The B.C. ETHOS Police Exam: Format, Marks, Sample Questions & Prep

The short answer: the ETHOS exam is a three-hour written test with four modules: memory and observation, reading comprehension and critical thinking, summary writing, and writing and editing. Vancouver, Surrey, Delta, West Vancouver and Abbotsford each state a 60% pass mark; Victoria states 70%. The exam is not identical everywhere: agencies publish different mark breakdowns (100, 105 or 110 marks) and different sample documents, and Vancouver Police does not state a current breakdown on its recruiting page. Confirm the details with the agency you are applying to. ETHOS is a real, specific name used on the recruiting pages of Vancouver, Surrey, Delta, West Vancouver and Victoria, not a marketing term ETHOS Prep invented (Abbotsford and New Westminster describe the same four-module exam without using the name). If you’re applying to the RCMP instead, the process is different — see our RCMP Online Entrance Assessment guide instead. Applying outside B.C.? See which police entrance test applies to each service.

Format

• Three hours, handwritten. Vancouver Police says the exam is handwritten with no spell check or calculators, and that errors in spelling and grammar result in marks deducted.
• Four modules: Memory & Observation, Reading Comprehension / Critical Thinking, Summary Writing, and Writing & Editing.
• Pass threshold: 60% at Vancouver Police, per its recruiting page. Each agency states its own bar, so check the one you are applying to.
• Transfer between agencies is not one rule. Surrey accepts a score written in the last two years, West Vancouver only within 12 months, and some agencies say nothing. The score-transfer guide lists each agency’s own wording.
• Retesting: Surrey, Delta, Abbotsford and West Vancouver each state a six-month wait before you can ask to write again. The other agencies’ pages we read do not state a wait — that is an absence, not a rule that none exists — and none of the pages we read states an attempt limit, so ask the agency you are applying to. See each agency’s own wording.

What does each ETHOS module ask you to do?

West Vancouver Police’s test overview (read 2026-10-12) gives the most task detail of the pages we read. It says the exam is three hours and marked out of 100, with a 60% pass mark:

• Memory & Observation (20 marks): you read a police bulletin and watch a video of a crime in progress, then answer 15 multiple-choice questions on the video and 5 on the bulletin.
• Reading Comprehension & Critical Thinking (25 marks): three sections: an article with questions answered in sentences or paragraphs, then crime and accident scenes with questions answerable in point form. It also tests basic arithmetic, percentages and fractions.
• Summary (10 marks): read a witness statement and write one coherent paragraph summarizing its main message.
• Writing & Editing (45 marks): three passages to revise, correcting grammar, punctuation, sentence structure, syntax, spelling and word choice.

Other agencies word this differently and the mark splits below differ, so treat West Vancouver’s description as one agency’s version of the exam.

How many marks is each ETHOS module worth?

It depends on which agency’s document you read. The figures below are the marks each document states per module. They describe how the total score is divided, not how many questions a module has, and none of these documents says which version applies to a particular sitting.

• 100 marks (20 / 25 / 10 / 45): memory & observation / reading comprehension & critical thinking / summary / writing & editing. Stated on Delta Police’s current selection page and West Vancouver Police’s test overview, and in the overview PDF linked from Surrey’s application-process page (the file is dated 2021 by its server header; the document itself is undated). Pass mark 60/100.
• 110 marks (20 / 30 / 15 / 45): stated on Abbotsford Police’s current selection page, with 66 of 110 to pass. Transit Police still links a 2019 overview PDF with the same 110-mark split.
• 105 marks (20 / 30 / 15 / 40): the sample exam linked from Vancouver Police’s recruiting page is titled “2006 VPD Intake Exam” and states this split, with a 60% pass mark. VPD’s current page states the 60% pass mark but no mark breakdown, so do not assume this 2006 document describes the exam today.

In practice this means the modules are weighted differently depending on the version, and Vancouver’s current weighting is not published on its recruiting page. Use these figures to see how marks were divided in each document, not as a guarantee of how your agency will divide them.

