How to Study for the Ontario Security Guard Test

If you have finished your 40-hour training and you're wondering how to study for the Ontario security guard test, the short answer is this: spend most of your time on legal authorities and the PSISA rules, practise with timed 60-question mocks, and book only when you're scoring well above the pass line. This post turns that into a day-by-day plan you can follow, whether you have two weeks or five days.

For the test format, fee and booking rules, see our Ontario security guard test guide. This page is about the studying itself.

Canada Licence Prep is an independent study aid, not affiliated with the Ministry of the Solicitor General, Serco or any training school.

What you're studying for

A quick recap so the plan makes sense:

Item	Detail
Questions	60 multiple choice
Time	75 minutes of answering time, inside a 2-hour appointment
Pass mark	62%, which means at least 38 correct
Aids allowed	None
Retakes	Rebook and pay again, then rewrite the whole test
Fee (as of October 2026)	$39.55 with HST on the booking site; the older ministry study guide still lists $75.15. Confirm when you book

Sources: the province's testing page and the security guard study guide, checked October 2026.

Because a failed attempt costs the full fee again and you get no feedback on which questions you missed, it pays to prepare properly for the first attempt.

The study materials that matter

You don't need to buy a stack of books. Four sources cover everything:

1. Your training course manual. It follows the ministry syllabus, and your instructor will have pointed out what they consider testable.
2. The ministry's Training Syllabus for Security Guards. This is the official list of what the test can cover. Use it as a checklist: if a topic is on the syllabus, it can be on the test.
3. The ministry security guard study guide. It explains the test process and gives test-taking advice. Some fee and timing details in it are dated, so trust the booking site for those.
4. The law itself, for the rule-heavy sections. The Private Security and Investigative Services Act, 2005 (PSISA), the Code of Conduct regulation, section 494 of the Criminal Code on arrest without warrant, and the Trespass to Property Act. You don't need to read them cover to cover. Read the sections your manual cites, so you see the exact words the questions are built on.

Add a source of timed practice questions, and you have everything.

Exam tip: Be wary of old PDFs that claim an 80% pass mark. The Ontario test's cut score is 62%. If a document gets that wrong, assume the rest of it may be out of date too.

Where to spend your time: the syllabus weighting

The ministry syllabus assigns classroom hours to each of 12 sections. Hours aren't an official question count, but they are the best guide to where marks come from. Our mocks weight topics in roughly the same way.

Syllabus section	Classroom hours	Study priority
Legal authorities (arrest, trespass, search, evidence)	7.5	Highest
Emergency response preparation	4	High
Effective communications	4	Medium
Basic security procedures	3	Medium
Canadian legal system	3	Medium
Sensitivity training	3	Medium
PSISA and regulations	2	High (rule-based, easy marks if memorized)
Introduction to the security industry	2	Low
Report writing	2	Medium
Use of force theory	2	High (overlaps with legal authorities)
Health and safety	1	Low
Emergency first aid	6.5 (certified separately)	Low on the test

Two sections punch above their hours. The PSISA section is only 2 hours, but it is full of exact rules (prohibited words, uniform details, licence duties) that are easy marks if you have memorized them and lost marks if you haven't. Use of force is also 2 hours, but it shows up inside legal authority scenarios.

A 14-day study plan

This plan assumes 45 to 60 minutes a day. If you finished training recently, it's enough. If training was months ago, add a few days at the start to reread your manual.

Day	Focus	What to do
1	Baseline	Take a 20-question diagnostic. Write down your two weakest sections. Read the free Ontario exam guide
2	PSISA and Code of Conduct	Read the PSISA note. Make flashcards for the prohibited terms, uniform rules and licence duties
3	PSISA, recall	Flashcards from memory, then topic practice until you score above 85%
4	Arrest powers	Read Criminal Code s.494 and the legal authorities note. Learn the three arrest situations
5	Trespass	Read the trespass section of your manual. Learn the notice rules, the colour markings and the arrest power
6	Search, evidence, Charter	Consent searches, protecting evidence, the rights a person has on arrest
7	First full mock	Sit a 60-question mock under a 75-minute timer. Review every wrong answer
8	Use of force	Read the use of force note. Learn the Criminal Code sections and the situational model
9	Emergency response	Fire, bomb threats, evacuations. Learn the order of actions your manual teaches
10	Legal system and procedures	Types of offences, the courts, patrols, access control, alarms
11	Communication, sensitivity, reports	De-escalation, human rights grounds, what goes in a notebook entry
12	Second full mock	A fresh mock under time. Compare section scores with day 7
13	Fix	Drill the two sections that dropped the most marks on day 12
14	Confirm	A third fresh mock. If you're at 75% or more, book

If you finish day 14 below 70%, don't book yet. Repeat days 12 and 13 with new mocks until your scores settle.

A 5-day plan if your test is soon

Sometimes the booking is already made. Bookings are generally final, so here is how to use five days well.

