Hi,

Im in the process of applying for a few graduate jobs and most require you to pass aptitude tests in the from of:

– Verbal Reasoning
– Mathematical Reasoning
– Diagramatical Resoning
– Mechanical Resoning

Other than just googling the terms I’m struggling to find a breadth of Mechanical reasoning tests (I have only found two exaples so far)

Can anyone advise where I may find a few more or have any that you could send me so I can get some practise in before taking the tests.

Thanks in advance

David

Most are unique to the supplier and are administered by “professionals” in a controlled environment. Tbh, it’s not the sort of thing you can practice for and it’s more a case of either you can or can’t.

they are standard parts of psychometric tests..

Sorry I can’t help with mechanical reasoning; despite having worked in the industry for 10 years I’ve never come across a test like. Not to say they don’t exist, just that they are obviously quite specialised.

For verbal reasoning have a look at Watson Glazer. That’s a fairly common one and a good example of the type.
For diagramatical reasoning, have a look at Ravens Progressive Matricies. That might be what they are intending to deliver to you or it could be something else entirely.
For mathematical reasoning you can go to the GMAT website and take lots of sample tests there.

The GMAT includes both mathematical and verbal reasoning but the math part is a very good example.

Your ability to improve scores is limited but practise does make a difference. Largely this is around getting comfortable with the test conditions, being able to keep calm and evaluate the best strategy for completing the tests etc.

Some are intended to be more or less impossible to complete in the allotted time; all will use time pressure as a factor to augment the quality of the results.

Bear in mind that most organisations will only be looking for you to be ‘good enough’ on the tests. You only need to pass a minimum threshold and beyond that, coming in the 95th percentile won’t make any difference to your selection than if you came in the 60th percentile (assuming the 60th percentile was above the minimum of course).

Hope this helps, happy to help some more if you’ve other questions.

Thanks for the advice GeeTee1972, the mechanical reasoning is based around simple physics problems, here is Saville Consultants example:

Mechanical Resoning

I have felt that practising has made a big difference in terms of working much faster than ususal, but its also helped me get a feeling for typical questions.

I’m guessing the pass mark is specific to each company but is 60% a ususal pass mark ?

From my experience of the Train Driver Mechanical test the questions/examples that I could find on the net and which were provided by the test centre as practice were very different to what we received on the day. That not to say they were harder but they were set out and diagramed in a way that made them seem hard and overly complex.
In my opinion if you have an understanding of cogs/pulleys, fulcrum points and circuits you should be fine.

As for pass rates I can only go again off the railway and for that its very low overall but that’s based on several tests that some people just can’t get their head around, such as the reaction test.
On the day I went there was 13 there. Out of that only myself and 2 others made it through the whole day.

All I’d suggest is learn the basics and principles as mentioned if your not fully clued up on them.
I downloaded the practice papers here http://www.psychometric-success.com/downloads/download-practice-tests.htm
Which refreshed my mind on a few things.
Best advice though is don’t panic (easier said than done sometimes) read the question and make sure you understand, you’ll normally be given a few practice questions (from my experience at least) nows the time to ask for help/explanation if needed as you will get none once the test starts and lastly don’t rush, the tests I’ve done in the past prior to the railway were marked on accuracy as well.

Hope that helps and good look.

Yes, negative marking is often in place – so dont guess the last 10 if you are running out of time!

It’s not as simple as having a pass/fail score; everything is relative so your result will not be ‘y’ out of ‘x’ where ‘x’ is the number of questions in total and ‘y’ is the number you got right.

Most likely your result will be a percentile score relative to a control group, say ‘UK Graduates’ or ‘UK MEng Graduate’. The ones I have done personally have always been scored against ‘European Managers’.

Almost certainly if you’ve been called to interview based on your degree results and the University you’ve attended, you’re going to pass whatever threshold they’ve set.

Any organisation using these test ought to know that you can never make a hiring decision based on the results of just one class of tests (aptitude/psychometric tests being one class) because it’s just not valid and in some instances it would be illegal.

They’re are going to be using the results in conjunction with other data to give them an overall view of you as a candidate. It’s harder when you’re a fresh grad with no work experience as that’s usually a big factor in assessing suitability for the role. In that instance they may rely more on your performance in interviews, simulations, role plays etc.