EEI Test Guide: Which Battery You Will Sit and What Is on It

If a US electric utility has invited you to an "EEI test", you are not sitting one test but one of a family of batteries the Edison Electric Institute writes for its member companies. Which battery you get depends on the job, and each is a set of short, separately timed subtests. Here is how to work out yours, what is in it and how it is marked.

Start with the battery, not the utility

EEI validates each battery for a family of jobs, so the same line job uses CAST whether you apply to one utility or another. The job posting or invitation names it. Arkansas Electric Cooperative Corporation, for example, says that if a position requires EEI testing "it will be indicated under the Minimum Qualifications".

Utilities print the names in slightly different ways. You may see "Technical" rather than "Technician" for TECH, "SO/PD" without the II, a combined "POSS/MASS" sitting, or, at Southern California Edison, a test number: 5108 for CAST and 5107 for TECH. EEI also has batteries for meter readers (MRAB), customer service (CSR) and administrative roles (SASS), which are built differently.

What each subtest asks

• Mechanical Concepts (CAST, CAST-R, MASS, POSS and TECH): 44 drawings in 20 minutes, each with three options, the third usually "both" or "equally". Gears, pulleys, levers, pressure, flow, springs and simple circuits.
• Reading Comprehension: 4 passages and 32 questions in 30 minutes on CAST, 5 and 36 in 30 on MASS and POSS, 4 and 26 in 22 on SO/PD II. Plant battery passages read like training and safety manuals, and you answer strictly from the passage.
• Mathematical Usage: 18 questions in 7 minutes on CAST, MASS and POSS, or 46 in 17 minutes on one version of POSS, with the facts and formulas printed at the start. The fifth option, N, means none of the values given is right.
• Graphic Arithmetic (CAST and CAST-R): 16 questions on two dimensioned drawings in 30 minutes. The drawings are not to scale, so every answer comes from the printed numbers, never from measuring.
• Assembling Objects (MASS): 20 items in 15 minutes, joining parts either by matching lettered points or like puzzle pieces.
• Figural Reasoning (POSS): 20 items in 10 minutes across picture series, picture comparisons and three by three progressions.
• TECH's own subtests: Graphic Problem Solving (arithmetic from one illustration), Interpreting Diagrams (counting and reading symbols on a map against a legend) and Reasoning from Rules (applying written rules to route each case). EEI publishes no count or time for any of the three.
• Analytic Thinking Skills (SO/PD II): 23 questions in 45 minutes, split into 7 argument questions, 5 problem-solving questions and 11 statements to judge TRUE, FALSE or INDETERMINABLE from a set of facts.

How it is scored, and what counts as a pass

Every subtest is scored as the number you get right, and "There is no penalty for guessing or wrong answers", in the words of EEI's MASS, POSS and CAST-R brochures. The utility never sees a subtest on its own. It gets one combined result for the battery: an index from 1 to 10 on CAST and CAST-R, an Aptitude Index from 0 to 15 on POSS, a combined index on MASS and TECH, and "Recommended" or "Not Recommended" on SO/PD II.

There is no universal pass mark. EEI says cut-off scores "can be tailored to local company employment needs", and it publishes neither the weights that combine the subtests nor how a raw score becomes an index. Treat any pass mark you read on a preparation site as unverified. What you can control is this: a weak subtest pulls the whole index down, so no single subtest can be written off.

Calculators

Two first-party answers, and they contradict the preparation sites that say calculators are never allowed. EEI's CAST-R brochure says of Graphic Arithmetic: "The use of a calculator is permitted during this test." TVA says of its MASS and POSS sitting: "You may not bring your own calculator but a basic four-function calculator will be provided for testing." The 2009 CAST brochure does not say. Ask your utility, and practise both ways.

Results and retakes, utility by utility

EEI says it "does not provide results directly to applicants", so the rules below are each utility's own, from its careers pages:

• Entergy: results "typically available within five business days"; 30 days between attempts and no more than two in twelve months.
• Arkansas Electric Cooperative Corporation: 15 days between attempts and no more than two in twelve months.
• LG&E and KU: if you were not selected because of your result, you cannot retake the same test within 90 days.
• TVA: results by email in seven to ten business days, and "Test results are good forever", with your highest score used.

If you have sat an EEI test elsewhere, EEI asks you to tell the new utility, and some ask for a release form so your earlier result can be transferred.

How to prepare

Start with the practice material your utility links to. EEI's own practice tests are free through each utility's careers page, and they show the item types exactly. Then work on each subtest in your battery on its own clock, because the clocks are short and very different: about 23 seconds a question on the short Mathematical Usage form, nearly two minutes on Graphic Arithmetic.

Our EEI practice tests cover every subtest above except the Work Preferences Inventory, the SO/PD II Multitasking Simulation and the logic-network half of Reasoning from Rules, on EEI's own clocks wherever EEI publishes them. Mechanical Concepts is free, so it is the place to start.