1. Day 1: Diagnostic, then the PSISA rules. Flashcards for every list.
2. Day 2: Legal authorities only: s.494, trespass, search. This is the biggest section, so give it the whole day.
3. Day 3: A full timed mock, then review. Note which sections cost you the most.
4. Day 4: Use of force and emergency response, then drill your weakest section from day 3.
5. Day 5: A second full mock in the morning. Light review of wrong answers only. Early night.

Skip the low-weight sections (introduction, health and safety) unless your diagnostic showed a real gap. Five days is not the time to read the manual front to back.

Find your starting point first

Before you start either plan, spend 15 minutes finding out where you actually are. Most people guess wrong. They feel shaky on report writing, which is mostly common sense, and feel fine on arrest powers, which is where the trick questions live.

Our free Ontario security guard diagnostic gives you 20 questions with a score for each syllabus section and an explanation for every answer. Use the result to decide where days 2 to 6 of the plan should go. No signup is needed to take it.

How to study the hardest sections

Legal authorities: learn the triggers, not the paragraphs

Scenario questions give you a situation and ask what you may do. You'll answer faster if you learn the conditions that trigger each power:

• Anyone may arrest a person they find committing an indictable offence.
• Anyone may arrest a person they reasonably believe committed a criminal offence and is escaping from, and being freshly pursued by, people with lawful authority to arrest.
• The owner or lawful possessor of property, or a person they authorize (such as a guard) may arrest a person found committing a criminal offence on or in relation to that property, at the time or within a reasonable time after, if they reasonably believe a police officer can't make the arrest.
• After any of these, the person goes to a peace officer forthwith.

"Finds committing" means you saw it. When a question describes a guard acting on a hunch about something last week, the answer is almost never "arrest".

For trespass, learn the shape of the offence: entering where entry is prohibited, or not leaving immediately when directed by the occupier or someone they authorize. Then add the notice rules and markings.

Exam tip: In a scenario, ask three questions in order. What power applies? Is its trigger met? What must happen next? If any answer is "none" or "no", the arrest option is wrong.

Our Ontario security guard test questions page walks through this reasoning step by step with worked examples.

PSISA: memorize the lists

This section rewards plain memory. Make flashcards for:

• the terms a guard may never use to describe themselves, including "officer", "police", "detective" and "law enforcement";
• the duties: carry the licence, produce it on request, wear a compliant uniform (with stated exceptions);
• the uniform details and what is not allowed;
• the equipment rules for batons and handcuffs;
• what the Code of Conduct requires.

Test yourself from the card, not by rereading the note. Recall is what the exam measures.

Use of force: think in principles

You won't be asked to recite section numbers word for word as often as you'll be asked to judge a response. The principles that answer most questions: force must be necessary, reasonable and proportionate; you are responsible for any excess; it stops when the threat stops; and presence and communication come first. Learn the warning signs of positional asphyxia, because medical-risk questions come up too.

How to know you're ready to book

Signal	Ready	Not yet
Timed mock scores	75% or more on two or three different mocks	Under 70%, or one good score among several poor ones
Legal authorities section	Consistently your average or better	Your worst section
Time	Finishing 60 questions with 10 minutes or more to spare	Running out of time
Wrong answers	Mostly misreads you catch on review	Rules you didn't know

The pass mark is 62%, but aiming for 75% on practice gives you room for nerves and unfamiliar wording. For what to do inside the exam room, see the strategy section of our test guide.

The last 24 hours

• Check your ID matches your booking name exactly, and that it's government-issued photo ID. Health cards and SIN cards are not accepted.
• If you're writing online, run the system check again and clear your room.
• Review only your flashcards and your list of past mistakes. Don't start new material.
• Sleep. A tired candidate misreads "may" as "must", and those words decide many answers.

Your study plan, and where Pro fits

Start free:

1. Take the free diagnostic.
2. Read the free exam guide and PSISA note.
3. Sit the free full Ontario mock exam 1 on day 7 of the plan: 60 questions, 75 minutes, 38 to pass.
4. Print the free practice questions if you like studying on paper.

The plan above uses three full mocks and daily topic drills. The free tier covers the diagnostic, mock 1 and a 25-question quick practice. For the rest, Pro adds mocks 2 to 10, practice by section (for example legal authorities topic practice), and every study note, for the Ontario test and the other 8 tests we cover. The Ontario bank has 1,933 questions, so later mocks don't repeat the early ones, and every answer explains why the other options are wrong.

Pro costs CA$7.99 a week, CA$12.99 a month or CA$24.99 for three months, and you can cancel anytime. A week fits the 5-day plan; a month covers the 14-day plan with room to spare. We don't promise a pass: the mocks show you honestly where you stand, and the studying is yours to do. Compare plans on the pricing page. When you've passed, the next steps are in how to get a security guard licence in Ontario.