0% | 68.8% (1,479 of 2,150) |
| October 2024 | 1,530 (39.8%) | 28.4% | 60.4% (1,397 of 2,312) |
| March 2024 | 1,631 (38.2%) | 29.8% | 57.9% (1,526 of 2,637) |
| October 2023 | 1,755 (41.7%) | 26.8% | 56.2% (1,378 of 2,453) |
| March 2023 | 2,111 (37.4%) | 41.7% | 67.6% (2,388 of 3,530) |
| 2022 | 2,250 (38.3%) | 37.6% | 59.0% (2,139 of 3,625) |
| 2021 | 2,782 (36.9%) | 49.5% | 65.3% (3,108 of 4,756) |
| Sitting | Met candidates (share) | Met pass rate | All other forces (our calculation) |
|---|---|---|---|
| May 2026 | 530 (30.5%) | 23.8% | 42.8% (518 of 1,209) |
| November 2025 | 518 (30.6%) | 14.1% | 28.9% (340 of 1,175) |
| May 2025 | 538 (32.0%) | 21.7% | 40.6% (464 of 1,144) |
| November 2024 | 660 (36.2%) | 20.6% | 40.4% (470 of 1,162) |
| May 2024 | 619 (35.6%) | 25.5% | 46.3% (519 of 1,120) |
| November 2023 | 677 (35.9%) | 30.4% | 47.8% (578 of 1,208) |
| May 2023 | 557 (32.8%) | 35.0% | 55.5% (632 of 1,139) |
| October 2021 | 616 (28.6%) | 43.3% | 56.4% (869 of 1,540) |
So the national headline understates how most non-Met candidates do. Outside the Met, around three in five to seven in ten sergeant candidates passed in recent sittings, and around four to five in ten inspector candidates (November 2025 aside, at 28.9%). The Met's rates have recovered since their lows (26.8% for sergeants in October 2023, 14.1% for inspectors in November 2025), but remain well below the rest.
The largest forces in the latest sittings
| Force | Sergeants, March 2026 | Inspectors, May 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| Metropolitan Police Service | 1,148 sat, 40.8% passed | 530 sat, 23.8% passed |
| West Midlands | 166 sat, 68.1% | 86 sat, 40.7% |
| Greater Manchester | 139 sat, 70.5% | 124 sat, 38.7% |
| West Yorkshire | 95 sat, 70.5% | 58 sat, 53.4% |
| Essex | 89 sat, 56.2% | 56 sat, 28.6% |
| British Transport Police | 84 sat, 61.9% | 46 sat, 47.8% |
| Hampshire | 72 sat, 58.3% | 65 sat, 30.8% |
| Sussex | 72 sat, 58.3% | 57 sat, 35.1% |
| All candidates | 3,215 sat, 58.5% | 1,739 sat, 37.0% |
The College redacts numbers where candidate counts are low, and warns that "comparison between force pass rates should be done with caution, due to the differences in the number of candidates taking the examination per force". In the May 2026 inspectors' overview, redacted forces show "0.00" candidates next to a percentage, so a "100%" there may be a handful of people. A force with 20 candidates moves 5 points with one result. We found no published reason for the Met's lower rates, and no data on whether forces differ in who they allow to sit, how much study time they give, or how many candidates are resitting. Any of those could matter; none is evidence about you.
What you can and cannot conclude from the results
Published pass rates get quoted a lot, often with more confidence than they support. This is what the data does and does not tell you.
| Question | What the data supports | What it does not tell you |
|---|---|---|
| The pass mark has been applied as published | Yes. Every one of the 17 overviews we read states the standard absolute cut score (55% or 65%) was applied to all candidates | That it can never change. The handbook keeps the debrief panel's power to alter it |
| Roughly how many pass | Yes, for each sitting: these are the College's own counts of candidates who sat | How many individual people pass over time. Candidates who resit appear in more than one sitting |
| Inspector pass rates are lower | Yes, in every pair of years we can compare | Whether that is because the questions are harder, the bar is higher, or the candidates differ. The College does not publish score distributions or question difficulty |
| Pass rates move between sittings | Yes: sergeants 43.9% to 59.5%, inspectors 24.4% to 52.7% | Why. Paper difficulty, cohort, preparation time and force entry policies could all play a part, and none is published |
| Met candidates pass less often | Yes, in every sitting we checked, by a wide margin | The reason. The College publishes no explanation and we found none. Do not assume it is about the Met's training |
| Your force's rate | Where it is published, what happened to that force's candidates that sitting | Your own chances. Small numbers swing widely, and the College warns force comparisons should be made with caution |
| What score candidates typically get | Only the share in each band (exceptional, pass, fail, low-band fail) | The average score, the spread, or how many fell just short. None of that is published |
The overviews also report pass rates by sex and ethnicity, and the gaps move from sitting to sitting. For example, female candidates passed at a higher rate than male candidates in the March 2026 sergeants' sitting (62.3% against 56.8%) and the May 2026 inspectors' sitting (43.5% against 34.4%), but the two were almost level in the November 2025 inspectors' sitting (24.0% against 24.5%). Those breakdowns are for the College's monitoring and do not change the pass mark for anyone.
