The Blue Battery Mechanical Test is a screening test used by SoCalGas to assess the abilities and personality of candidates before an interview. The topics covered include understanding instructions, solving math problems, analyzing situations, and understanding mechanical principles.
Each of the four parts of the Mechanical Test is designed to measure one or several of these abilities.
The Mechanical Comprehension Test—This test assesses your knowledge of straightforward physical and mechanical concepts as well your ability to apply reasoning in a practical environment.
Topics include electrical circuits, levers, springs, gears, pulleys, and tools. The test evaluates not only your familiarity with these concepts but also your knowledge of their operating principles. Your ability to calculate the force required to operate a certain tool is measured as well.
The Computation Test—This test estimates your knowledge of mathematics and your ability to perform operations with large numbers without a calculator.
Numerical computation questions posed in the test involve basic principles of arithmetic such as addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division.
You will also encounter questions that require performing operations with percentages, ratios, fractions, and decimals.
The Computation Test is a multiple-choice test, where each question is supplied with four answers, one of each is correct. Its time limit is five minutes.
The Symbolic Reasoning Test—This test measures how well you can manipulate symbols according to formal mathematical and logical rules. It presents applicants with logical propositions that are expressed visually, in the form of mathematical problems. To make valid logical conclusions based on these propositions, you need to identify the logical relationship between given signs and apply them to the mathematical rules.
It is a multiple-choice test that requires you to select between three alternatives—“True,” “False,” and “Indeterminable.” There are 30 problems in the test, which you are required to solve within five minutes.
The Visual Speed and Accuracy Test—This test assesses how quickly and accurately job candidates do tasks that require visually checking data.
It contains exercises that ask them to follow visual schema and check verbal, numerical, and technical information for errors.
The test consists of two alpha-numeric strings of characters. Job applicants need to compare the two strings and decide whether they are the same or different. The time limit for this test is only five minutes.