British Army Cognitive Test (ACT) Practice
Every soldier applicant sits the Army Cognitive Test, the successor to the BARB. Practise all five sections the way they really work, with the material hidden before you answer, then sit the full test for an estimated General Trainability Index.
Free Test
Free to try with a free account. Error Detection is the first section on the Army’s own practice site, and it shows the ACT’s defining trick straight away.
Premium Tests
The other four sections as drills, the full five-section test with an estimated GTI, and the Technical Selection Test for technical trades. Drill your weakest section on its own: the GTI is one number built from all five, so that is where points are cheapest.
ACT Orientation
Memorise two rules about a stacked pair of black and white arrows, then pick the one pair of six that obeys both with the rules gone. Arrows point in eight directions, diagonals included.
ACT Number Fluency
Work out one calculation, then a second, then say which result was greater: First, Last or Same. You never see both at once, and there is no calculator.
ACT Word Rules
Three categories, then three words, then count how many words matched the category in their own position, 0 to 3, with everything gone from the screen.
ACT Deductive Reasoning
Two statements compare three people or things. Press Next, the statements vanish, and answer a question about them from memory. The one section descended directly from the old BARB.
Army Cognitive Test (Full)
All five sections back to back in the order of the Army’s practice site, each on its own hidden clock, ending in an estimated General Trainability Index. The pacing across five task types is the real difficulty.
Technical Selection Test (TST)
A 55-question GCSE-level maths paper in 45 minutes for technical trades: number, ratio, algebra, geometry, data and word problems. Five options, no negative marking, and you move freely between questions.
Every section hides its material before you answer
On the Army’s own practice site, pressing Next Step hides both Error Detection strings and only then shows the answer buttons, and every account of the other four sections describes the same. You do the working while the material is on screen and carry one answer across. Candidates who think on the answer screen are reconstructing something they can no longer see.
Error Detection
Study, then it disappears: An original string and a copy. Both vanish when you press Next.
You answer: How many characters in the copy were wrong: 0, 1, 2, 3 or 4.
Orientation
Study, then it disappears: Two rules about a stacked pair of black and white arrows.
You answer: Which of six arrow pairs obeys both rules.
Number Fluency
Study, then it disappears: Two calculations, shown one after the other and never together.
You answer: Which result was greater: First, Last or Same.
Word Rules
Study, then it disappears: Three categories, then three words.
You answer: How many words matched the category in their own position: 0 to 3.
Deductive Reasoning
Study, then it disappears: Two statements comparing three people or things.
You answer: A question about the order, with three answers.
The screener is practice. The Verifier is the one that counts.
You meet the ACT twice. First comes a short online screener through your application portal on the Mindmill site, which the Army says is used only as practice and to see how you are likely to do. It will not load properly on a phone, so use a laptop or tablet.
The score that decides your roles comes from the “Army Cognitive Test (Verifier)”, sat under supervision on a touch screen at the Assessment Centre during a three-day, two-night stay. You get your result before you leave, and the Army allows three attempts in total.
What your GTI means
Your result is one number, the General Trainability Index. On the old BARB it was a T-score, scaled so the average applicant scored about 50 with a standard deviation of 10, and every ACT threshold soldiers quote sits where that scale predicts. The Army does not publish the score each role needs; these are the figures serving soldiers and recruiters have given on the Army’s own Q&A site.
GTI 34
An Infantry recruiter on the Army’s Q&A site, August 2023All Line Infantry, the Parachute Regiment and the Guards
GTI 42 to 44
Army Q&A answers from 2019 and a former lead recruiter in 2025Royal Logistic Corps trades such as Driver, Chef, Port Operator and Postal Courier
GTI Above 60
A Royal Military Police soldier on the Army’s Q&A site, 2019The Royal Military Police, "the highest requirement of all trades"
Many preparation sites still print a minimum of 26. That is a BARB-era figure: an Infantry recruiter gave 34 as the floor for the Infantry in 2023, and a Royal Artillery soldier gave 34 as the minimum for any role the same year. The Army changes its thresholds, so ask your recruiter for yours. Our full test estimates a GTI from your result against other CogniPrep candidates, not against Army applicants, and says so.
Timing, and what is not published
What the Army says
That speed and accuracy both count, and that “you will get a better score by working as quickly as you can, so if a question seems too hard make your best guess and move on”. It publishes no section clocks and no item counts.
What we use, and why we flag it
Five minutes each for Error Detection and Orientation and seven and a half for the other three: 32 and a half minutes of testing, from a preparation site. There is no fixed number of items; they stream until each clock ends.
No clock on screen
A candidate who sat it reported that the sections are “timed with no notice as to when the time is going to run out”, so our sections show no countdown either. Each section’s length is stated on the screen before it starts.
Practising on a phone
The real Verifier runs on a touch screen at the Assessment Centre and the screener on a laptop or tablet, so our sections are built for touch, with large answer targets and answers that register the moment you tap. They work on a phone because revising on the move beats not revising, but a phone is not a device the Army uses: treat a phone result as indicative, and sit your last few runs on a tablet or laptop.
The other tests an Army applicant can meet
Technical Selection Test (TST)
A GCSE-level maths test for technical trades in the Royal Engineers, REME and the Royal Corps of Signals, and for Ammunition Technician in the Royal Logistic Corps. It is no longer taken at the Assessment Centre. One preparation site describes 55 questions in 45 minutes with no negative marking, which is what our TST follows.
