- What This Review Sheet Covers
- The Wage Battery at a Glance
- Use of Industrial Information Test: The Heaviest Block
- Mechanical Comprehension Assessment
- Technical Checking Test
- Behavioral Tests
- Process, Results and Scoring Facts
- Sequencing Your Preparation by Domain
- Test-Day Checklist
- Frequently Asked Questions
- The wage battery has four components: Mechanical Comprehension, Technical Checking, Use of Industrial Information, and Behavioral Tests.
- Use of Industrial Information runs 40 of the 60 timed minutes, making it your highest-value study area.
- The Technical Checking Test lasts only 5 minutes and is built so most applicants do not finish.
- Calculators are prohibited on Use of Industrial Information; every item is solvable without one, and scratch paper is provided.
What This Review Sheet Covers
This is a condensed review sheet for the ExxonMobil Pre-Employment Assessment as it applies to Operations and Maintenance wage positions at refineries, chemical plants and terminals. It is not a certification exam, and passing it does not guarantee a job offer. It is an employer hiring screen, administered by ExxonMobil itself, with no fee charged to the applicant. If you want the broader picture of how it fits into hiring, start with What Is the ExxonMobil Assessment? and Is the ExxonMobil Assessment a Certification?.
The goal here is to give you a one-page mental model of each component: what it measures, how long it runs, what the format looks like, and where your preparation hours will pay off most. For a fuller walkthrough, see ExxonMobil Assessment Preparation: A Practical Applicant Guide.
The Wage Battery at a Glance
ExxonMobil publishes its own Operations and Maintenance Testing Preparation Guide, and the structure below follows what that material describes. Testing is run internally, either at company test centres or online under camera supervision, rather than through a commercial testing provider.
| Component | What It Measures | Time | Format |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mechanical Comprehension Assessment | Applying general mechanical principles to problem situations | 15 minutes | Four-option multiple choice |
| Technical Checking Test | Speed and accuracy applying a rule set from an on-screen Command Card | 5 minutes | Rule-based checking on screen |
| Use of Industrial Information Test | Reading and using graphs, charts, tables, forms and written passages | 40 minutes | Document-based questions |
| Behavioral Tests | Teamwork, Safety Orientation, Learning Orientation, Conscientiousness | Untimed | Four or five response options, no right answers |
Add up the timed components and you reach 60 minutes. Of those, 40 belong to a single test. That ratio should shape your preparation more than anything else on this sheet.
If you are comparing how this wage battery differs from other ExxonMobil hiring routes, ExxonMobil Hiring Assessments: Content and Role Differences explains the split in more detail.
Use of Industrial Information Test: The Heaviest Block
This test measures your ability to read and use graphs, charts, tables, forms and written passages. It runs 40 minutes, which makes it two-thirds of the timed wage battery. If you only have limited preparation time, this is where it should go.
Domain 3: Use of Industrial Information Test
The skill being tested is practical document literacy: pulling the right figure from the right place, following written instructions accurately, and drawing a sound conclusion from what is on the page.
- Graphs: reading values, spotting trends, comparing series
- Charts and tables: locating data, cross-referencing rows and columns
- Forms: following structure and completing or interpreting entries correctly
- Written passages: extracting procedure, requirements and conditions
- Scratch paper is provided; calculators are prohibited
No calculator, but nothing that requires one
ExxonMobil writes this test so that every item can be solved without a calculator. That is a useful signal about what to practise. You are unlikely to face heavy computation. The difficulty is more likely to be careful reading, unit awareness, and estimating or working through simple arithmetic cleanly on scratch paper. Practise doing basic operations by hand so they do not eat your time, but do not spend hours on advanced maths that the test is not designed to demand.
Habits that pay off here
- Read the question before studying the graphic, so you know what you are looking for.
- Check axis labels, units and table headings before extracting a number.
- When a passage describes a procedure, note conditions such as "if", "unless" and "before" on scratch paper.
- Keep moving. Forty minutes is generous only if you do not stall on a single item.
Key Takeaway
Because this test accounts for 40 of the 60 timed minutes, a modest improvement in your speed and accuracy reading industrial documents does more for your overall result than the same effort spent on any other component.
Mechanical Comprehension Assessment
The Mechanical Comprehension Assessment measures your ability to apply general mechanical principles to problem situations. It runs 15 minutes and uses four-option multiple choice. The emphasis is on applying principles to scenarios rather than reciting definitions.
Domain 1: Mechanical Comprehension Assessment
Expect problem situations that ask you to reason about how a mechanical arrangement behaves, then pick the best of four options.
- Think in terms of cause and effect: what happens to one part when another changes?
- Review general principles such as forces, leverage, pulleys, gears, fluids and basic energy ideas as preparation organisation (ExxonMobil does not publish a topic-by-topic blueprint)
- Practise eliminating clearly wrong options first, then comparing the remaining two carefully
With 15 minutes for the section, pacing matters, but you do not need to rush every item. A sensible approach is to answer the ones you can reason through quickly, flag the slower ones, and return if time allows. For a candid look at how demanding the full battery tends to feel, see How Hard Is the ExxonMobil Assessment?.
Technical Checking Test
This is the oddest component and the one most likely to unsettle candidates. It measures speed and accuracy in applying a rule set from an on-screen Command Card. It runs only 5 minutes, and it is deliberately built so that most applicants do not finish, yet they can still score well.
