Bennett Mechanical Comprehension Test

Name: Bennett Mechanical Comprehension Tests
Brand: Practice Aptitude Tests
Rating: 4.8 (229 reviews)

Pulleys, levers, gears, hydraulics and forces, in the format Pearson sets: 55 questions in 25 minutes. Three worked examples below, with the reasoning explained.

8 practice tests in the Mechanical Reasoning pack
66 questions, all solved

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Excellent, 4.8/5 · 229 reviews

Written by Guy Thornton, Founder, Practice Aptitude Tests

Published 22 September 2020 · Updated 11 September 2026

Built to frameworks from chartered occupational psychologists, and checked against real candidate results

How to practise before the real thing

Reading about the format only takes you so far. A pack gives you the pace: batches under time pressure, marked, with the working shown.

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8: Mechanical Reasoning tests
66: questions, all solved

What is the Bennett Mechanical Comprehension Test?

The Bennett Mechanical Comprehension Test (BMCT) measures how well you understand mechanical concepts and apply them to solve problems. It is a multiple-choice test built from images and diagrams, drawing on four areas: mechanical comprehension, spatial visualisation, knowledge of basic mechanical and physical laws, and deducing how things work.

It was first published in 1940 by the Psychological Corporation, now Pearson Education, which makes it one of the longest-running tests still in use. As a recruitment tool it is a proven predictor of performance in industries that depend on technical aptitude. Some employers also use it after hiring, either to identify what a new starter needs training in or as a risk-management check, since a low scorer may not suit a role where mistakes are dangerous.

Which jobs use the Bennett test?

The BMCT is used in application and retention processes at a number of multinational companies, concentrated in work that is physical and technical:

Emergency services, especially the fire service
Skilled trades such as gas, electric and water service, repair and installation
Machine operation, in factories and on heavy plant
Airline mechanics and engineers
Manufacturing operators
Automobile mechanics

It also appears alongside other types of aptitude test when an employer is assessing for managerial or multi-functional roles.

What is the format of the BMCT?

A typical BMCT is 55 questions in 25 minutes, which is about 30 seconds each. The questions themselves are straightforward, so the clock is the real constraint. Two untimed practice questions come first, so you can settle into the layout and the wording before the timer starts. Every question is a graphic followed by a multiple-choice question.

The topics, roughly in order of how many questions they carry:

Pulleys and levers
Hydraulics
Resolution of forces, centrifugal force and inertia
Structures, planes and slopes
Gears and belt drives
Gravity and velocity
Acoustics and optics
Centre of gravity
Electricity
Heat
Shape and volume

The weighting is uneven and worth knowing: around 68% of the questions on a typical BMCT-II concern force and movement, velocity and fluid mechanics, and pulleys and levers carry more questions than any other single topic.

How is the BMCT scored?

Pearson sends the employer a score report carrying your raw score and a percentile ranking against a normative group, so there is no fixed pass mark: the threshold moves with the role. An airline engineering post will be pitched higher than a manufacturing operative post. Broadly, the bands read as follows.

0 to 19. Not a pass for almost any application. Some grasp of mechanical reasoning, but close supervision and extra training would be needed.
20 to 39. A basic ability to apply mechanical reasoning. Enough to stay in contention if the rest of the application is strong.
40 to 59. A hiring range for many roles: steady learning and sound application of mechanical principles.
60 to 79. A strong result for technical roles, and enough for a hiring manager to be confident about your grasp of the principles.
80 and above. A firm command of mechanical principles and excellent spatial awareness, a very good score for even the most technical roles.

From score to percentile

Your scorePoints earned on the test.
Comparison groupResults from people taking a comparable test.
Your percentileWhere your result sits within that group.

A percentage score and a percentile are different measures. Employers choose their comparison groups and thresholds; there is no universal pass mark.

Three worked Bennett practice questions

The three questions below use the BMCT’s most heavily weighted topics. Work them before reading the solutions.

Question 1. What force is required to lift this weight?

Bennett practice question showing a 300kg weight on a pulley system

A) 30kg B) 50kg C) 100kg D) 150kg

Question 2. If two cogs are turning together, one with 30 teeth and the other with 20, how many revolutions would the smaller cog have turned once the larger cog has rotated 15 times?

Bennett practice question showing two meshed cogs of different sizes

A) 21 B) 21.5 C) 22 D) 22.5

Question 3. Which container is represented by this graph as it fills with water?

Bennett practice question showing a graph of water level against time

Solutions.

Question 1 is B, 50kg. Six sections of rope support the weight, so divide the total by six: 300 / 6 = 50kg.

Question 2 is D, 22.5. The larger cog has 1.5 times as many teeth, so the smaller one turns 1.5 times faster: 15 x 1.5 = 22.5.

Question 3 is B. The steepest parts of the graph are where the container is narrowest, because a narrow section fills fastest. The graph describes a container that starts narrow, widens, then narrows again at the top.