Take a free mechanical reasoning practice test: 5 picture questions on levers, gears, pulleys and springs, and forces, all at the hardest level, 30 seconds each. Then learn the handful of rules behind every mechanical reasoning question, with video lessons, timed drills and full simulations.
Studying for a firefighter written exam? Start with our firefighter test prep: it shows which test your department uses.
No sign-up, no email · drill items from our course, not from any official exam
Sketch videos, drills against the clock and the full-length forms, shown on real screens.
Every question is a picture with one thing to decide. Behind each topic sits one rule, often two. Learn the rule, and most questions take seconds. Here are the main topics with the rule and a worked example, each from the course lesson that teaches it.
Seesaws, pry bars, wheelbarrows and tool handles: the picture asks for the tipping side or the holding force.
Worked: 300 lb sits 2 ft from the pivot. 300 × 2 = 600, so a push 6 ft out on the other side needs 600 ÷ 6 = 100 lb.
Lesson K1 in the course: video, guide, trainer, three timed drills
Chains of gears, belt drives with open or crossed belts, racks: the picture asks for the turning sense or the rpm of the last part.
Worked: a 20-tooth gear at 120 rpm drives a 40-tooth gear: 120 × 20 ÷ 40 = 60 rpm, turning the other way.
Lesson K2 in the course: video, guide, trainer, three timed drills
Rope and pulley systems, single pulleys, double blocks, winches and hanging springs.
Worked: three strands hold a 90 lb load: you pull 30 lb, but 3 ft of rope for every foot the load rises.
Lesson K3 in the course: video, guide, trainer, three timed drills
Water tanks with outlets at several heights, hose-and-piston presses, objects that float.
Worked: 10 lb on a 1 in² piston makes 10 psi; on a 20 in² piston that is 200 lb, but it moves only 1/20 as far.
Lesson K7 in the course: video, guide, trainer, three timed drills
Objects dropped or thrown, loose cargo when a vehicle brakes, a whirled ball, two pulls at once.
Worked: a ball dropped and a ball rolled off the same table at the same moment hit the floor together: sideways speed does not change the fall.
Lesson K6 in the course: video, guide, trainer, three timed drills
Loading ramps, wedges, a beam resting on two posts, slanted ropes, braced frames.
Worked: rolling 200 lb up a 10 ft ramp onto a 2 ft step takes 200 × 2 ÷ 10 = 40 lb, ignoring friction.
Lesson K4 in the course: video, guide, trainer, three timed drills
Ladders, stacked boxes, loaded shelves and trucks: the picture asks what topples or where a bar balances.
Worked: two boxes of the same weight, one tall and narrow, one low and wide, tilted by the same angle: the tall one tips first, because its center of gravity is higher and passes the edge sooner.
Lesson K5 in the course: video, guide, trainer, three timed drills
Fewer questions, but they come up, and each has one rule worth knowing:
In public safety, mechanical reasoning is often one section of a longer written exam, as on the FCTC firefighter test.1 Which test you take depends on the department, so read your job announcement.
Firefighter Candidate Testing Center
Test guide for Mount Vernon and New Rochelle
For example the Bennett test (BMCT-II)
Many fire department written exams include mechanical reasoning or mechanical aptitude questions next to reading, math and judgment; others don’t. The section names differ, but a fire service mechanical reasoning test draws on the same levers, gears, pulleys and fluids shown above. More on the different firefighter tests on our firefighter test prep page.
Last reviewed: October 2026 · Sources checked 23 October 2026
Each of the eleven topic lessons runs the same loop, so after the first one you know the drill.
A sketch video, mostly 3 to 5 minutes (56 minutes for all 13), walks through the topic’s rule on picture questions.
Each written guide doubles as a mechanical reasoning study guide: rule boxes, worked figures and typical traps on one page you can return to.
A trainer hands out fresh items for that topic and shows the solution after each one.
Drills 1, 2 and 3 get harder and faster: a dozen items with 25, 30 or 35 seconds each and a solution after every answer.
Before lesson K1, a 22-question diagnostic (10 minutes, two items per lesson) points you to your weakest topics.
Mechanical reasoning questions are built around traps: the free end of a rope that looks like it holds the load, the gear that is bigger but not faster. After each drill answer the course shows why the key is right and which trap the wrong options set.
Each simulation has 55 questions in 25 minutes, the length TalentLens publishes for the Bennett test;4 the course uses three options per question. A single clock runs for the whole form and you see nothing until the last item. Afterward: raw score, time used, a bar for each lesson and links to the guides you need most.
