Skip to content
Utility Tests

The TECH test

Technician Occupations Selection System

EEI's catalogue describes TECH as used to help select employees for technician jobs that typically require an associate degree, and names laboratory, environmental or chemistry technician; distribution planning technician; communications or telecommunications technician; drafter; and estimator.

Take a full TECH practice mockFree demo: Graphic Problem Solving
Tests
4
Counts published
1 of 4
Administration
About 2 hours

From EEI's TECH test brochure, which gives a count and time limit for Mechanical Concepts only. Our full practice mock runs 108 questions in 100 minutes, mostly at our own pacing.

The sections, in order

Each test has a free demo you can try now. EEI's brochure publishes a count and time limit for Mechanical Concepts only. For the other three, the figures shown are our own practice pacing, marked “ours”.

  1. 1.Graphic Problem Solving

    TECHNot published · ours: 16 Q · 30 min

    Each question hangs off an illustration — a dimensioned drawing, a tank elevation, a route on a scaled sheet, a tower elevation, a chart — and asks a practical arithmetic question: a length, a volume, a cost, a time, a percentage. The arithmetic is everyday. The skill is picking the right figures off the picture and keeping track of units and scale.

    EEI publishes no count or time; our practice length.

    Free demo Full practice

  2. 2.Interpreting Diagrams

    TECHNot published · ours: 24 Q · 20 min

    You work from a map or diagram and its key: an equipment map on a lettered grid, a switching one-line with open and closed switches, a valve diagram, a floor plan of tagged equipment. Questions ask where something is, what state it is in, what is live or receiving flow, and what a code means. Nothing needs calculating; it is careful reading of symbols against a key.

    EEI publishes no count or time; our practice pace.

    Free demo Full practice

  3. 3.Mechanical Concepts

    TECH44 questions · 20 min

    Simple pictures of mechanical arrangements with a short question: which gear turns which way, which pulley takes less effort, where the pressure is highest, which load is more stable. No formulas are needed and nothing is measured; it is about understanding how everyday mechanisms behave.

    The one TECH test EEI publishes figures for.

    Free demo Full practice

  4. 4.Reasoning from Rules

    TECHNot published · ours: 24 Q · 30 min

    Two kinds of question. Rule sheets: a short list of if-then rules (route this sample, schedule that test, approve this request) and cases to decide by them, in order, using the first rule that fits. Logic networks: switches feed AND, OR, NOT and ONE boxes that light a lamp; you work out what is on, which switch matters, and which box has failed from a set of test readings.

    EEI publishes no count or time; our practice pace.

    Free demo Full practice

About the TECH test

TECH is the battery EEI describes for utility technician jobs that typically need an associate degree — lab and chemistry, relay and test, telecom, drafting and design, distribution planning and estimating. EEI's brochure names four tests: Graphic Problem Solving, Interpreting Diagrams, Mechanical Concepts and Reasoning from Rules, in two versions of the battery taking about two hours to administer.

Here is the part most prep pages skip. EEI publishes a question count and a time limit for exactly one of those tests — Mechanical Concepts, 44 questions in 20 minutes, the same test that appears in CAST, POSS and MASS. For the other three it publishes a one-sentence description and nothing else. So we sell TECH practice by question type: original practice for each of the four kinds of question, with explanations, and a full practice mock in which only Mechanical Concepts runs to EEI's published figures. The other three run to our own practice pacing, and every page says so.

The three TECH-only tests are where the work is. Graphic Problem Solving is arithmetic taken off illustrations. Interpreting Diagrams is reading symbols and codes on maps and one-line diagrams to find things and say what state they are in. Reasoning from Rules is applying a written rule sheet exactly, and troubleshooting a small logic network. None needs trade knowledge; all of them reward a careful routine you can build with practice.

How it is scored

EEI's TECH brochure says the battery may be machine- or hand-scored and that scores on each test are combined into an Overall Score, which predicts the candidate's likelihood of success in job performance. It publishes no numeric range for that score, and no employer publishes a cut score.

Worth knowing

  • EEI publishes a question count and a time limit for Mechanical Concepts only. For Graphic Problem Solving, Interpreting Diagrams and Reasoning from Rules, the counts and times on this site are our own practice figures, and they are labelled that way.
  • Precise section counts for TECH that circulate online match EEI's practice exercises, which are shorter than the real tests. Entergy tells applicants its practice tests are shorter than, and differ slightly from, the real tests.
  • Southern California Edison catalogs TECH as test 5107, so an invitation quoting that number is a TECH invitation.
  • TECH is sold on its own here, separately from Standard and Complete, because it is a different battery for a different job family.

Common questions

How many questions are on the EEI TECH test?
EEI does not publish a total. Its brochure gives 44 questions in 20 minutes for Mechanical Concepts and no count or time for the other three tests. It describes the whole battery as taking about two hours to administer.
Is your TECH mock the same length as the real test?
Only partly, and we say exactly which part. Mechanical Concepts runs to EEI's published 44 questions in 20 minutes. Graphic Problem Solving, Interpreting Diagrams and Reasoning from Rules run to our own practice pacing, because EEI publishes none.
What score do I need on TECH?
Nobody publishes one. EEI's brochure says the test scores are combined into an Overall Score that predicts likelihood of success on the job, with no published range, and employers set their own standards.
Is TECH included in Complete?
No. TECH is a separate product, because it is a different battery for a different job family. It includes Mechanical Concepts, so you do not need Standard as well.

Free official practice from EEI

EEI runs its own candidate practice site, and several utilities publish the access details on their public testing pages at no charge: Entergy, LG&E and KU, Dominion Energy and Arkansas Electric Cooperative. Use it first. Entergy and Dominion Energy note the practice tests are shorter than the real tests and differ slightly from them.

Utility Tests is independent and is not affiliated with EEI or any utility. Our questions are original practice for the abilities each section assesses.

Utility Tests is independent practice. We are not affiliated with, endorsed by or connected to the Edison Electric Institute or any utility, our questions are original and written from published descriptions, and nothing here is the real TECH test.