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OACP study guide: key rules on all 9 topics

Free OACP study guide: 93 short notes on the certificate process, police requirements, spelling, grammar, vocabulary, report writing and reasoning, each topic linked to its practice questions.

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  • 9 topics
  • 93 key points
  • Free, no sign-up

This study guide collects our notes on every topic of the OACP Certificate practice on one page: 93 short points in our own words. The first topic summarises the official certificate process and Ontario's legal requirements for police officers, with links to oacpcertificate.ca and the Community Safety and Policing Act. The other topics are our own study notes on the writing and reasoning skills the Part B test is built around.

Each topic ends with a link to its practice questions, so you can check what you just read straight away. The notes do not replace the official OACP study package or the OACP's own instructions; where they differ, the official source wins.

Study these notes as flashcards →

The OACP Certificate and police requirements

How the OACP Certificate works in Ontario (Part A forms, Part B SSPO, Part C personality assessment), and the legal and practical requirements to be appointed a police officer under the Community Safety and Policing Act, 2019.

Practise The OACP Certificate and police requirements questionsFlashcardsOfficial chapter

Home: The OACP Certificate Process

  • The Ontario Association of Chiefs of Police (OACP) runs entry-level testing for police officer and special constable applicants in Ontario; TNT Justice Consultants administers the online certificate system for the OACP.
  • The process has five steps: read the requirements, buy the certificate package, Part A, Part B and Part C, after which the certificate is emailed.
  • Part A: sign the Applicant Code of Conduct and the consent form electronically, and start the fitness log and medical examination package (these go to the police service later, not to the OACP).
  • Part B: book a live, online, proctored session through eProctor Canada, show ID, and complete the SSPO, the general mental ability assessment from SIGMA.
  • Part C: a personality assessment of about 300 questions, taken right after Part B; the whole session is 90 minutes.
  • After the tests are done and the proctoring footage is cleared, the certificate usually arrives in 7 to 10 business days.
  • The certificate is valid for one year and can be used with the many Ontario police services that take part.
  • Not every police service requires the OACP Certificate, so check with the service you plan to apply to before paying.

Start Your Career

  • The OACP Certificate package is for first-time applicants; the re-certification (re-testing) package is for returning applicants who have waited the full 10-month waiting period.
  • Each package costs $250 before taxes.
  • The OACP and TNT Justice Consultants offer financial assistance and deferred payment to candidates facing financial hardship.

Terms of Service

  • A test can be cancelled free of charge up to 24 hours before the session; a no-show is charged a $50 fee.
  • A refund is possible only if no testing has been done and the request is within 180 days of purchase, minus a $50 administrative fee.

Appointment of police officer

  • To be appointed a police officer in Ontario, a person must be a Canadian citizen or permanent resident and at least 18 years old.
  • The person must be physically and mentally able to do the job safely and be of good character.
  • The person must have a secondary school diploma or equivalent, or a qualifying university degree, college degree or college diploma.
  • The person must complete the training the Minister prescribes (including de-escalation), plus approved training on human rights and systemic racism and on respect for Ontario's diversity and the rights and cultures of First Nations, Inuit and Métis Peoples.

Becoming a Police Officer

  • Applicants also need a valid Ontario driver's licence with full privileges and no more than six accumulated demerit points.
  • Standard First Aid and Level C CPR certification must be held by the time an offer of employment is made.
  • Applicants must pass a security clearance and background, credit and reference checks; criminal convictions under a federal statute require a pardon.
  • Since September 2019, applicants offered a pre-employment letter must pass the PREP (Physical Readiness Evaluation for Police) during Basic Constable Training at the Ontario Police College in Aylmer.
  • Police services may add local needs, such as a second language or experience with a particular community.

Spelling for incident reports

Spot the correctly spelled word in report-style sentences: double letters, -ance and -ence endings, i-before-e exceptions, silent letters and Canadian spellings such as licence and offence.

Practise Spelling for incident reports questionsFlashcardsOfficial chapter

what it measures (Pearson product page)

  • The SSPO's incident report writing section assesses spelling, grammar and vocabulary.

Report words worth practising (our study notes)

  • Words that come up often in incident reports: witness, suspect, vehicle, intersection, licence, injuries, surveillance, harassment.