Why writing matters more than you’d think

In every version above, the summary and writing & editing modules together carry a little over half of the marks: 55 of 100, 60 of 110 or 55 of 105, going by the stated splits. Writing & Editing is also the largest single module in each. That is simple arithmetic on the published figures, not an official statement of “weighting”, and it matches the 55% some prep sites quote. Writing also affects marks elsewhere: Vancouver Police says spelling and grammar errors cost marks, and the sample rubrics below deduct for writing errors in the reading and summary modules too. Most applicants prepare for the memory and reading sections and treat writing as an afterthought. That’s backwards. A candidate who reads well but writes an unclear, error-filled report is being tested on exactly the skill real policing work demands constantly: clear, accurate, defensible written communication under time pressure. See the writing & editing guide.

How is the ETHOS exam marked?

What is currently stated: Vancouver Police says “errors in spelling and grammar will result in marks deducted from your score.” The detailed rubrics come from official sample documents, which are illustrative, not a current marking scheme. The overview and sample documents on Surrey’s and Delta’s sites (server dates 2021, sample narratives dated 2005 to 2007) describe:

• Reading comprehension, written-sentence question set: 1 mark per correct answer, half a mark deducted per writing error up to 5 marks. A point-form set has no writing deductions.
• Summary: a limit of 200 words in one paragraph. Of 10 marks, 6 are for the key information, 1 for leaving out unnecessary detail, 1 for organization and 2 for meeting the length and paragraph rules, with half a mark off per writing error up to 5.
• Writing & editing: 15 marks per passage, 1 mark per correctly revised error and 1 for reproducing a correct sentence unchanged, with half a mark off for each new error and no cap on deductions.

VPD’s linked 2006 sample marks editing differently: four passages of 10 marks, where you first list the errors and then rewrite, at half a mark per error listed and per error revised. So treat the rubrics as a picture of the skills being scored (accuracy, not introducing new errors, staying within the word limit), not as the exact marking scheme for your sitting.

Are there official ETHOS sample questions?

Yes, from several agencies, all of them older documents. Vancouver Police’s recruiting page links a sample test (titled 2006 VPD Intake Exam). Surrey links an overview and sample, Delta links sample questions, and Transit Police links a 2019 overview. Abbotsford also links a sample-questions document that we did not review. We do not reproduce any of them here. The samples we read cover the reading, summary and editing modules; none includes the memory video-and-bulletin exercise, so timed practice on original material is the way to rehearse that. Vancouver Police’s separate learning-resources page lists writing courses and grammar handbooks. ETHOS Prep’s free sample (no account) is on the practice page, and a timed mock assessment is available too. Both are original ETHOS Prep content, not official test items.

How hard is the ETHOS exam?

Vancouver Police describes the content as Grade 12 level: grammar, spelling, composition, comprehension and mathematics, plus a memory section and short essay responses, all handwritten with no spell check or calculators. Nothing in that list is exotic. What catches people is doing it by hand, against a clock, for three hours, and editing someone else’s writing accurately rather than just writing your own. The pass mark VPD states is 60%. Delta Police distinguishes that floor from a result of roughly 70% that it describes as competitive, so passing and being competitive are not always the same thing. Treat “hard” as “unfamiliar format under time pressure”, which is trainable.

VPD also publishes its own free Ethos exam learning resources page (writing courses, grammar handbooks and online guides). Timed practice is what those resources do not give you. You can try a free sample of ETHOS Prep’s original practice material, with no account, on the practice page. It is original practice content, not an official test item.

How to actually prepare for the ETHOS exam

• Practice writing by hand, under time pressure. If you haven’t handwritten a timed paragraph since school, the exam format itself will cost you time.
• Train editing as its own skill. Reading your own writing critically is different from catching errors in someone else’s. Practice both. ETHOS Practice’s writing & editing drills are built around exactly this.
• Practice recall under a real time limit, not untimed review. The memory module tests performance under pressure, not general memorization ability.
• Confirm current details with your agency. Format, weighting, and transferability rules can change. This article reflects information re-checked on 2026-09-29 against Surrey Police Service’s, West Vancouver Police Service’s and Vancouver Police Department’s published recruiting pages.

Applying to Metro Vancouver Transit Police? Its own pages describe the exam and how it treats results from other agencies: see the Transit Police recruitment process guide.

Agency guides with each department’s own published steps: Vancouver, Surrey, Delta, Abbotsford and New Westminster.

What this article is not

This is general educational information, sourced from public agency pages. It isn’t official exam material, and it’s not a guarantee of current accuracy for every B.C. agency. ETHOS Prep has no access to actual ETHOS exam content, and nothing here is an official or leaked test question.