South Carolina Police Academy Physical Requirements: PAT

To get into the South Carolina police academy, you have to meet the physical requirements set by the South Carolina Criminal Justice Academy: complete a timed 870-foot obstacle course in two minutes and six seconds or less, pass a medical examination signed by a licensed physician, and clear vision, hearing, and psychological screenings before you can enter Basic Law Enforcement training.¹ Individual hiring agencies can layer stricter standards on top, but none can drop below the SCCJA floor.²

The Time Standard

The Physical Ability Test is 870 feet of continuous obstacles, and you must finish the whole course, unassisted, in 2:06 or less.¹ There is no partial credit, no grading curve, and the clock does not pause between stations. The course is designed to simulate what officers actually do on patrol: sprint after a suspect, get over barriers, crawl into tight spaces, and drag someone to safety.

What’s on the Course

Nine tasks, in this order:¹

Perimeter run. One and three-quarter laps around the course to open. This is the bulk of your running distance and sets your cardiovascular pace for everything after.
Two low hurdles. Each 1.5 feet high and 4 feet long, placed 13 feet apart.
Stairs. Five steps up to a landing 45 inches off the ground, then five steps down, negotiated twice. Each step has a 7.5-inch rise and an 11-inch tread.
Third hurdle and low crawl. One more low hurdle, then straight down to crawl under a barrier set 2.5 feet above the floor.
Ditch simulation. A six-foot-wide gap you jump across.
Chain-link fence. Four feet high, climbed over.
Window entry. A 3-foot-wide, 4.5-foot-high window opening set 4 feet off the ground. You climb through.
Rescue drag. A 150-pound dead weight, dragged 20 feet.
Final lap. One full perimeter lap to the finish line.

The rescue drag is where a lot of candidates run out of time. By that point you’ve been sprinting and climbing for most of two minutes, and pulling 150 pounds with a fatigued grip and legs is harder than it sounds cold. If you train for one thing above the rest, train for the drag under fatigue.

Second Chances on Individual Obstacles

On three of the stations — the stairs, the fence, and the window entry — you get up to three attempts to clear that specific obstacle. After a third failed attempt, instructors will tell you to walk around it and continue the course. Walking an obstacle counts against your completion, and you still have to hit 2:06 overall to pass.¹

What Happens If You Fail

The consequences escalate quickly:¹

First failure. You cannot attempt the PAT again for 30 calendar days from the date of failure.
Second failure. You are barred from entering Basic Law Enforcement training for one full calendar year from that second failure.

Candidates who cannot participate at all are dismissed from the training cycle and receive a written explanation to hand to their department. That year-long lockout after two failures is the detail worth taking seriously: if your agency sponsored you and you wash out twice, your career timeline slips by a year.

Medical Clearance Before You Can Test

State law requires your hiring agency to submit evidence of your physical fitness to the SCCJA director. That evidence has two pieces: a medical history compiled by a licensed physician, and a certificate from a licensed physician confirming you’ve recently had a complete medical examination.²

At the academy, those become two forms. Form T-2 is your medical history, filled out by you. Form T-1 is the examination form a licensed physician completes and signs after reviewing your T-2 and examining you. The physician’s signature on the T-1 is your formal medical clearance for the PAT.¹ Both forms come from your hiring agency or the SCCJA website. Show up on testing day without them properly completed and signed, and you’ll be turned away before you see the course.

Vision and Hearing

The physician conducting your medical exam evaluates your vision and hearing as part of the overall fitness determination. That’s the SCCJA baseline. Beyond it, hiring agencies commonly set their own thresholds. Job postings from South Carolina law enforcement agencies frequently require corrected vision of 20/20, with uncorrected acuity no worse than 20/100 or 20/200 depending on the department. Color vision testing is standard, with many agencies requiring you to distinguish green, yellow, and red without correction. Hearing evaluations are typically part of the medical exam, though specific frequency and decibel limits aren’t published as a single statewide standard. Confirm the exact benchmarks with the specific agency sponsoring you.

Psychological Evaluation and Reading Comprehension

Every new Class 1 law enforcement officer must pass a mandatory psychological evaluation before certification. The same requirement applies to Class 3 Advanced officers and new reserve officers.³ New Class 1 candidates also complete a reading comprehension test alongside the psychological screening. The SCCJA publishes guidelines for the evaluation and offers a reimbursement form so agencies can recover the cost.⁴

The SCCJA has flagged missing psychological and reading comprehension results as one of the most frequent documentation errors on hiring forms. If your agency doesn’t include them, your certification paperwork gets sent back and your entry into training slips.

Baseline Eligibility

Physical fitness alone won’t get you in. Before you’re allowed to test, you have to meet the underlying eligibility requirements. Candidates for Class 1 certification must be at least 21 years old and a United States citizen.⁵ You need a high school diploma or an equivalency certificate recognized by the South Carolina Department of Education.²

Your hiring agency must run a background investigation and certify your good character to the SCCJA director. That includes a local credit check, a fingerprint review through both the FBI and the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division showing no felony convictions, and a valid driver’s license with no DUI-related suspensions in the previous five years. You also sign an attestation committing to ethical policing practices.²

Fitness Doesn’t Stop at the Entrance

Physical performance remains a factor through the full training cycle, not just at the door. Candidates who can’t continue participating at any point during Basic Law Enforcement face dismissal, and the same 30-day and one-year retest timelines apply if the reason for dismissal is physical performance.¹ Getting to 2:06 on test day is the entry ticket. Staying there is the job.

1
South Carolina Criminal Justice Academy. PAT
2
South Carolina Legislature. South Carolina Code 23-23 – Law Enforcement Training Council and Criminal Justice Academy
3
South Carolina Criminal Justice Academy. Training Manager Handbook
4
South Carolina Criminal Justice Academy. Forms
5
South Carolina Criminal Justice Academy. South Carolina Criminal Justice Academy Training