2.4 Part C: PRF-R for Policing Overview

Part C: PRF-R for Policing Overview

Quick Answer: Immediately after finishing the SSPO, you move into Part C — the Personality Research Form–Revised (PRF-R) for Policing. It presents 307 required statements, one at a time, and you respond to each using a five-point agreement scale from Strongly Disagree to Strongly Agree. There's no separate timer, but you must finish within the same proctored session as Part B. There are no right or wrong answers, so the real preparation is showing up rested and answering honestly rather than trying to study content the way you'd study spelling or grammar rules.

Part C is a fundamentally different kind of assessment than anything in Part B. The SSPO measures skills — spelling, vocabulary, grammar, and problem-solving judgment — where there genuinely is a best answer. PRF-R measures personality traits, attitudes, and behavioural tendencies that relate to success in entry-level policing, and it has no answer key at all.

What PRF-R Is (and What It Isn't)

The current, official Part C instrument is the PRF-R for Policing. You may occasionally see older or third-party materials referring to "ESQ2" — that name reflects an earlier version of Ontario's personality-assessment tool, and some legacy documentation still uses it in places, but the assessment applicants complete today is the PRF-R. It is administered by SIGMA Assessment Systems, the same organization behind the SSPO, but it is a separate instrument built around personality measurement rather than cognitive skill.

Format: 307 Statements, One at a Time

PRF-R presents 307 required multiple-choice statements. Each one appears individually on screen, and you respond using a five-point scale:

Unlike the SSPO, where leaving an unsure question blank is a valid and safe strategy, PRF-R requires a response to every statement. That mandatory selection exists for a specific reason: the reliability of a personality profile depends on having a complete set of answers, so an incomplete inventory can't be scored meaningfully. If a statement feels oddly worded or doesn't seem to apply cleanly to you, pick the response that's closest to true and move on — don't try to skip it.

Timing: Untimed, But Session-Bound

PRF-R itself has no strict per-item or overall clock. However, it is not open-ended either — you're required to complete it within your scheduled proctored session, the same appointment in which you just finished the 35-minute SSPO. In practice, after finishing Part B, most applicants have somewhere in the neighborhood of 30 to 50 minutes remaining within their booked session to work through all 307 statements, since the full Part B/Part C appointment is scheduled for roughly 60 to 90 minutes total. Because there's no per-item countdown, a steady, natural pace matters far more than speed — rushing to "beat a clock" that doesn't really exist can actually work against you by making your responses less consistent.

Why You Can't Study for PRF-R the Way You Study Spelling

Every other section of OACP testing rewards specific preparation: memorize spelling patterns, practice grammar rules, drill problem-solving scenarios. PRF-R doesn't work that way, because it isn't measuring what you know — it's measuring tendencies like sociability, self-control, conscientiousness, and attitudes toward rules and authority that are relevant to policing work. There is no bank of "correct" personality answers to memorize.

Trying to guess which responses sound most like an ideal police candidate is a common instinct, and it's also a risky one. PRF-R is built with related and overlapping statements designed to check for consistency across your responses. Answering honestly tends to produce a coherent profile; answering strategically, item by item, tends to produce contradictions that a trained reviewer can spot. OACP's own guidance to applicants is blunt about this: dishonest responses on Part C can jeopardize your application, because inconsistencies in your results are something recruiters can identify. The safest and, frankly, easiest approach is to respond the way you actually think and behave, statement by statement, without trying to reverse-engineer what a hiring panel wants to hear.

Results, Confidentiality, and Where PRF-R Fits

Like the SSPO, PRF-R has no pass/fail cutoff — it is explicitly described as a tool used to help determine overall suitability rather than a test you clear or fail outright. You will not see your own PRF-R results, and no individualized feedback is offered. Results are shared only with the police service(s) you apply to, where they're used as one supplementary input alongside your SSPO results, fitness log and daily journal, education, and interview performance.

Practical Tips for Part C Session Day

• Treat Part C as a continuation of the same appointment as the SSPO — there's no separate booking or login involved
• Read each statement once and respond with your honest, immediate reaction rather than overanalyzing the wording
• Answer every item; unlike the SSPO, PRF-R requires a response to each of the 307 statements for the results to be usable
• Expect similar or rephrased statements to reappear later in the inventory — this is intentional and designed to check consistency, so don't try to track or match your earlier answers
• Because there's no strict per-item timer, take a brief mental breath between blocks of statements if you need one, as long as you stay within your overall session window
• Prioritize being well-rested for the whole appointment, not just the timed SSPO — fatigue affects the honesty and consistency of your Part C responses just as much as your Part B accuracy