Spelling patterns that cause most report errors (our study notes)

  • Double letters: accommodate, embarrass, harass (one r, two s), occurred, occurrence, committed, omitted, recommend (one c, two m).
  • "i before e" exceptions: receive, seize, weird, foreign, height, neighbour.
  • -ance / -ence endings must be memorized: surveillance, disturbance, assistance, evidence, occurrence, negligence, existence.
  • -able / -ible: noticeable, knowledgeable, responsible, visible, permissible, legible.
  • Silent letters: knife, wrist, writ, guard, receipt, rhythm, subtle.
  • Words that change when a suffix is added: argue → argument, true → truly, judge → judgment (both judgment and judgement are accepted in Canada), occur → occurred.
  • Canadian usage: licence is the noun and license the verb; offence and defence end in -ce.

Vocabulary

The meaning of words that come up in reports and police work, synonyms and antonyms, and choosing the word that fits a sentence.

Practise Vocabulary questionsFlashcardsOfficial chapter

vocabulary (Pearson product page)

  • Vocabulary items ask for the meaning of words used in reports and police work; reading level is about grade 9.

Common report and justice vocabulary (our study notes)

  • Apprehend: to arrest or catch. Detain: to hold back or keep in custody for a time.
  • Corroborate: to confirm with other evidence. Contradict: to say the opposite.
  • Discrepancy: a difference between two things that should match.
  • Belligerent: hostile and ready to fight. Compliant: following requests or rules.
  • Intoxicated: affected by alcohol or drugs. Lucid: thinking clearly.
  • Vacate: to leave a place. Loiter: to stay around without a clear purpose.
  • Alleged: said to have happened but not yet proven. Verified: checked and confirmed.
  • Accomplice: a person who helps commit a crime. Bystander: a person who is present but not involved.
  • Pursue: to follow in order to catch. Elude: to escape or avoid.
  • Concise: short and clear. Ambiguous: open to more than one meaning.
  • Synonyms share a meaning (prohibit / forbid); antonyms have opposite meanings (permit / prohibit).

Grammar and punctuation

Subject-verb agreement, verb tense, clear pronouns, apostrophes, comma splices, fragments and commonly confused words, all in report-style sentences.

Practise Grammar and punctuation questionsFlashcardsOfficial chapter

grammar and punctuation (Pearson product page)

  • Grammar items check whether sentences in a report are written correctly.

Grammar rules for clear reports (our study notes)

  • The verb agrees with its subject, not with a noun inside a phrase: "The box of tools was found" (box is the subject).
  • Each, everyone, neither and either take a singular verb: "Each of the witnesses was interviewed."
  • With "neither ... nor" or "either ... or", the verb agrees with the nearer subject.
  • Use the past tense consistently when describing events that already happened.
  • Pronouns must clearly refer to one person; repeat the name if "he" or "she" could mean two people.
  • Its = belonging to it; it's = it is. Their = belonging to them; there = a place; they're = they are.
  • An apostrophe shows possession: the driver's licence (one driver), the drivers' licences (several drivers).
  • Two complete sentences joined only by a comma form a comma splice; use a period, a semicolon or a joining word.
  • Use "who" for people and "that" or "which" for things.
  • A sentence fragment lacks a subject or a main verb and cannot stand alone.
  • Commonly confused: affect (verb, to influence) / effect (noun, a result); accept / except; then (time) / than (comparison); lose / loose.

Writing a clear incident report

Choosing facts over opinions, putting events in order, writing specific and concise descriptions and attributing what each person said.

Practise Writing a clear incident report questionsFlashcardsOfficial chapter

SSPO incident report writing (Pearson product page)

  • The SSPO is designed to find applicants who can write credible incident reports and use sound judgment in police situations.

Good incident report habits (our study notes)

  • Record facts that were seen, heard or measured, not opinions or guesses.
  • Answer who, what, when, where, how and, if known, why.
  • Write events in the order they happened (chronological order).
  • Use specific descriptions: exact times, addresses, colours, heights and quoted words.
  • Use plain, concise words; avoid slang, jargon and vague terms such as "a while" or "some guys".
  • Attribute statements: say who said what, using quotation marks for exact words.
  • Keep the same tense and point of view through the report.
  • Separate what the writer observed from what others reported.

