Metropolitan Police Assessment Centre, Psychometric Test and Interview Preparation

Have you been invited to a Metropolitan Police day one assessment centre? Recruitment to all positions at the Metropolitan Police involves some form of this assessment centre. In this article we go through all of the exercises at the assessment centre, with advice on how to prepare for each one.

  • Get exclusive practice tests and interview preparation
  • Learn as you go with detailed answer explanations

Shir, Police Aptitude Tests Expert at JobTestPrep
Have a question? Contact me at:


About Metropolitan Police Services

The Metropolitan Police Service is the UK's largest police force, dealing on a daily basis with policing one of the world's major cities. As such, the Met Police recruitment process is designed to challenge you and ensure you are the best candidate for the job. JobTestPrep can help you prepare for each stage of the recruitment process, which will improve your performance on the day.


Types of Metropolitan Police

  • Police Officers - As the face of the Met, you'll be dealing with local communities, building relationships and combating crime.
  • Police Community Service Officers – These officers provide London with an increased visible police presence and help regular police officers. A PCSO will most likely be found making neighbourhoods and transportation safer, dealing with traffic, and performing station tasks, such as initial investigations and recording crimes.
  • Special Constables - These are volunteer police officers who help the regular police. While they wear the same uniform and carry the same powers as a police officer, they work only 16 hours a week. They can be found patrolling; working in schools to talk about safety and crime; assisting in the event of an accident, fight, or fire; helping with public safety and security; and more.

To become a PCSO, special constable, or police officer, you must pass through the same recruitment process. The only difference is that special constables do not need to become CKP certified. Below are the recruitment requirements.


Initial Assessments

During the initial assessments, you must provide information about yourself, answer questionnaires, and take some tests. Below are the details of each stage.

Registration and Online Eligibility Assessment

During this stage, you present your personal details and show that you meet the eligibility requirements.

Realistic Job Preview Questionnaire

This questionnaire is designed to give you an idea of what a police constable faces on the job. You are asked to answer honestly because upon completion you will receive a rating to show how suitable or not you are for the role.

Behaviour Styles Questionnaire

On this questionnaire, you are presented with a number of statements to review and indicate which you completely agree with or completely disagree with. You must pass this questionnaire to move on to the next stage. The trick with this test is to get the balance between consistency and adjusting your style of communication for different audiences.

Metropolitan Police Situational Judgement Test

On this test, you must assess a number of different situations that you might face as a police officer. You need to choose from a number of actions to show which ones will result in either an effective or counterproductive outcome.

London Factor Assessment

This test is unique to the recruitment process in London. You are presented with sets of statements about London and policing in London. You must read through them and choose which is most like you.

Day One Assessment Centre

The next stage is the assessment centre, which takes place at the Metropolitan Police selection centre in West Brompton. The assessment exercises follow the process outlined by the National College of Policing.

  • 20-minute structured interview – You are given four questions about how you've dealt with specific situations in the past.
  • 23-minute numerical ability test – You are given a series of multiple-choice questions that measure your ability to use numbers rationally, identify logical relationships between them, and draw conclusions for them.
  • 30-minute verbal ability test – You have to answer multiple-choice questions that measure your ability to make sense of a situation from specific written information.
  • Four 10-minute interactive role-play scenarios – Each interactive exercise involves five minutes of preparation and five minutes of role-playing with an actor. This enables assessors to see how you react to certain situations.

If you pass the assessment centre, you will be invited to take a medical and fitness assessment.