Sample sets online are a fine first look. For a firefighter section, these are the gaps.
| Loose sample questions | This course | |
|---|---|---|
| Timing | Usually none | A per-item clock in drills, one form clock in simulations |
| Topics | Gears and levers, mostly | Eleven lessons, fluids, heat and circuits included |
| Pictures | Few or none | Three in four items are figures |
| Explanations | An answer key at best | Rule and trap after each drill answer |
| Full-length runs | Rare | Four 55-item forms, 25 minutes each |
| Feedback | A total | A bar per lesson and the guides to reread |
| Price | $0 | $68 one time, 90-day access |
Choose your window; the route below changes with it.
Levers, belts and pulleys, gears and fluids are the topics FCTC lists for its mechanical section. With only days, put their rules first.
Touch every lesson once before polishing; the rarer topics are cheap points.
Don’t know your department’s test yet? Levers, gears and pulleys turn up across mechanical reasoning sections, so early study is never wasted.
Two start lessons, eleven topic lessons, four simulations. Each of the 13 lessons has a sketch video and a written guide.
The topics are the same, the formats differ. Each of these has its own page.
Free practice and the formats employers use: our mechanical aptitude test page.
The stand-alone BMCT-II by Pearson TalentLens: our Bennett Mechanical Comprehension Test page.
Ramsay Corporation’s mechanical forms: our Ramsay mechanical aptitude test page.
SHL’s mechanical test for technical hiring: our SHL mechanical comprehension test page.
A mechanical reasoning test checks how well you understand everyday physics from pictures: levers, gears, pulleys, springs, liquids under pressure and moving objects. Each question shows one diagram and asks one thing, such as which way a gear turns or what pull lifts a load. Employers use it alone or as one section of a written exam.
Yes, with no account and no email. You get 5 picture questions on levers, gears, pulleys and springs, and forces, all at the hardest level, with 30 seconds per question and 2:30 in all. Afterward you see your score, the lesson to open first and the reasoning behind every key. The questions are drill items from our course, not items from any official exam.
On many of them, yes, but not on all. The FCTC written test, developed by the California Firefighter Joint Apprenticeship Committee, has 100 multiple-choice questions in four sections; one of them is “Apply Mechanical Reasoning”, which FCTC’s 2020 prep guide lists with 25 questions. New York State’s firefighter test guide for Mount Vernon and New Rochelle also has a mechanical reasoning subject area. Other departments use other tests, so check your job announcement for the sections.
FCTC’s 2020 prep guide says the mechanical section may include fluid dynamics, levers, belt and pulley systems, rope and pulley systems, gears and interpreting diagrams. The New York State guide names drawings of gears, pulleys, levers, hand tools and gauges. In the course, that is lessons K1 (levers), K2 (gears and belts), K3 (pulleys), K7 (fluids) and K11 (tools and everyday mechanics); the other lessons cover forces, ramps, balance, heat, circuits, sound and light.
It depends on the department’s test. On the FCTC written test the mechanical reasoning section is 25 of the 100 questions, according to FCTC’s 2020 prep guide. Other firefighter exams publish their own section sizes, and some have no mechanical section at all. For comparison, the Bennett test is a stand-alone mechanical test of 55 items in 25 minutes, according to Pearson TalentLens.
The names overlap. Publishers and employers call these tests mechanical reasoning, mechanical aptitude or mechanical comprehension, and the question types are largely the same: diagrams of levers, gears, pulleys, fluids and forces. What differs is the format (number of questions, time, number of options), so check which test your employer or department uses. We have separate pages for the Bennett test and for mechanical aptitude tests.
Learn the one rule behind each picture type, then repeat it under a clock. Count the gear meshes instead of tracing every tooth; count the strands under the moving pulley block instead of following the rope; compare weight × distance on both sides of a pivot. The course drills each rule at 25 to 35 seconds a question and ends with full timed simulations.
The course BMCT-II 2026 is built around the format of the Bennett test (BMCT-II), a stand-alone mechanical comprehension test, and covers the same mechanical topics that firefighter exams list: levers, gears, belts and pulleys, fluids and diagrams. It does not cover the reading, math or human-relations sections of a firefighter exam; for those, see our firefighter test prep course.
No. Prepterminal runs this course on its own, with no tie to Pearson, TalentLens, the Firefighter Candidate Testing Center, the New York State Department of Civil Service or any fire department, and none of them endorses this course. We write every practice item ourselves.
Run the check-up today and let it pick your first lesson.
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