Victoria Police Entrance Exam - Literacy

This exam video tutorial explains what’s involved in the literacy component of the Victoria Police Entrance Examination.

Victoria Police Entrance Exam – Literacy Transcript

Hi, my name is Lee Kindler and I'm a literacy educator.
This video explains what's required in the literacy test in the Victoria Police Entrance Examination and gives advice about how to answer the questions.
This section of the exam measures your reading comprehension skills.
It tests your ability to use a range of reading strategies to understand different types of texts. By texts, we mean pieces of writing, diagrams, or graphs.
In policing, literacy skills are important. You need to be able to understand, find information in, analyze, and think critically about different texts.
You'll be given six different texts to read and be required to answer 30 questions.
You have 35 minutes to complete them.
You'll answer the questions on a computer.
Most of the questions will be multiple choice and you'll need to click on the box next to the correct answer.
Some questions will require a short response that you need to type into a box.
Other questions will require you to tick a box to answer true or false or yes or no to statements or questions.
There are different types of questions in the literacy test.
The questions may ask you to find detail in the text.
Identify the main idea or purpose of a text.
Identify techniques that the writer has used, infer information that is not specifically stated in the text, or identify the meaning of a word or phrase.
We're going to look at examples of each of the different types of questions.
We'll be using the text called processed meats cause cancer.
It's a good idea to read the text before we look at the example questions.
When you read the text, think about what type of text it is, the purpose of the text, and who the text might be written for or the audience.
This will help you to develop an overall understanding of the text, which will assist you in answering the questions.
A few examples of text types are an opinion article, a newspaper report, an advertisement, building instructions, and a book review.
Some examples of the text's purpose are to inform, to persuade, to entertain, to instruct, and to evaluate.
And the audience might be, for example, people of a specific age group, men or women, people with a particular interest, people from a specific place, or people who work in a specific profession.
The words that the writer chooses and the way that the text is presented will change depending on the text type, purpose, and the audience.
The text we are looking at called process speak causes cancer is a newspaper report.
The purpose of a newspaper report is to inform.
The audience for this newspaper report is the general public who want to keep up with the news or people interested in health-related topics.
The first type of question we're going to look at asks you to find detail in the text.
These type of questions ask you to think about information, opinions, or ideas that are stated in the text.
Some questions may ask you to say whether details are not stated in the text.
In this question, you're given four statements. You need to look closely at the text and find whether each statement is true, false, or not stated in the text.
For the first statement, the information can be found in the third paragraph where it says, "Who experts concluded that each 50 gram portion of processed meat eaten daily increases the risk of colorctyl cancer by 18%." The statement is true, so you need to click on yes.
For the second statement, the article does not state whether the way that processed meat is cooked is a factor in how likely it is to cause cancer. So you need to click on not stated.
For the third statement, the first paragraph in the article says that red meat is likely to cause cancer. The statement that eating red meat definitely causes cancer is false, so you need to click on no.
The answer to the fourth statement can be found in the fifth paragraph which says that research has shown that about 34,000 cancer deaths per year worldwide can be attributed to diets high in processed meat. The number is over 30,000. So the statement is true. You need to click on yes.
The next type of question we're going to look at asks you to find the main idea in the text or the purpose of the text. These type of questions ask you to think about the text as a whole.
You may not find the answer written directly in the text. It will help you to think about the type of text that you've read.
Is it a newspaper report, opinion article, advertisement, or other type of text?
Consider the purpose of the text. Does the writer want to entertain, inform, or persuade the reader?
Think about who the text is written for. Is it written for people in a certain age group or for people who have particular interests?
Read each sentence and decide whether it correctly describes the main idea or purpose.
Looking at the first sentence, the article quotes an expert who says that the risk of developing cancer is small. He also says that it increases with the amount of meat consumed.
This matches with the information in the text, which shows us that the answer A is probably right. It's good to check the other answers to make sure.
Option B says that the results are inconclusive. This is false because the article explains there is a conclusive connection between developing cancer and eating processed meat.
Option C says that a small amount of processed meat is safe. Again, this is false because this is not communicated in the article.
Option D says that eating red meat and processed meat is very likely to give you cancer. This is false because there is a small risk. It is not very likely.
So we can confirm that the correct answer is A.
The next question asks you to identify techniques used by the writer. These types of questions may ask you to think about why the writer has presented information in a certain way or for what reason they've chosen to include certain features.
