Technical aptitude tests are designed to identify
suitable candidates for technical roles within the emergency
services and military as well as for craft and engineering jobs.
Technical aptitude test questions can be classified as follows:
Mechanical Reasoning - Designed to assess your knowledge of
physical and mechanical principles. For example, pulleys, levers,
simple electrical circuits etc. Mechanical reasoning tests are
used to select for a wide range of technical occupations.
Fault Diagnosis - These questions are used to select personnel for
technical roles where they need to be able to find and repair
faults in electronic control systems. The questions in fault
diagnosis tests appear rather abstract and require pure logic to
solve. This is because when a fault develops in an electronically
controlled system, there is often no physical clue as to the
cause. In the absence of such a clue, for example an obviously
burned-out component, the only way to diagnose the problem is by a
process of logical elimination. This type of test is used
extensively to select technical and maintenance personnel as well
as to select for artificer (technical) roles within the armed
forces where the ability to approach problems logically in order
to find the cause of the fault is increasingly important.
Spatial Ability - These questions often appear in technical
aptitude tests where many jobs require good spatial skills.
Spatial Ability can be defined as ‘The ability to interpret and
make drawings, form mental images, and visualize movement or
change in those images.’ Spatial ability tests measure your
ability to manipulate shapes in two dimensions or to visualize
three-dimensional objects presented as two-dimensional pictures.
Spatial ability tests often involve the visual assembly and the
disassembly of objects that have been rotated or which are viewed
from different angles or objects that have different markings on
their surfaces.
Verbal Ability – Includes spelling, grammar, ability to understand
analogies and follow detailed written instructions. These
questions appear in most technical aptitude tests because
employers usually want to know how well you can communicate.
Numerical Aptitude - Includes basic arithmetic, number sequences
and simple mathematics. These questions appear in most technical
aptitude tests because employers usually want some indication of
your ability to use numbers even if this is not a major part of
the job.
Abstract Reasoning - Measures your ability to identify the
underlying logic of a pattern and then determine the solution.
Because abstract reasoning ability is believed to be the best
indicator of fluid intelligence and your ability to learn new
things quickly these questions appear in most technical aptitude
tests.
If you are taking a technical aptitude test as part of the
selection process for the emergency services or the military then
the questions you can expect will tend to concentrate on
principles rather than on making calculations. For example, you
may be shown 3 diagrams of a lever and asked which one is the most
efficient. This is very different from craft and technical tests
where you will usually be expected to make calculations.
If you are taking a technical aptitude test as part of the
selection for a craft or apprenticeship job, then you may be asked
some questions about tools and how they are used. You should also
expect some shop arithmetic questions. These questions approximate
the type of reasoning and maths that are needed to estimate
materials costs etc.
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