The best trainers - The best course - The best success rates

Some crammer course providers do not even tell you their success rates.

Why is that? Could it be that they have none to give you? Perhaps the rates that they do have are so embarrassingly poor that the provider is ashamed of them? Either way, why would you place your trust with such a provider?

There are crammer course providers who hide behind force pass rates.

When you are given the full facts you can see that these claims are not only dubious but also unimpressive. Firstly, no crammer course provider can claim the credit for an entire force's pass rate unless they taught each and every single candidate from that particular force. Secondly, claiming the responsibility for a force getting the 1st, 2nd, 3rd or 4th best mark in the country looks remarkable until you see what those marks actually were. Example: claiming to be responsible for the top 3 force pass rates in the Sergeant's 2007 examination is claiming responsibility for the marks of Thames Valley Police (45.9%), Dyfed Powys Police (43.9%) and Dorset Police (43.7%) - not at all impressive when the pass rates are included.

Then there are crammer course providers who say they have a 95% success rate.

We simply say, "Go on then - prove it!"

We know that it is far more honest, informative and reliable to tell you the pass rates of Part I candidates who actually came on our courses. Unlike any other provider, our statistics can be verified via Force Examination Officers.

Sergeants' Part I 2011
National Pass Rate 37%
Checkmate Training Course Pass Rate 77.5%

Inspectors' Part I 2010
National Pass Rate 41.8%
Checkmate Training Course Pass Rate 66%

Sergeants' Part 1 2010
National Pass Rate 44%
Checkmate Training Course Pass Rate 78%

Inspectors' Part 1 2009
National Pass Rate 44%
Checkmate Training Course Pass Rate 68%

Sergeants' Part I 2009
National Pass Rate 43.5%
Checkmate Training Course Pass Rate 69%

Inspectors' Part 1 2008
National Pass Rate 46.6%
Checkmate Training Course Pass Rate 64%

You can see our detailed success rate statistics below.
 
There are three points to make at the outset.
  1. There is no such thing as a 'National Force Performance League Table' (official verification of this fact can be obtained from the NPIA).
  2. If a crammer course provider claims to be responsible for good force pass rates, shouldn't they also claim to be responsible for the bad ones provided in the same circumstances?
  3. Just because someone holds a crammer course in a particular force area does not mean that they are responsible for that force's pass rate.

Force pass rates are an extremely unreliable indicator of crammer course effectiveness and trainer ability. This is because no Part I training provider can honestly claim to have exclusively taught every single candidate (successful and unsuccessful) from a particular force and thereby claim to be solely responsible for the force pass rate (good or bad).

This is why we do not use force pass rates to measure our success.

The only genuine measure of crammer course success is to look at how students who actually attend your courses perform. For example, look at Bedfordshire's performance in the 2010 Sergeant's Examination:

65 Bedfordshire candidates sit the examination and 46pass (force pass rate of 70.8%). 36 of those 65 candidates attended our Bedfordshire crammer course and 31 passed the examination (crammer course pass rate of 86.1%).

There were 29 candidates who we did not train; we had absolutely nothing to do with them. But just as we are not responsible for the failures within that group of 29, we are also not responsible for their successes.

   
 

Sergeants' Part I 2011
National Pass Rate 37%
Checkmate Training Course Pass Rate 77.5%

This course pass rate comes from looking at all 254 officers who attended our courses from Bedfordshire, West Mercia, Essex, Devon & Cornwall, Leicestershire, Kent, Nofolk, Cleveland, Leicestershire, British Transport Police and Sussex. Of the 254 candidates, 197 were successful in the examination; a pass rate of 77.5%. The three best performing forces were Thames Valley, Bedfordshire and Merseyside with a combined pass rate of 60%, 16.5% lower than the Checkmate pass rate.

Inspectors' Part I 2010
National Pass Rate 41.8%

Checkmate Training Course Pass Rate 66%

This course pass rate comes from looking at all 103 officers who attended our courses from Bedfordshire, West Mercia, Essex, Devon & Cornwall, Leicestershire, Kent and Sussex. Of the 103 candidates, 68 were successful in the examination; a pass rate of 66%. The two best performing forces were Merseyside and Thames Valley with a combined pass rate of 55%, 11% lower than the Checkmate pass rate.

