- Why There's No Official Pass Rate Number
- What the Test Structure Tells Us About Difficulty
- The Retest Data Point DPS Actually Publishes
- Domain Breakdown: Where Candidates Lose Time
- Who's Actually Taking This Exam
- Beyond the Written Exam: Why a Single Number Wouldn't Tell the Whole Story
- Reading the Practice Booklet Correctly
- Frequently Asked Questions
- DPS does not publish an official pass-rate percentage for the Trooper Trainee written entrance exam.
- The timed sections are short: 20 math questions in four minutes, 10 reading questions in four minutes.
- Miss the retest window by even a day and you face a 90-day wait plus renewed documentation.
- Reading questions come from just two short passages, five questions each - a very specific format to drill.
Why There's No Official Pass Rate Number
If you searched for "TX-TROOPER pass rate 2026" hoping for a clean percentage, you're not alone - and you're also not going to find one from the Texas Department of Public Safety. DPS Training Operations Division, which manages Trooper Trainee recruiting and entrance testing, does not publish a pass/fail statistic for the written entrance exam. There's no annual report, no cohort breakdown, and no state-by-state comparison chart. What DPS does publish is the structure of the test itself and the consequences of failing it, which turns out to be more useful than a single number would be anyway.
This matters because a lot of exam-prep content online recycles generic "pass rate" language borrowed from unrelated credentials that happen to share an acronym. On this site, TX-TROOPER refers specifically to the Texas DPS Trooper Trainee Written Entrance Exam - not a certification exam, not a licensing test, and not anything administered by a different agency. Any pass-rate figure you see attached to "TX-TROOPER" that isn't sourced from DPS itself should be treated with suspicion.
What the Test Structure Tells Us About Difficulty
Instead of a pass rate, look at the structure DPS actually built. The Trooper Trainee Practice Test - the version currently linked by DPS carries a 2021 footer - describes two timed multiple-choice sections totaling eight minutes of combined timed-section allowance. That eight minutes is not the full recruiting appointment; it's just the clock time for the graded portions.
- Math Skills Test: 20 questions, 4 minutes
- Reading Comprehension Test: 10 questions, 4 minutes, drawn from two short passages with five questions each
Doing the arithmetic tells you something the pass rate can't: you have roughly 12 seconds per math question and about 24 seconds per reading question once you account for reading the passage itself. That pacing constraint, not raw content difficulty, is arguably the biggest factor in whether someone clears the written exam on the first try. For a full breakdown of what's tested inside each section, see the TX-TROOPER Exam Domains 2026 guide, and for a difficulty-focused walkthrough of the timing pressure specifically, read How Hard Is the TX-TROOPER Exam?
Key Takeaway
Speed under a four-minute clock is the real constraint in both sections - build your practice sessions around timed reps, not just correct-answer accuracy.
The Retest Data Point DPS Actually Publishes
This is the closest thing to hard "pass rate" data that exists publicly, and it's procedural rather than statistical: DPS's disqualification period chart lays out exactly what happens after an initial reading or math failure. For an initial failure, applicants must retest within 30 days. Miss that 30-day window, and the consequence isn't a quick makeup - it triggers a 90-day wait along with renewed documentation requirements.
That single rule tells you more about how DPS treats the written exam than any invented percentage could. It's designed to let a candidate try again quickly if the first attempt didn't go well, but it also punishes procrastination heavily. A 90-day delay, plus the administrative overhead of resubmitting paperwork, can push a candidate's entire application timeline back by a full academy cycle.
Because at least two trips to Texas are required during the application process - and travel expenses are not reimbursed - a missed retest window isn't just a scheduling inconvenience. It's a second unreimbursed trip you didn't plan for. This is one of several reasons applicants should treat the written exam as a first-attempt-only proposition rather than something to "feel out" and retake casually. If you want the mechanics of how the written exam fits into the larger application timeline, the TX-TROOPER Exam Dates 2026 guide covers testing windows and deadlines in more detail.
Domain Breakdown: Where Candidates Lose Time
Since DPS doesn't score-report by domain publicly, the best way to reason about "pass rate" at the domain level is to look at where the format itself creates friction.
Domain 1: Math Skills Test
Twenty questions in four minutes means the format rewards fast, confident arithmetic over slow, careful derivation. Candidates who stumble here are usually not lacking math knowledge - they're losing seconds to hesitation on problems they actually know how to solve.
- Basic arithmetic fluency without a calculator
- Quick fraction, percentage, and ratio conversions
- Word-problem translation done at speed, not leisure
Domain 2: Reading Comprehension Test
Ten questions pulled from exactly two short passages, five questions per passage, in four minutes. This is a tight format: you can't skim broadly and hope patterns emerge. You need to read each passage with intent to answer specific, literal and inferential questions almost immediately.
