Free Mechanical Reasoning Test: Levers, Gears and Pulleys

The questions are short word problems, so there are no diagrams to decode and the test works on a phone as well as a laptop. They cover four areas: levers and balance, gears and rotation, pulleys and springs, and pressure in liquids and gases. Early questions need one idea, while later ones chain two or three, such as a compound gear train or a block and tackle. Electricity is deliberately left out. The correct answer is identified by its wording and its position changes from question to question, so a pattern in where answers sit will not help you. Your result is a percentage score in one of five bands, plus a separate score for each area, so you can see whether levers, gears, pulleys and springs, or fluid pressure cost you the most.

It helps to know what this test is. It is original JobCannon practice material for self-assessment, not a published or licensed aptitude test, and it has no published norms and no reliability or validity study behind it. That means no percentile, no IQ figure and no claim that your score predicts how you would do on an employer's test. What it can do is show which ideas you already apply fluently and which need revising. The practice page has worked examples for each of the four areas, solved step by step, so you can learn a rule before you try it under test conditions.