Why inspector pass rates are lower
There is one certain reason and several possible ones. It helps to keep them apart.
Certain: the bar is 10 points higher
Inspectors need 91 correct answers, sergeants 77. Even if the two papers were equally difficult and the candidates equally prepared, a cut score 14 questions higher would fail more people. The exceptional line is also 10 points higher (85% against 75%), and the share reaching it is far lower on the inspectors' paper in every sitting: 0.3% to 4.1%, against 6.1% to 13.5% for sergeants.
Certain: the papers are built for different ranks
Both papers test crime, evidence and procedure, and general police duties, from the same Blackstone's Police Manuals edition. The handbook says the balance of questions reflects a survey of what serving sergeants and inspectors consider important and frequently encountered, and that some rank-specific areas differ. Our count of the College's subject breakdowns shows the sergeants' March 2026 paper scored 60 crime, 31 evidence and procedure and 49 general police duties questions; the May 2026 inspectors' paper leaned more towards general police duties (about 52, 29 and 55 in the rows we could read). See what comes up in the sergeants and inspectors exam for the detail, and sergeant vs inspector exam difference for a side by side.
Possible, but not shown by any data we found
- Harder questions. Plausible, but the College does not publish question difficulty or score distributions, so it cannot be shown either way.
- Less study time. Inspector candidates are serving sergeants, often supervising a team. That is a reasonable suspicion, not a measured fact.
- A different cohort. Who enters, how many are resitting and how forces filter entrants could all differ. None of it is published.
- Why the rate fell from 2021 to 2025. We found no College explanation. The recovery to 37.0% in May 2026 also has no published explanation.
If you are preparing for the inspectors' paper, the practical point is the size of the margin: 49 wrong answers on the scored paper against 63 for sergeants. Our inspector exam revision plan is built around that gap.
What score should you aim for in practice?
Candidates ask this more than anything else, and most answers online give a single confident number. The honest answer has two parts: what the pass mark tells you for certain, and what practice scores cannot tell you.
What the pass mark tells you for certain
- On the real paper, 58% of all 150 questions (87 correct) guarantees a sergeants' pass and 67.3% (101 correct) guarantees an inspectors' pass, whichever 10 are removed.
- One question is worth about 0.71 points, so a margin of 10 points is about 14 questions.
- The mark is absolute. You are not trying to beat other candidates, only the line.
Why practice scores do not predict your result
- Nobody outside the College has the real questions. Commercial and free banks, including ours, are written independently. Their difficulty is not calibrated against the live paper, and the College does not publish item statistics that would allow it.
- Repeated questions inflate scores. Getting a question right the third time measures memory of that question, not knowledge of the law.
- Untimed and topic-by-topic practice is easier than 150 mixed questions at 72 seconds each.
- No provider publishes evidence linking practice scores to real results, as far as we found. We have no such data either, so we do not claim one.
A reasoned target, and why
Because you cannot know how hard your practice material is compared with the real paper, the sensible response is a buffer, not a single target. Our suggestion, which is our own reasoning and not College guidance:
Even then, scoring well in practice does not mean you will pass, and scoring below these levels does not mean you will fail. What the buffer does is protect you against the thing you cannot measure: how your practice material compares with the real paper. The syllabus is the Blackstone's Police Manuals for your sitting's edition, so practice is a check on your reading of the Manuals, never a replacement for it.
If you want an unseen, timed set to start measuring from, try our free sergeant exam mini mock. Our exam prep toolkit (ours, paid) adds a timed 150-question sitting weighted like the real paper and tracks your coverage and accuracy by subject area. It cannot tell you your chance of passing, and nothing else can either. Other options, including Blackstone's own Q&A books and its online Q&A service with mock exams (as described on the publisher's site when we checked on 4 October 2026), are compared in revision resources compared.
