WTMA score of 36 — where does that land for manufacturing technician hiring?
I just took the Wiesen Test of Mechanical Aptitude for a manufacturing technician role and got a 36 out of 60. The HR person didn't give me any context on whether that's good or bad for the position. I've been reading that different employers set different cutoffs and I'm trying to figure out where I stand before the next round of interviews.
The test itself was harder than I expected, especially the gear and pulley questions. I understood the physics conceptually but I was rushing through the last 10 questions because of the 30-minute time limit. Some of the fluid mechanics problems also threw me off — I haven't done any formal physics since high school so a lot of that was intuition-based for me.
I've seen references to benchmark scores in the 40-45 range for skilled trades positions. If that's accurate, a 36 might be on the lower end for a technician role. Does anyone know if employers typically use a strict cutoff or if they look at the score as one factor among many? I'm hoping 5 years of hands-on maintenance experience carries more weight.
Also wondering if it's worth asking the employer what their benchmark is, or if that comes across as trying to game the system. I genuinely want to know if I should be preparing differently for similar assessments going forward.
A 36 is around the 50th percentile on most norm tables I've seen. For entry-level mechanical roles that's usually fine; for senior technician or maintenance engineer roles, some employers want 40+. It really depends on the company and how competitive the applicant pool is.
I've hired for maintenance roles and we used a cutoff of 38, but it was a soft cutoff — someone at 36 with strong hands-on experience would still get an interview. Don't assume you're out of the running until you actually hear back.
You can absolutely ask the employer what their benchmark is — frame it as wanting to understand the role requirements. Most HR people respect that question. If they won't share it, fine, but it's not a weird thing to ask at all.
The gear and pulley questions are the ones most people miss because they try to calculate rather than visualize. If you retake it or take a similar test, practice drawing out gear chains and tracing the direction of rotation. That alone can get you 4-5 more correct answers.