The Mechanical Aptitude Test was designed to be a quick evaluation of a person’s mechanical
aptitude measuring their ability to learn and perform production and maintenance job activities. This
test is excellent for use in pre-employment selection and predicting success in employee training
programs.
Development
The Mechanical Aptitude Test was professionally-developed in 2004 to measure mechanical
aptitude while reducing adverse impact based on gender and race. It is a short measure of
mechanical aptitude and has been found to be highly correlated with other measures of mechanical
aptitude. It should be useful in selecting apprentices, trainees, or other candidates who are learning
and performing production and maintenance job activities.
Great care was taken in selecting questions that relate to everyday items and common knowledge to
reduce adverse impact (early data collection reveals this test to be very gender friendly). The
following areas are the primary focus of the questions:
Household Objects
Work - Production and Maintenance
School - Science and Physics
Hand and Power Tools
This test was developed to address several issues in the realm of mechanical aptitude testing.
Specifically, the Mechanical Aptitude Test fills the following voids:
The need for an updated measure of mechanical aptitude.
The need for a short and user-friendly measure of mechanical aptitude.
The need for a measure without reference to city/rural or gender-based content.
The need for a measure appropriate to the context of 21st century life.
Validity
In order to ensure this test can measure the ability to learn and perform production and maintenance
jobs, the Mechanical Aptitude Test underwent criterion-related validation studies for both
maintenance and production applications. This test has been used in 8 content validation studies
and 2 criterion-related validation studies.
It was found to be significantly (.48 p< .01) correlated with GPA for a sample of mechanical
technicians in a technical college.
Scores on the Mechanical Aptitude Test were found to correlate (.40 p<.01) with a measure of
mechanical knowledge.
In a study of production workers, the Mechanical Aptitude Test was found to be significantly
correlated with "ability to troubleshoot equipment" and "ability to enter and receive information using
competency".
The Mechanical Aptitude Test was shown to have a significant predictor-criterion relationship to
success and manager ratings.
Additionally, validation studies were completed to determine the construct validity of this test and was
found to be significantly correlated with scores on the WTMA (Wiesen Test of Mechanical Aptitude)
and the Bennett Test of Mechanical Aptitude.
Reliability
The reliability of the test was shown to be .72 (KR20) in a sample size of 994 persons.