What your score means for a resit
Results arrive within three weeks through AIMS: by Thursday 29 October 2026 for the 6 to 8 October 2026 sergeants' sitting and by Thursday 26 November 2026 for the November inspectors' sitting. The feedback report gives your grade, your total percentage and a breakdown by subject area. There is no certificate, and the College says it cannot reissue the report, so save a copy.
If you failed
- You go back to step one. The operating manual says unsuccessful candidates return to NPPF step one and must be supported with a development plan after discussion with their line manager.
- No national resit limit. The handbook says there is no national restriction on the number of resits; any limit is a local force decision. Check yours before assuming you can sit the next one.
- The next chance. Sergeants sit in March and October, inspectors in May and November. The next sergeants' sitting is 16 to 18 March 2027 (registration 18 January to 6pm on 18 February 2027); the next inspectors' sitting after November 2026 is 11 to 13 May 2027 (registration 15 March to 6pm on 15 April 2027). Your force may set an earlier internal deadline. Full dates are in NPPF exam dates 2027.
- A new edition. 2027 sittings examine the 2027 Blackstone's Police Manuals, so a resit in 2027 means revising from the new edition. See which Blackstone's edition.
Reading your number
Your percentage tells you how far you were from the line in questions. A sergeant candidate on 52% was about 4 questions short (73 of 140); one on 45% was about 14 short (63 of 140). For inspectors, 60% is 7 short (84 of 140) and 55% is 14 short (77 of 140). That distance is worth knowing, but it is not a forecast: a different paper with different questions can move a score several points either way. Use the subject-area breakdown to decide where your revision time goes, and remember that crime, evidence and procedure, and general police duties carry different numbers of questions.
A free way to lay out the weeks between now and the next sitting is our exam study planner. More on reading the report and resit rules is in NPPF exam results, validity and resits.
If you passed and wonder about resitting
A pass is valid for five years less one day from the date you sat. You can resit to try for a higher score, but the handbook is blunt: any remaining validity is forfeited from the moment you sit the exam again, "regardless of the result". Fail the resit and you have lost a valid pass. We found no national rule that rewards a higher pass score at step three, so resitting only to improve a pass is rarely worth it. The main reason to resit while still valid is a pass that will expire before your force runs a step three process.
The July 2024 operating manual set a different rule for Fast Track officers taking the inspectors' paper: 65% to stay on the programme, with officers scoring from 55% to just below 65% able to remain, with a retake in year two, subject to chief officer approval. We have not checked whether that rule is current; if it applies to you, confirm it with your programme lead. See the fast track inspector route.
Worked scenarios
Illustrative examples, not real candidates, showing how the rules above combine.
Common myths about the pass mark
Pass mark checklist
Before the exam
- Know your target in questions, not just percentages: 87 of 150 (sergeants) or 101 of 150 (inspectors) is the guaranteed-pass level.
- Track first-attempt, timed, mixed practice scores separately from repeats.
- Check you are revising from the right Blackstone's edition for your sitting (2026 for October and November 2026, 2027 for every 2027 sitting).
- Ask your force examinations officer whether there is a local resit limit, and what it does with exceptional and low-band grades, if anything.
- Read the College's current candidate handbook. The pass mark section is short and it is the authority, not this page.
On the day
- Answer every question. Use the flag to come back to uncertain ones and check the unanswered count before you submit.
- Pace at about 72 seconds a question, and do not spend five minutes on one: every question is worth the same.
- If something outside your control disrupts the exam, note the times and report it through your force examinations officer within three days.
After the results
- Save your feedback report: it is your proof of result and cannot be reissued.
- Work out your distance from the pass mark in questions, then look at the subject-area breakdown.
- If you passed, note the date your validity ends (five years less one day from the date you sat).
- If you failed, agree a development plan with your line manager and check the next registration window.
Results day: what to do next
Leave your email and we will email you ourselves around results day with what to do next, whether you passed or not: the resit plan and dates if you need them, the next steps if you passed. Also exam dates and rule changes as they happen. No automatic emails.
What we could not verify
- Negative marking. The College expresses the pass mark as a count of correct answers and mentions no deduction for wrong answers, but we found no sentence stating in terms that there is no negative marking. Our advice to answer every question rests on that reading.
