Every free guide, in one place
State6 is built by serving officers, and most of what we know about boards and interviews is written up here for free. This page is the index. Nothing on it needs an account, and nothing on it sells you anything until you decide to try the app.
If you are a serving officer going for promotion, start with the complete promotion board guide and the question bank for your rank, then read how the CVF is marked before you write a single answer. The force pages give you the inspection picture a panel expects you to know, grade by grade, for all 43 forces in England and Wales.
If you are applying for a specific role rather than a rank, a lateral move or an advertised post, the process is different: you are marked against the criteria in that advert, not a rank ladder. The specific role guide covers how to read the advert, build your evidence against it and rehearse the interview.
If you are applying to join the police, the joining the police guides cover the whole online assessment: the competency based interview, the briefing exercise, the written exercise and the behaviours you are marked against at Level 1. You do not need any police experience to use them.
The three downloads are PDFs we send to your inbox from the page each one lives on. When you are ready to see your own answer marked, the free demo marks one real board answer with no account needed.
Going for promotion
Start with the complete guide, then the pages that match where you are in your preparation.
- Promotion board guideThe complete UK guide to the board, from the application to the day itself.
- Police promotion questionsThe question bank by rank, with the competency each one targets.
- Sergeant promotion boardWhat the constable to sergeant board asks and how it is marked.
- Inspector promotion boardWhat changes when you step up to inspector.
- Chief inspector promotion boardThe strategic thinking that board expects.
- Met police promotionThe Met's future focused interview, scored on potential rather than the CVF.
- Applying for a specific roleA lateral move or an advertised post: preparing against the criteria in that advert.
- Insider tipsWhat panels notice, from people who have sat on them.
- Board glossaryEvery term a panel uses, in plain English.
Answers and the framework
How boards mark, and how to build an answer that scores.
- Police CVF frameworkThe 2024 Competency and Values Framework, competency by competency.
- Police CVF examplesWorked examples against each competency, with what scored and why.
- CVF decoderEach competency translated into what a panel is listening for.
- Learn STARRThe answer structure for past example questions, with the Inspector Trap guide.
- Forward facing questionsThe PEEL structure for questions about what you would do.
- Presentation structureThe STANCE structure for a board presentation, section by section.
Your force
The inspection picture a panel expects you to know.
Joining the police
For applicants: the process, the interview and the written exercise.
- Joining the policeEverything a new applicant needs, in one place.
- Police entry routesWhich way into policing suits you.
- Police online assessmentThe whole application process, start to finish.
- Police competency based interviewThe five questions and what is marked.
- Briefing exerciseTwelve questions in three parts, and how to prepare.
- CVF Level 1The behaviours applicants are marked against.
- Police officer salaryConstable pay scales and pay by rank.
Free downloads
Three PDFs, sent to your inbox from the page each one lives on.
Read enough? See one answer marked.
Write one board answer and watch it marked against the CVF, free, no account needed.
Try the demo