Domain 2: Technical Checking Test
You are given a set of rules on an on-screen Command Card and must apply them correctly and quickly to the items presented.
- Learn the rules on the card before you start working through items
- Accuracy matters as much as speed; careless errors can cost more than skipped items
- Do not panic when you realise you will not finish; that is expected by design
Because the test is so short, practice should focus on rule-following under mild time pressure rather than on content knowledge. Short, repeated drills of applying a written rule set are more relevant than long study sessions.
Behavioral Tests
The Behavioral Tests are untimed. Each item offers four or five response options, and there are no right answers in the sense that a maths question has one. The tests measure four dimensions: Teamwork, Safety Orientation, Learning Orientation and Conscientiousness.
Domain 4: Behavioral Tests
These items describe work-related situations or preferences and ask how you would respond or how well a statement describes you.
- Teamwork: how you work with and support others
- Safety Orientation: how you weigh safe practice against other pressures
- Learning Orientation: your attitude toward developing new skills and accepting feedback
- Conscientiousness: reliability, thoroughness and follow-through
Why strategy tends to backfire
ExxonMobil explicitly warns that the dimension being scored is often not the obvious one, and it advises honest answering over strategy. That advice is worth taking seriously. If you try to guess which answer looks most "safe" or most "team-oriented", you may be optimising for a dimension that is not the one a given item actually measures. Consistency across the test also tends to reward candidates who answer as themselves.
The practical preparation here is reflective rather than technical: think about how you actually behave in safety-critical, team-based, procedure-driven work, and be ready to answer without second-guessing each option.
Process, Results and Scoring Facts
A few process points are worth knowing before you sit the battery.
- Cost: there is no fee to the applicant. ExxonMobil administers the assessment itself. See ExxonMobil Assessment Costs and Optional Preparation for how this relates to any optional prep you might choose to buy.
- Delivery: internally at company test centres or online under camera supervision, rather than through a commercial testing provider.
- Results: ExxonMobil publishes no numeric cut score. Applicants are told only whether they met minimum requirements, and results typically arrive roughly a week later.
Because no cut score is published, treat any number you see quoted online with caution. For a clear account of what is and is not public, read ExxonMobil Assessment Scores: Results and Hiring Decisions and ExxonMobil Assessment Pass Rates: What Is and Is Not Published.
For the official starting point, ExxonMobil's own Operations and Maintenance wage test study guide is the source to check first. It reflects how ExxonMobil itself describes the tests.
Sequencing Your Preparation by Domain
This is the only section where generic scheduling advice appears, and it is tied directly to the battery above. The logic: spend the most hours where the most timed minutes sit, put the quirky short test in regular small doses, and leave behavioural reflection for the end so it stays fresh.
Use of Industrial Information foundations
- Practise reading graphs, tables and forms with a pencil and scratch paper only
- Build speed on simple hand arithmetic, since calculators are prohibited
Use of Industrial Information under time, plus Mechanical Comprehension
- Run timed document-reading sets against a 40-minute pace
- Begin scenario-based mechanical reasoning with four-option questions
Technical Checking and mixed practice
- Do short rule-application drills in a 5-minute frame, prioritising accuracy
- Alternate mechanical and document sets to build switching stamina
Behavioral reflection and full-battery rehearsal
- Reflect honestly on teamwork, safety, learning and conscientiousness at work
- Rehearse the timed components back to back, then rest before test day
If you want guidance on whether this level of effort suits your situation, Is ExxonMobil Assessment Preparation Worth Your Time? weighs it up, and ExxonMobil Assessment Training: Skills and Practice covers the underlying skills. You can also try timed questions on the main practice test site.
Test-Day Checklist
- Confirm your format: test centre or online under camera supervision, as stated in your invitation.
- Expect scratch paper, not a calculator, for the Use of Industrial Information Test.
- Pace the 40-minute block so no single item swallows your time.
- Read the Command Card carefully before racing through the 5-minute Technical Checking Test.
- Answer behavioural items as yourself, not as you imagine an ideal employee would.
- Remember the stakes: the result tells you whether you met minimum requirements; it does not guarantee employment.
Before applying, it also helps to check the broader eligibility picture in ExxonMobil Application Requirements: What to Check Before Applying, and to understand how a result is interpreted in What Does a ExxonMobil Assessment Result Mean?. When you are ready to test yourself, the practice tests offer a way to rehearse the question styles under time pressure.
Frequently Asked Questions
The Use of Industrial Information Test. It runs 40 of the 60 timed minutes in the wage battery, so it carries the largest share of the timed testing and rewards focused practice with graphs, charts, tables, forms and written passages.
Not on the Use of Industrial Information Test. Calculators are prohibited and scratch paper is provided. The test is written so every item can be solved without a calculator, so practise clean hand arithmetic rather than relying on a device.
No. The 5-minute test is deliberately designed so most applicants do not finish, yet they can still score well. Accuracy in applying the Command Card rules matters more than reaching the last item.
No. ExxonMobil publishes no numeric cut score. Applicants are told only whether they met minimum requirements, with results typically arriving about a week later. Be wary of any specific passing number quoted elsewhere.
Answer honestly. The tests measure Teamwork, Safety Orientation, Learning Orientation and Conscientiousness, and ExxonMobil warns that the dimension being scored is often not the obvious one, so trying to game the options is likely to backfire.