- How the 10 removed questions are chosen. The College says they "performed least well" against standard criteria. The criteria and statistics are not published, so we cannot say whether removed questions tend to be ones candidates got right or wrong.
- Queried questions and the 10. The handbook says a question found unfair after a query is removed for all candidates. It does not say whether that question counts as one of the 10 or is removed in addition, which would change the number of scored questions.
- Whether the pass mark has ever been altered. All 17 overviews we read state the standard cut score was applied. We could not find the October 2022 inspectors' overview, or any overview before 2021, so we cannot say the power has never been used.
- How a 1% special consideration becomes marks. The handbook says 1% of the total raw marks available; it does not say whether that is counted on 140 or 150 questions, or how a fraction is rounded.
- One figure in the November 2025 inspectors' overview. The band chart prints the pass band as 502 (23.8%). That does not reconcile with the document's own totals: 413 passed and 11 were exceptional, so the pass band should be 402. We have used 413 passed throughout, which is consistent with the force table.
- Dates of the earliest sittings. Neither the 2021 nor the 2022 sergeants' overview states the exam dates. The 2022 one is dated March 2022; the 2021 one has no date in its text (its file properties say 18 March 2021). The 2023 handbook's validity table lists one sergeants' sitting in each of those years (9 to 11 March 2021 and 8 to 10 March 2022), so we have treated the overviews as those sittings. The 2021 inspectors' overview is dated October 2021, matching the 12 October 2021 sitting in the handbook's validity table.
- Score distributions. The College publishes only the share in each grade band. Average scores, the spread and the number of near misses are not published, so nobody outside the College can say how many failed by one or two marks.
- Why pass rates differ by force and over time. No published explanation for the Met's lower rates, the fall in inspector pass rates from 2021 to 2025, or the May 2026 recovery.
- Local use of exceptional and low-band grades, and the Fast Track rule. No national rule found beyond chief officer notification of exceptional scores; force policies vary and we have not surveyed them. The Fast Track inspector rule comes from the July 2024 operating manual and we have not confirmed it is current.
- The number of answer options per question. The College's practice questions that show the exact format sit behind the Knowledge Hub login, so we have not stated it here.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the pass mark for the sergeants' exam?
55%, which the College of Policing expresses as 77 correct answers out of 140 scored questions. It is the same in the 2026 handbook and in the 2027 handbook updated on 10 September 2026, so it applies to the 6 to 8 October 2026 sitting and to every 2027 sitting. The NPPF debrief panel can alter the pass mark in exceptional circumstances, but every results overview we read from 2021 to March 2026 says the standard 55% cut score was applied.
What is the pass mark for the inspectors' exam?
65%, or 91 correct answers out of 140 scored questions. That is 14 more correct answers than the sergeants' paper needs. Every inspectors' results overview we read, from October 2021 to May 2026, says an absolute cut score of 65% was applied, including November 2025 when only 24.4% of candidates passed.
How many questions are in the sergeants' exam?
150 multiple-choice questions in a single three-hour exam, and the inspectors' exam has the same format. After the sitting, 10 questions are removed from marking for everyone, so you are scored on 140. You are not told which 10 were removed and you do not get marks for them.
Why are 10 questions removed from the NPPF exam?
The College says every question is evaluated against standard criteria after the sitting, and the marking panel, ratified by the debrief panel, removes the 10 that 'performed least well'. The stated purpose is to keep the exam valid and avoid unfairly penalising candidates. The College does not publish which questions were removed or the statistics used, and it will not accept appeals about the removal.
How many questions can I get wrong and still pass the sergeants' exam?
63 of the 140 scored questions. Because you do not know which 10 questions will be removed, the lowest score on the full paper that guarantees a pass at the published pass mark is 87 correct out of 150 (58%). If all 10 removed questions happened to be ones you got wrong, 77 correct out of 150 would be enough, but you cannot plan on that.
How many questions can I get wrong and still pass the inspectors' exam?
49 of the 140 scored questions. Across the full 150, 101 correct (67.3%) guarantees a pass at the published pass mark whichever 10 are removed. The inspectors' margin for error is 14 questions smaller than the sergeants'.
What is an exceptional pass in the NPPF exam?
75% or more on the sergeants' paper (105 of 140 correct) or 85% or more on the inspectors' paper (119 of 140). It is shown as your grade on the feedback report, and the NPPF operating manual (July 2024) says chief officers are told, through the force examinations officer, which candidates achieved it. We found no national rule that gives an exceptional grade any extra weight at step three.
