Police test easy, say children

A class of youngsters has cruised through a sample police recruitment test as embarrassed officials try to find out how a potential recruit stole the answers to the full version.

Police have yet to decide whether to charge the person who sat the recruitment test last month with the help of the stolen answers.

The questions were hurriedly changed after police realised the answers had been taken and circulated to other applicants.

Police don't know how many candidates saw the stolen answers but are confident only the thief sat the full test.

A spokesman said they were still investigating and the testing process was "rigorously" monitored.

"Any security weaknesses highlighted by our investigation will be addressed."

However, future candidates might not need to worry about going to the lengths of cheating after a group of youngsters breezed through a 29-question sample test on the police Top Cops website.

The Herald on Sunday asked a group of 12 and 13-year-olds from year 9 at Auckland's Glendowie College to take the 10-minute test, which includes five personal questions.

Twelve-year-old Diamant Pireva gained the top mark of 82 per cent, with a classmate and teacher Liz Tomlinson both scoring 79 per cent.

Three other students finished with 75 per cent. Pireva said he was surprised how simple the sample test was.

"The maths part was really easy, but I expected more questions about real-life problem-solving."

The police spokesman said they were not surprised by the students' results - particularly Diamant's score. The questions on the police website are clearly flagged as an indicative test.

"There are always going to be young people who do well in tests like this ... and maybe this boy would like to consider a career with the police once he leaves school."

The full test is 28 minutes long and, according to police, a little harder than the shorter version on the website.

Last year's 570 recruits who passed the full test - 73 candidates failed - averaged a score of 74.4 per cent.

The test is devised by Occupational Psychology Research Associates in Wellington.

Director Dr Paul Englert said the questions were based on cognitive ability and general problem solving rather than intelligence and personality. Verbal and numerical questions tested "crystallised learning" - which corresponded to education.

Abstract reasoning questions tested "fluid learning" - how people solved problems independent of prior learning, experience and education.