What the C-SERP aptitude test is
The Centralised Services Aptitude Test is the screening examination that Ghana’s Ministry of the Interior runs, through the Centralised Services e-Recruitment Portal (C-SERP), for entry-level recruitment into four internal security agencies at once: the Ghana Police Service, the Ghana Prisons Service, the Ghana National Fire Service and the Ghana Immigration Service. Before C-SERP, each agency ran its own separate application and testing process. The centralised portal now lets an applicant apply to one or more of the four services through a single account, sit one aptitude test, and have a single medical screening count toward every service they applied to. The test itself is a common one, with a shared core and a service-specific component, so it functions as a joint entrance filter for Ghana’s uniformed internal security workforce rather than four unrelated exams.
Who can apply
Applicants must be Ghanaian citizens. For the 2025/26 cycle, the minimum age was 18, and the maximum age was set at 30 for General Duty Recruit positions and 35 for other positions, measured as at 1 November 2025. On the education side, the portal sorted applicants into categories: Category A covered NVTI, Junior High School level, sports and similar trade or certificate qualifications, while WASSCE and SSSCE holders, together with HND, first degree and master’s degree holders, sat the standard graduate and secondary-leaver track. WASSCE and SSSCE applicants needed a minimum of five credit passes including Mathematics and English Language. Physical standards, including height and chest measurement, are checked at a later screening stage rather than at application.
How the test is structured
The aptitude test is conducted entirely online and is proctored: the portal requires a desktop or laptop computer with a functioning webcam and microphone, and an applicant goes through an enrolment check covering internet strength, background noise, webcam calibration and identity verification before the test starts. Category A applicants answered 30 questions; WASSCE, HND and degree-level applicants answered 60 questions. The shared core covers English Language, Mathematics, logical reasoning and sequencing, and general knowledge. On top of that core, each service adds its own content: Immigration applicants are tested on geography, international relations, ECOWAS protocols and border management; Fire Service applicants on basic science, safety principles and emergency response fundamentals; and Prisons Service applicants on correctional systems, rehabilitation concepts and social issues. The official pass mark for the 2025/26 cycle was set at 65 percent. Once started, the test cannot be paused, closed or saved, and it submits automatically when the allotted time runs out.
After the test
Applicants who clear the pass mark move to physical and credentials screening, where original certificates, birth records and identity documents are verified alongside height, chest and fitness checks. From there, qualifying applicants proceed to a single medical screening, run once regardless of how many of the four services an applicant applied to. Passing medical screening is not itself a job offer: it is followed by further vetting before final selection and enlistment. For the 2025/26 cycle, the portal opened on 17 November 2025 and closed on 19 December 2025, the online aptitude test began on 10 February 2026 with a mop-up round for disrupted Police and Immigration test slots from 21 February 2026 after early technical problems, results were published from 4 March 2026, and medical screening of qualified applicants began on 16 March 2026.
How to prepare
Because the test is timed, computer based and drawn from a wide subject spread, the most useful preparation is practising English, Mathematics and reasoning questions under timed conditions on the same kind of device the actual test requires, and reading up on the specific service’s specialist content, since a candidate applying to Immigration is tested on different material than one applying to Fire or Prisons. Applicants should also confirm well ahead of the test window that their computer, webcam, microphone and internet connection meet the portal’s requirements, since the test cannot be restarted once it has begun.
Sources and re-verification
Recruitment terms, cycle dates, category structures and the pass mark change between cycles, and the Ministry of the Interior has previously adjusted test dates mid-cycle to address technical problems. Re-verify any date, fee or pass mark against the current notice on the C-SERP portal and the Ghana Police Service’s own site before relying on it for a live application.