Deductive reasoning

Drawing conclusions that must follow from stated facts and rules: if-then statements, all and some statements, ordering and seating puzzles.

Practise Deductive reasoning questionsFlashcardsOfficial chapter

SSPO police problem solving (Pearson product page)

  • The problem-solving section presents police situations that call for an officer's decision and measures judgment.

Deductive reasoning (our study notes)

  • Deduction works from given rules or facts to a conclusion that must be true if the facts are true.
  • If "all A are B" and "X is A", then X is B. But "all A are B" does not mean all B are A.
  • From "if P then Q" and "not Q", conclude "not P". From "if P then Q" and "Q", nothing certain follows about P.
  • In ordering puzzles, write each clue as a line (A before B, C after A) and check every option against every clue.
  • Eliminate options that contradict any one clue; the answer must fit all clues.
  • Use only the information given; do not add outside assumptions.

Inductive reasoning and patterns

Finding the rule in number and letter series, analogies and odd-one-out sets, then applying it to the next case.

Practise Inductive reasoning and patterns questionsFlashcardsOfficial chapter

Why practise patterns (our study notes)

  • General reasoning practice: finding the rule in a set of examples and applying it builds the same careful reading that scenario questions need.

Inductive reasoning (our study notes)

  • Induction finds a general rule from examples, then applies it to the next case.
  • For number series, check the differences between terms first, then ratios, then alternating patterns.
  • For letter series, convert letters to their alphabet positions (A = 1, B = 2 ... Z = 26).
  • Patterns can combine two rules, such as +2 then ×2, or two interleaved series.
  • In odd-one-out items, find the shared property of three items; the fourth breaks it.
  • In analogy items, state the relationship in a sentence ("a judge works in a court") and apply the same sentence.

Police-style scenarios

Applying a stated procedure, matching witness descriptions, tracking directions on a map described in words and working with schedules.

Practise Police-style scenarios questionsFlashcardsOfficial chapter

SSPO police problem solving (Pearson product page)

  • The problem-solving section presents scenarios that call for an officer's decision and measures judgment.

Working through police-style scenarios (our study notes)

  • Read the rule or procedure given in the question first, then apply it exactly as written.
  • When several tasks compete, the rule given usually puts the safety of people first.
  • To match a description, compare each feature one at a time and eliminate any person who does not fit one stated feature.
  • For directions, track your facing direction after every turn: a right turn from north faces east, from east faces south, from south faces west, from west faces north.
  • Turning around (a U-turn) reverses direction: north becomes south.
  • For schedules, write times on a line and count forward; convert between the 24-hour and 12-hour clocks carefully.

Numerical reasoning without a calculator

Times, distances, speeds, averages, percentages and rates in practical police-style problems, worked by hand.

Practise Numerical reasoning without a calculator questionsFlashcardsOfficial chapter

Why practise numbers (our study notes)

  • Police work and many reasoning tests involve times, distances, speeds and simple counts; practise doing them by hand.

Numbers for police-style problems (our study notes)

  • Distance = speed × time; at 60 km/h a vehicle travels 1 km every minute.
  • Average = total ÷ number of items.
  • Percent of a number: 25% of 80 = 0.25 × 80 = 20.
  • Elapsed time: count to the next full hour, then add the remaining minutes.
  • Rates: if 3 officers cover 12 blocks, each covers 4 blocks at the same rate.
  • Ratio and proportion: keep units the same before comparing.
  • Estimate first, then check whether the chosen answer is reasonable.

Written in our own words from: OACP Certificate Testing website

FAQ

OACP study guide: common questions

What is the best way to use this OACP study guide?

Read one topic, then answer that topic's practice questions while the rules are fresh. Note the questions you miss, re-read those notes, and finish with a full practice test across all 9 topics.

Is this the official OACP study guide?

No. The OACP publishes its own study package for Parts B and C on oacpcertificate.ca. This page is our own summary of the certificate process plus study notes on writing and reasoning skills; we did not copy the official package.

Can I print the study guide?

Yes, with your browser's print command. For practice questions on paper with an answer key, use our printable questions and answers page instead.

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