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Math test for new employees

crashtestdummy

Hot Rolled
Joined
Apr 25, 2006
Location
Cedar City, Utah
I am suppose to come up with a math test for potential new employees that will be performing maintenance, fabrication, electrical, machining or all four. I am so far removed from school that I don't even know what to expect them to possibly know.

I probably need around 10 to 15 questions. They should also probably be questions that I can answer. Any ideas?
 
Percentages, decimal to fraction conversions, unit conversions, simple algebra.

I would think you'd need to know some trig to do much machining or fabrication, but I'm not sure if it's reasonable to expect people to know that?

Maybe you can make up some word problems that include those things, along with addition, multiplication, etc.

Like:

If a forklift has to drive .75 mile, and it has already traveled 5 1/2 yards, what percentage of the total distance has it covered?
 
print calls out 30mm dia bore.

you want to rough it and leave .020" to finish bore after heat treat.

to what dimension will you rough turn the bore, (in inches, as you have an inch inside mic to measure)



-same thing, more applicable context than miles and yards
 
Question: If you add up the internal angles of a triangle how many degrees do you get?

Answer: 180

Question: What is the equation for the circumference of a circle?

Answer: 2 pie (3.1415) r = c, or pie (3.1415) d = c

I guess you could ask what pie is, but that may not work if you are interviewing a woman? Just kidding, probably would get just as bad an answer from the men...
 
The math questions on tests I have taken were designed to be done in your head. More to see if you had a clue rather than to see if you are a math whiz. Such as:

-two sides of a triangle are 3 & 4. What's the Hyp?

-one side of a 45 traingle is X what is the other?

-speeds and feeds questions with nice round numbers


Maybe how long they need to cut 4 pieces of tubing to make a rectangle a certain size.

Simple Ohm's law stuff.

Pulley A is so big and running at such a RPM, B is half the diameter of A , what speed will it turn at.
 
I have a 2 page test I give potential employees. It includes some trig, speeds and feeds, and a couple trick questions to see if they are paying attention. I would be happy to fax you a copy if you PM me your fax #.
 
Watch those questions...

The questions to the test had better show a relationship to the job being applied for or you are BEGGING for a lawsuit. So if a guy is going to do fab work DON'T ask questions that pertain to machine work, or electrical work and so on. General IQ tests and the like are a big no-no as well. I know its stupid, I didn't make the rules, just letting you because I have been in that hot water before. My test was racist because I expected a programmer to be able to answer questions about programming!
 
So far I like the simple questions best. We do a huge variety of different things, so it's hard to test for what we typically do. We are mainly trying to figure out if the dial goes all the way to 10 or not.

For what it's worth, there are several questions you guys have listed that I would have to look up. My mind is too full of trivial information to have room for anything meaningful.

steel hand, I'll send you a pm. Test would be useful for hiring a machinist.
 
Fax sent. Hope it helps your hiring process. I know it helps me, if just to figure out who will admit they don't know and ask for help and who will just guess.
 
Here's a two part question that's pretty hard nowadays...so don't expect too many correct answers!

A company starts work at 8:00 am and it ends work at 4:30 pm. What time should the employees be at the job and what time should they leave the job?
 
..... I know it helps me, if just to figure out who will admit they don't know and ask for help and who will just guess.
Bingo!!!! I give a test as well, and that is exactly what I am after.
If someone aces it great....I guess I'll turn in my resignation:(
It's the ones that fill in every answer, when it is clear that they are just guessng that absolutely don't get hired.
I'd hire a guy that gave me back a blank page over the one that gave me a page full of a couple of lucky Uhmmmmm.....b answers anyday.

bluechipper
 
If you gave me a math test that I had to pass to get a job you would lose a very good machinist, If I need to trig something I get on the computer's triangle calculator. I haven't done manual math since high school 25 years ago and doubt I could even do simple division on paper anymore. But if you need a part made I'm your man!!!
 
If you gave me a math test that I had to pass to get a job you would lose a very good machinist, If I need to trig something I get on the computer's triangle calculator. I haven't done manual math since high school 25 years ago and doubt I could even do simple division on paper anymore. But if you need a part made I'm your man!!!
:cheers:
I'll toast to that...since learning cad, I won't even d0 the math on a calculator...just draw it up and analyze.
 
May be a 2 part test. The first page being general, and a weed out the looser page. The second (with several variants for specific job apps) being more specific. ??? Start out with 1+1=? or 3/8 * .5 =? easy stuff to save yourself time. As others have mentioned a few years out of school and some of this stuff gets rusty. Software handles most math for us now days, but if they can't tell you what half of 3/8's is you know something.


FWIW

Doug S.
 
First of all be sure to check the employment law. Some places don't allow pre-employment testing!

If it's good to go, I'd do a couple questions on time calcualtions (if the machine can do X parts per hour how many do I get in Y hours... If I make X per hour and Y are bad how how many bad parts am I making in one shift and what is the percentage of rejects), then a few questions on conversion (How many mm in an inch, how many inches in a foot, how many mm in a cm), then a few questions on perimeter of basic shapes, a couple trig questions and some just plain calculation stuff... add subtract multiply divide.
 
Heck, I didn't even get the drawing. Within the first week, I was given a 50hp motor shaft with wrecked bearing fits and gouged up seal surfaces, a couple of vernier mics and a hunk of scrap 4"diam 4140. "Make us one of those."
 








 
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