Bennett Mechanical Comprehension Test II (BMCT) – Free Practice & Full Guide

PrepTerminal’s free BMCT practice test is expertly formulated to accurately simulate real BMCT tests, so that you can get an insight on what to expect when you take the real thing. Our tests are designed by mechanical professionals who review the BMCT regularly, and interview former test-takers so that they can keep the information in the course up-to-date.

PrepTerminal also offers a comprehensive Bennett Mechanical Comprehension test (BMCT) prep course, which features videos, quizzes and sample questions.

The Format of Bennett Mechanical Comprehension Test

The BMCT-II is a multiple-choice test that employs diagrams and images, which focus on four topics:

• Spatial visualisation – visualization of shapes in three dimensions
• Mechanical knowledge
• Understanding of how things work
• Comprehension of basic mechanical and physical laws

The Bennett Mechanical Comprehension test needs to be completed in 25 minutes and features 55 multiple-choice questions, produced by a database of over 300 questions. Each candidate is shown a series of questions generated in a random order.

When it is used as an employment screening tool, the Bennett Mechanical Comprehension test is a proven predictor of performance in jobs that demand technical aptitude and innate mechanical ability.

Certain organizations employ the Bennett Aptitude test as a tool for training, revealing skill areas that could benefit from improvement.

What are the 12 BMCT Question Categories?

Here are the 12 BMCT-II question categories:

1. Acoustics and optics
Examines the basic physical properties of optics and acoustics, including the speed of light/sound, light reflections, and the Doppler Effect.

2. Center of gravity
Assesses the ideas of physical balance, the movement of an object, how the center of gravity can affect the effort that must be undertaken to perform an action, and more.

3. Electricity
Examines your basic understanding of electricity, with specific attention on simple electric circuits and conduction.

4. Gears and belt drives
Presents different situations involving various rotating gears that are either connected with a belt drive or meshed together. You will need to answer questions about the speed.

5. Gravity and velocity
Presents different scenarios that include moving objects – either horizontally moving objects (velocity), vertically moving objects (gravity), or a merger of both these forces (for example trajectory of a thrown object).

6. Heat
Assesses the effect of varying temperature (cold and heat) over the physical elements of materials. For instance, the nature of cooler and hotter gases. They could also assess you on various scenarios that generate heat (i.e. through fiction).

7. Hydraulics
Aspects of hydraulics will be tested via these scenarios, including the effect of the altitude, the volume, and the diameter of a pipe/vessel on water pressure. They could also assess you on the compressibility of fluids and the effect of water pressure on various materials.

8. Miscellaneous
Other every-day situations that don’t fall into any of the categories mentioned here, or scenarios that combine various mechanical occurrences.

9. Pulleys and levers
Questions generally compared two distinct measures of the same characteristic of the machine’s levers and pulleys – particularly looking at the mechanical advantage that they offer.

For instance, pulley questions will look at the number of pulleys and ropes in a pulley system and their effect on the forces required to lift the weight. Lever questions will look at properties including the length of the arms and the location of the weight on the force needed to lift the weight.

10. Resolution of forces, centrifugal force, and inertia
Scenarios from different fields will be shown. Questions will be on the interaction between two forces and force movement.

11. Shape and volume
Assess your understanding of geometrical properties and the connection between various shapes and volume.

12. Structures, planes, and slopes
These questions could compare various structures for their durability, or for the force needed to overpass/climb them.

How does the BMCT Scoring Work?

When you have finished a Bennett Mechanical Comprehension test, the employers you are testing for will receive a transcript of your score from Pearson; this will include your percentile ranking and your raw score.

Your percentile ranking score will be compared to the results of a normative group. There are certain general statements that may be reached about the scores of the following percentile ranges:

• 0-19: This score would not be considered a passing score by most employers. It may indicate a certain level of appreciation of mechanical reasoning, but you would require very close monitoring and a lot of training.
• 20-39: If you score within this percentile range you could have a chance at being a candidate, if you managed to score highly on other areas of your application. This would show that you have a basic grasp of mechanical reasoning concepts.
• 40-59: This is probably considered the hiring range for most roles. This score shows that you can learn at a reasonable pace and show a good aptitude for implementing mechanical principles.
• 60-79: For the majority of technical roles this would be deemed to be a solid score, and most hiring managers would be assured that you have a strong understanding of mechanical principles.
• 80+: If you score over 80, you show a strong understanding of mechanical principles and solid spatial awareness skills. This percentile score is an excellent score for even highly technical positions.

Where and Why should you take the Bennett Mechanical Comprehension Test?

Examples of companies that require that candidates pass the Bennett Mechanical Aptitude test are as follows:

There is an extensive list of professions that use the Bennett Mechanical Comprehension Test II. However these can be loosely categorized as those that do more physical work. For example:

• Automobile mechanics
• Manufacturing operators
• Machine operation, heavy plant machinery or factory work
• Airlines – engineers and mechanics
• Skilled traders such as electric and water service, repair and installation and gas
• Emergency services, particularly fire service

The Bennett Mechanical Comprehension test is often used in conjunction with other sorts of aptitude tests, if you are testing for a managerial or multi-functional role.

FAQs on BMCT: Everything you should Know

How PrepTerminal will Help to Increase your BMCT Passing Score

PrepTerminal’s Bennett Mechanical Comprehension Test prep course has been created by our in-house education and mechanical specialist. We have designed a video-based and text-base course to ensure that you have all the knowledge to succeed on the Bennett Aptitude Test.

Our course will help you better your Bennett Mechanical Aptitude test results by up to 10 points. It will also help you pass the behavioral assessment, and all this will take place within 5 hours of study. In comparison to an average passing rate of 36%, our BMCT-II students boast an impressive 84% rate of passing.

Specifically, our prep course features the following:

• 8 mechanical instructional videos
• 15 mechanical written guides
• 3 Full-Length time mode tests (50 questions each)
• 3 Spatial/Abstract Reasoning videos and written guides

To ensure you get all the practice you require we offer you 200 practice questions with detailed explanations. Our course is great for all candidates applying to companies administering any type of mechanical exam.