Sergeants' Part 1 2010
National Pass Rate 44%
Checkmate Training Course Pass Rate 78%

This course pass rate comes from looking at all 248 of the officers who attended our Sergeants' crammer courses in Devon & Cornwall (40/54), Bedfordshire (31/36), Sussex (45/52), Leicestershire (11/21), Kent (33/39), Essex (14/17) and West Mercia (21/29). A combined total of 195/248 Checkmate Training Ltd candidates were successful (78.6%). The top three performing forces in the country were Bedfordshire (46/65), Merseyside (103/162) and Cumbria (44/73). A combined total of 193/300 from these top forces gives a pass rate of 64.3%, 14% lower than Checkmate Training's pass rate.

Inspectors' Part 1 2009
National Pass Rate 44%
Checkmate Training Course Pass Rate 68%

This course pass rate comes from looking at all 166 of the officers who attended our Inspectors' crammer courses in Devon & Cornwall, Kent, Bedfordshire, Essex, West Mercia, South Yorkshire, Leicestershire and Sussex. Of the 166 candidates, 113 were successful in the examination. The best performing forces in the country were Dyfed Powys (69% pass rate but only 13 officers actually sat the exam), Lancashire (61% pass rate) followed by Thames Valley Police (60% pass rate). These forces managed a combined 103 passes from 172 candidates (a combined pass rate of 59%, 9% lower than Checkmate Training's pass rate).

Sergeants' Part 1 2009
National Pass Rate 43.5%
Checkmate Training Course Pass Rate 69%

This course pass rate comes from looking at all 257 of the officers who attended our Sergeants' crammer courses in Devon & Cornwall (40/49), Bedfordshire (19/25), South Yorkshire (22/61), Leicestershire (47/64), Merseyside (26/29), Sussex (14/16) and Essex (16/23). A combined total of 184/257 Checkmate Training Ltd candidates were successful (69%). The top three performing forces in the country were the Isle of Man Police (7/11), Merseyside (116/202) and Dyfed-Powys (26/47). A combined total of 149/260 from these top forces gives a pass rate of 57% - 12% lower than Checkmate Trainings' pass rate.

Inspectors' Part 1 2008
National Pass Rate 46.6%
Checkmate Training Course Pass Rate 64%

This course pass rate comes from looking at all 132 of the officers who attended our Inspectors' crammer courses in Sussex, Devon & Cornwall, Kent and Bedfordshire. Of the 132 candidates, 84 were successful in the examination. The best performing forces in the country were Port of Tilbury (100% pass rate but only 1 candidate), SOCA (66% pass rate but only 3 candidates) followed by Cumbria, Cleveland, Thames Valley Police and Hertfordshire. These forces managed a combined 84 passes from 137 candidates (a combined pass rate of 61%).

Sergeants' Part I 2008
National Pass Rate 28.9%
Checkmate Training Course Pass Rate 53%

This course pass rate comes from looking at all 144 of the officers who attended our Sergeants' crammer courses in Devon & Cornwall and Sussex. Of the 144 candidates, 75 were successful in the examination. The best performing forces in this examination were Port of Tilbury (100% pass rate but only 2 candidates) and Dyfed-Powys (49% pass rate but only 51 candidates).

Inspectors' Part I 2007
National Pass Rate 38.3%
Checkmate Training Course Pass Rate 66%

This course pass rate comes from looking at all 118 of the officers who attended our Inspectors' crammer courses in Devon & Cornwall, Sussex and Bedfordshire. Of the 118 candidates, 78 were successful in the examination. The best performing forces in this examination were Gwent and SOCA; both scoring a 60% pass rate. Gwent only had 30 officers taking the examination; SOCA only had 5.

Sergeants' Part 1 2007
National Pass Rate 29.1%
Checkmate Training Course Pass Rate 64%

This course pass rate comes from looking at all 254 of the officers who attended our Sergeants' crammer courses in Devon & Cornwall, Sussex, Hertfordshire and Nottinghamshire. Of the 254 candidates, 163 were successful in the examination. To put this in perspective, the best force performance in 2007 was by Thames Valley (45.9%, 107/233). If Thames Valley had a 64% pass rate they would have had 149 passes instead of 107.

May we take this opportunity to wish you all the very best for your revision and for your examination and we hope to see you on one of our courses in the near future.

Paul Connor and Julianna Mitchell
 

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