- Identifying the main idea of a short passage quickly
- Distinguishing stated facts from reasonable inferences
- Answering detail-recall questions without re-reading the entire passage
Both domains get a full treatment, including sample question types and pacing strategy, in the TX-TROOPER Exam Domains 2026: Complete Guide to All 2 Content Areas. If you're building a study plan from scratch, the TX-TROOPER Study Guide 2026 sequences both domains into a first-attempt-focused plan.
Math Skills Test pacing
- Drill arithmetic, fractions, and ratios under a strict four-minute, 20-question timer
- Track which question types cost the most seconds, not just which you miss
Reading Comprehension Test format
- Practice with short two-passage sets, five questions each, timed at four minutes total
- Practice answering without full re-reads - the passage length doesn't allow it
Combined timed run-throughs
- Simulate the full eight-minute combined timed-section allowance in one sitting
- Use full-length practice runs on the main practice test platform to rehearse the exact pacing
Who's Actually Taking This Exam
Pass-rate discussion is incomplete without knowing the applicant pool. DPS's eligibility rules shape who even sits for the written exam:
- Applicants must be at least 20 when applying and 21 by recruit-school graduation; DPS lists no maximum application age.
- Education normally requires 60 earned accredited college hours.
- Up to 60 hours can be waived for 24 months of qualifying active-duty military or equivalent full-time peace-officer experience; National Guard and Reserve applicants have separate qualifying documentation routes.
- U.S. citizenship is required, with a legal-permanent-resident exception for honorably discharged veterans with at least two years of military service.
This mix - traditional college-hour candidates alongside military-waiver candidates - means the applicant pool going into the written exam is not uniform in age, background, or recent academic exposure to timed multiple-choice testing. That variability is one honest reason a single pass-rate figure, even if DPS published one, would be hard to interpret meaningfully. For the full eligibility rundown, see TX-TROOPER Requirements 2026: Eligibility, Prerequisites & How to Qualify.
Beyond the Written Exam: Why a Single Number Wouldn't Tell the Whole Story
Even if DPS released a written-exam pass rate tomorrow, it wouldn't tell you much about your odds of becoming a trooper. The written exam is one gate among several separate selection stages: physical readiness, polygraph, interview, background investigation, and medical and psychological evaluations all follow. Passing the math and reading sections gets you further in the process - it doesn't complete it.
| Stage | What It Measures | Retest Rule (if applicable) |
|---|---|---|
| Written Entrance Exam | Math Skills Test, Reading Comprehension Test | Retest within 30 days of initial failure, or 90-day wait plus renewed documentation |
| Physical Readiness | Job-related physical standards | Not covered by the written-exam retest chart |
| Polygraph / Background / Interview | Integrity, history, suitability | Separate DPS process, not scored like the written exam |
| Medical / Psychological | Fitness for duty | Separate DPS process |
Because the written exam sits at the front of this pipeline, treating it as a "one-and-done, then I'm basically hired" milestone is a mistake. It's better understood as a screening gate that filters candidates into the more time- and resource-intensive stages that follow. If you're weighing whether the entire process is worth pursuing given everything downstream of the written exam, Is the TX-TROOPER Certification Worth It? Complete ROI Analysis 2026 covers that tradeoff directly, and the TX-TROOPER Salary Guide 2026 looks at the earnings side of the equation.
Reading the Practice Booklet Correctly
One detail that trips up self-preparing candidates: the booklet's sample questions are a shorter set than the test it describes. In other words, the official practice PDF gives you a taste of question style, not a full-length rehearsal. If you only work through the official sample set once and call it "studying," you haven't actually simulated the timed pressure of 20 math questions in four minutes or two full reading passages in four minutes.
It's also worth remembering the scope boundary here: this site and this exam are about the employment entrance examination DPS uses for Trooper Trainee recruiting - not TCOLE licensing and not a driver-license test. If you've seen "TX-TROOPER" content elsewhere describing certification fees, renewal cycles, or licensing exams, that's a different credential entirely and none of those details apply to what's covered here. For a plain-language explainer of what this exam actually is and isn't, see What Is TX-TROOPER? and TX-TROOPER Meaning.
Frequently Asked Questions
No. DPS Training Operations Division does not publish a pass/fail percentage for the written entrance exam. The most concrete public data is the retest and disqualification chart, not a statistical pass rate.
DPS's disqualification chart requires a retest within 30 days of an initial failure. If you miss that window, you face a 90-day wait and must resubmit qualifying documentation before retesting.
The math section is 20 questions in four minutes; the reading section is 10 questions in four minutes, based on two short passages with five questions each. Combined, that's eight minutes of timed-section allowance, not the full appointment length.
The official booklet's sample questions are a shorter set than the actual test, so it's useful for learning question style but not sufficient as full-length timed practice. Repeated timed drills matching the real format are recommended.
No. The written exam is one of several separate selection stages, which also include physical readiness testing, polygraph, interview, background investigation, and medical and psychological evaluations.