What is a low-band fail?
A score below 30% on the sergeants' paper (41 or fewer of 140) or below 35% on the inspectors' paper (48 or fewer). It is a grade on the feedback report. In the sittings we checked, between 1.0% and 2.3% of sergeant candidates and between 0.4% and 1.6% of inspector candidates fell into it. We found no national consequence attached to it beyond the grade itself.
Is the NPPF exam marked on a curve?
No. The College's results overviews describe the pass mark as an 'absolute cut score' applied to all candidates, and the NPPF operating manual calls it an absolute standard. You are not competing with other candidates for a fixed number of passes. The debrief panel compares results with previous years and can alter the mark in exceptional circumstances, but that is a safety valve, not routine scaling.
Can I get my exam remarked if I fail by one mark?
No. The handbook says there is no provision to contest a result or request a remark, no extra marks are added for candidates just below the pass mark, and marginal fails will not be reassessed. The only adjustment is special consideration for an accepted unscheduled incident, worth 1% of the total raw marks available, applied in very exceptional circumstances.
What were the latest sergeant and inspector exam pass rates?
In March 2026, 1,882 of 3,215 sergeant candidates passed (58.5%). In May 2026, 644 of 1,739 inspector candidates passed (37.0%), up from 24.4% in November 2025. These are College of Policing figures for candidates who sat, and they count attempts, not individual people.
Does a higher pass score help me at the promotion board?
Not under any national rule we found. The step two pass is a gateway: once you pass, step three is a separate assessment run by your force. Some forces may take the exam result into account, so ask your force examinations officer. Resitting to improve a pass forfeits your remaining validity from the moment you sit, even if you then fail.
When do I get my results and what does the feedback report show?
Within three weeks. For the October 2026 sergeants' exam, results are due by Thursday 29 October 2026, and for the November 2026 inspectors' exam by Thursday 26 November 2026. The report shows your grade, your total percentage and a breakdown by subject area. Keep it: the College says it cannot reissue reports and there is no certificate.
Sources and how we checked them
Every factual claim on this page was written from the sources below, read on 4 October 2026. Rules and figures change, so check the source for the date you are reading this. Where we could not confirm something from an official or independent source, the page says so rather than guessing. Spotted something out of date? See our corrections policy.
- College of Policing: NPPF step two legal examinations candidate handbook (2027 version, updated 10 September 2026) — 150 questions in three hours; 10 removed and scoring on 140; how removed questions are chosen; debrief panel membership and role; pass marks, exceptional and low-band thresholds; power to alter the pass mark; feedback reports and 2027 results dates; validity and resits; unscheduled incidents, special consideration of 1%; question queries; no remarks. The main site blocked our reader, so we read the same page on the College's production mirror (accessed 4 October 2026)
- College of Policing: NPPF step two legal examinations candidate handbook 2026 (PDF, September 2025) — the rules for the October 2026 sergeants' and November 2026 inspectors' sittings: same pass marks, same 10-question removal, results by 29 October and 26 November 2026 (accessed 4 October 2026)
- College of Policing: NPPF candidate handbooks for 2023 and 2025 (PDFs) — the 55% and 65% pass marks and the removal of 10 questions appear in the same terms in the 2023 handbook (assets.college.police.uk/s3fs-public/2022-09/NPPF-Candidate-handbook-2023.pdf) and the 2025 handbook (accessed 4 October 2026)
- College of Policing: Sergeants' and inspectors' NPPF step two legal exams (exam hub page) — 2026 and 2027 dates and registration windows; links to the current results and subject breakdown PDFs (accessed 4 October 2026)
- College of Policing: Online exams candidate guide (updated 5 August 2026) — all questions equally weighted; questions can be answered in any order, flagged and revisited; unanswered and flagged counts shown before you submit; responses auto-submit when time runs out (accessed 4 October 2026)