Again, it's helpful to think about the type of text you are reading and its purpose.
The text is a news report, and the purpose of the text is to inform the reader by presenting information from different sources. Quotes are used in news reports to show word for word what has been said or written.
The question asks us to choose the option that is not a reason why quotes were included in the report.
Looking at the possible answers, quotes are used in this news report to provide differing opinions and differing facts.
The report quotes experts from the International Agency for Research on Cancer and includes a quote from the Australian Meat Industry Council.
This provides differing opinions and different facts. So, option B is true.
Quotes in a news report make the article more authoritative because readers can see that information is being presented directly from the source. So option C is also true.
Quotes provide information straight from the source. So, option D is true.
Looking at option A in a news report, the writer does not present their own opinion. Quotes are not used to back up the opinion of the writer.
So, the option is not a reason why quotes were included.
So, the correct answer is A because it is not a reason why quotes were included.
This next type of question requires you to infer the answer.
The answer won't be explicitly stated in the text. So you have to think about the content and work out the correct answer.
In this question, you'll need to think about the opinions the WHO experts and the meat industry council used and on what point they disagree.
Looking at the possible answers, both the WHO experts and the meat industry council state that red meat can be nutritious. They don't disagree on this point. So, answer A is wrong.
Looking at answer B, the WHO says that red meat is likely to cause cancer, but the meat industry council say that there is no causal link. They disagree on this point. So, B is the correct answer.
But let's check the other answers. We don't know if the meat industry council think that processed meat can cause cancer. It isn't stated in the text. We can't say that the two groups disagree on this point. So answer C is wrong.
We also don't know if the meat industry council think that eating more processed meat increases the risk of cancer. So again, we can't say if the two groups disagree on this. So answer D is wrong.
This confirms that answer B is correct.
Inference questions can be tricky. So, let's look at another one.
In this question, again, you need to draw your own conclusions about the content in the text. You won't find the answer directly in the text.
Answer A is a fact, but it does not show the importance of the study. It's incorrect.
We can rule out answer B for the same reason. It doesn't demonstrate why this study is important.
Answer C establishes the importance of the study. A large number of people that eat processed meat are affected. This answer is correct.
Let's check answer D. While this statement may be true, it does not show the importance of the study. It's incorrect.
This confirms that C is the correct answer.
The last type of question that we'll cover today is one where you'll be asked to find the meaning of a word or phrase.
When you're answering these type of questions, it's a good idea to find the word or phrase in the text and reread the paragraph or relook at the section that it's in.
Words and phrases can have different meanings depending on how they used. So, try to get a sense of how the word or phrase fits with the main idea of the paragraph.
If the word or phrase is in a sentence, it may help to replace the answer you think is correct with the word in the question. If it makes sense and has the same meaning, it's likely to be correct.
In this question, the phrase we're looking at is in the second paragraph.
The general idea of the paragraph is that the studies we were used to find the links between processed meat and cancer were extensive.
Looking at option A, if we were to replace the phrase with the original, it would change the meaning. So, this is incorrect.
The same goes for option B. Also, this doesn't fit with the main idea of the paragraph.
Cultures that eat varying types of food has a similar meaning to populations with diverse diets. The phrase also fits with the main idea of the paragraph about the broad nature of the studies. So, option C is correct.
Option D would not fit with the main idea of the paragraph and has a different meaning.
This confirms that the correct answer is C.
I hope this has helped you to understand some of the questions you'll find in the literacy section of the Victorian Police Entrance Exam.
You can improve your literacy skills by reading a range of different types of texts, including those that you wouldn't normally read.
Spend time thinking about the issues or ideas you've read about and use a dictionary to look up unfamiliar words.
You can also read the chapter in practice now Victoria Police Entrance Examination on Literacy Skills.
It goes over the points we've been talking about.
Read over the explanations and have a go at the practice questions.
Practice now is produced by ACER.
It describes a range of types of questions you're likely to find in the exam and provides detailed explanations of how correct answers may be reached.
It's available from the ACER bookshop and commercial book sellers.
There are also practice tests on the Victoria Police Entrance Exam web page where you'll find literacy questions.
If you're having trouble with aspects of literacy tasks, you may like to contact the reading writing hotline. They can suggest organizations that may be able to assist you or resources you could use to help you overcome any problems you're having.
Good luck with your exam preparation.

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Updated 31 December 2025