- College of Policing: National Police Promotion Framework operating manual (July 2024, PDF) — pass requirement is an absolute standard, score equal to or above the set pass mark (para 4.6); unsuccessful candidates return to step one with a development plan (4.7); chief officers notified of exceptional scores (4.8); Fast Track inspector exam rule (accessed 4 October 2026)
- College of Policing: NPPF sergeants' results and analysis overview, March 2026 (PDF) — 3,215 sat, 1,882 passed (58.5%); 387 exceptional, 45 low-band fail; force table including the Met (1,148 sat, 468 passed) (accessed 4 October 2026)
- College of Policing: NPPF sergeants' results and analysis overview, October 2025 (PDF) — 3,040 sat, 1,566 passed (51.5%); Met 970 sat, 321 passed (accessed 4 October 2026)
- College of Policing: NPPF sergeants' results and analysis overview, March 2025 (PDF) — 3,507 sat, 1,967 passed (56.1%); Met 1,357 sat, 488 passed (accessed 4 October 2026)
- College of Policing: NPPF sergeants' results and analysis overview, October 2024 (PDF) — 3,842 sat, 1,831 passed (47.7%); Met 1,530 sat, 434 passed (accessed 4 October 2026)
- College of Policing: NPPF sergeants' results and analysis overview, March 2024 (PDF) — 4,268 sat, 2,012 passed (47.1%); Met 1,631 sat, 486 passed (accessed 4 October 2026)
- College of Policing: NPPF sergeants' results and analysis overview, October 2023 (PDF) — 4,208 sat, 1,849 passed (43.9%); Met 1,755 sat, 471 passed (accessed 4 October 2026)
- College of Policing: NPPF sergeants' results and analysis overview, March 2023 (PDF) — 5,641 sat, 3,269 passed (58.0%); Met 2,111 sat, 881 passed (accessed 4 October 2026)
- College of Policing: NPPF sergeants' results and analysis overview, 2022 (PDF, archived copy) — 5,875 sat, 2,985 passed (50.8%); Met 2,250 sat, 846 passed. The College's own link now returns an error, so we used the Internet Archive copy (accessed 4 October 2026)
- College of Policing: NPPF sergeants' step two results and analysis overview, 2021 (PDF, archived copy) — 7,538 sat, 4,484 passed (59.5%); Met 2,782 sat, 1,376 passed. Archived copy; the text carries no month, and the PDF's file properties date it 18 March 2021 (accessed 4 October 2026)
- College of Policing: NPPF inspectors' results and analysis overview, May 2026 (PDF) — 1,739 sat, 644 passed (37.0%); 41 exceptional, 27 low-band fail; Met 530 sat, 126 passed (23.8%) (accessed 4 October 2026)
- College of Policing: NPPF inspectors' results and analysis overview, November 2025 (PDF) — 1,693 sat, 413 passed (24.4%); Met 518 sat, 73 passed (14.1%). The band chart prints the pass band as 502, which does not reconcile with the document's own totals (see the Not verified section) (accessed 4 October 2026)
- College of Policing: NPPF inspectors' results and analysis overview, May 2025 (PDF) — 1,682 sat, 581 passed (34.5%); Met 538 sat, 117 passed (accessed 4 October 2026)
- College of Policing: NPPF inspectors' results and analysis overview, November 2024 (PDF) — 1,822 sat, 606 passed (33.3%); Met 660 sat, 136 passed (accessed 4 October 2026)
- College of Policing: NPPF inspectors' results and analysis overview, May 2024 (PDF) — 1,739 sat, 677 passed (38.9%); Met 619 sat, 158 passed (accessed 4 October 2026)
- College of Policing: NPPF inspectors' results and analysis overview, November 2023 (PDF) — 1,885 sat, 784 passed (41.6%); Met 677 sat, 206 passed (accessed 4 October 2026)
- College of Policing: NPPF inspectors' results and analysis overview, May 2023 (PDF) — 1,696 sat, 827 passed (48.8%); Met 557 sat, 195 passed (accessed 4 October 2026)
- College of Policing: NPPF inspectors' results and analysis overview, 2021 (PDF, archived copy) — 2,156 sat, 1,136 passed (52.7%); Met 616 sat, 267 passed. Archived copy of the October 2021 sitting (accessed 4 October 2026)
- College of Policing: NPPF sergeants' subject area breakdown, March 2026 (PDF) — 140 scored subjects listed: crime 60, evidence and procedure 31, general police duties 49 (our count of the rows) (accessed 4 October 2026)
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PolicePay.co.uk is an independent guide. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by or produced by the College of Policing or Oxford University Press (Blackstone's). Exam rules, dates, syllabus editions and prices change, so check the College of Policing's current candidate handbook and exam pages before you register or buy. Practice material on this site is original and is not real exam content. Details apply to England and Wales unless stated. Details are as checked on 4 October 2026.