Literacy and Numeracy Test
Sat at the Assessment Centre by anyone without GCSE English or Maths at 9 to 4 (A* to C) or equivalent. It checks eligibility rather than ranking you, and the Army points to BBC Bitesize for revision. We do not simulate it.
Officer selection (AOSB)
Officers do not take the ACT. They sit different psychometric tests at the Army Officer Selection Board, with their own practice site, and we do not simulate them.
Joining the RAF or Royal Navy instead?
They use a different, longer test with mechanical and electrical reasoning. See the Defence Aptitude Assessment. And if you have practised the Thomas GIA, you have met BARB’s other descendant: its Reasoning task is a close cousin of Deductive Reasoning.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the Army Cognitive Test?
The ability test every British Army soldier applicant takes, Regular and Reserve. The Army’s assessment page puts it plainly: "Everybody takes this series of five tests. Your score determines which jobs you can go for." It is delivered on the Mindmill platform and replaced the British Army Recruit Battery (BARB) in 2018.
What are the five sections of the ACT?
Error Detection, Orientation, Number Fluency, Word Rules and Deductive Reasoning, in the order the Army’s official practice site lists them. On every section you study the material, press Next, and answer with it gone.
Is the ACT the same as the BARB?
It replaced BARB in 2018, and an Army answer calls it "essentially the same sort of thing as the old BARB just a bit more up to date". The formats did change, though: only Deductive Reasoning closely resembles a BARB test. Several preparation products still sell BARB formats under ACT names.
Do I take the Army Cognitive Test at home or at the Assessment Centre?
Both, and only one counts. You first sit a short online screener through your application portal, which the Army says is used only as practice. The score that decides your roles comes from the supervised "Army Cognitive Test (Verifier)" at the Assessment Centre. An Army answer from 2024: "The Army cognitive test is done at the assessment centre, it can not be done at home."
What GTI score do I need?
It depends on the role, and the Army does not publish a list. Soldiers and recruiters on the Army’s own Q&A site have quoted 34 for the Infantry (2023), 42 to 44 for Royal Logistic Corps trades (2019 and 2025) and above 60 for the Royal Military Police (2019). The "minimum of 26" on many preparation sites is a BARB-era figure. Your recruiter will confirm the score your role needs.
Can I use a calculator or paper in the ACT?
No calculator: Number Fluency is mental arithmetic. An Army HR officer said pencil and scrap paper are handed out for the computer-based tests at the Assessment Centre, but on sections where the material disappears within seconds, writing things down costs time the sections do not allow.
How many times can I take the Army Cognitive Test?
Three times in total, according to an Army answer in 2020.
Can I do the ACT screener on my phone?
No. An Army answer from 2023: "you can only do the ACT on a tablet or laptop. It will not load properly on your mobile phone." The scored Verifier is on a touch screen at the Assessment Centre.
Do officers take the Army Cognitive Test?
No. Officer applicants sit different psychometric tests at the Army Officer Selection Board, with their own practice site. They are not simulated here.
Companies That Use British Army
The Army Cognitive Test is written for one organisation. Every British Army soldier applicant, Regular and Reserve, sits it at the Assessment Centre, and the General Trainability Index it produces decides which roles they can apply for. Officers sit different tests at the Army Officer Selection Board.
British Army
Armed ForcesThe Army Cognitive Test (Verifier) for every soldier applicant at the Assessment Centre, and the Technical Selection Test for some technical trades.
The Army changes its role thresholds, and the figures quoted on this page come from serving soldiers on the Army’s own Q&A site rather than from published policy. Your recruiter will confirm the score your chosen role needs.
Guides and Tips
Read up before you practise: what the tests reward, what catches candidates out, and why shortcuts do not work.
Can You Cheat the ACT? Only the Verifier Counts
The screener you sit at home is practice; the Verifier that sets your GTI is supervised. Why there is nowhere for a shortcut to land.
Army Cognitive Test Sections Explained: What Each One Hides
Every section of the ACT hides its material before you answer. What the five sections ask, what the screener and the Verifier are, and which GTI soldiers say each role needs.
Practice by Test Type
Compare the same format across every provider that uses it, and see what each one is really measuring.
Numerical Reasoning Test Practice
Tables, charts, percentages and ratios against the clock. The most common screening test on graduate schemes and analyst roles.
Verbal Reasoning Test Practice
Short dense passages and true, false or cannot say answers. Judged on what the text supports, never on what you already know.
Logical Reasoning Test Practice
Shapes, sequences and flowcharts instead of words or numbers. Inductive, deductive, abstract, diagrammatic and spatial in one place.
About CogniPrep British Army Practice
CogniPrep provides practice simulations of the British Army's soldier selection tests. They are not affiliated with or endorsed by the British Army, the Ministry of Defence or Mindmill, and every format detail the Army does not publish is labelled with where it comes from.
- 7 practice tests: ACT Error Detection, Orientation, Number Fluency, Word Rules and Deductive Reasoning, the full five-section Army Cognitive Test, and the Technical Selection Test
- The ACT replaced the British Army Recruit Battery (BARB) in 2018 and runs on the Mindmill platform
- Every section is a stream of items against its own clock, and on every section the material disappears before the answer screen
- The online screener is practice only; the scored sitting is the Army Cognitive Test (Verifier), supervised, on a touch screen at the Assessment Centre
- The result is one General Trainability Index. Quoted role thresholds: 34 for the Infantry, 42 to 44 for several Royal Logistic Corps trades, above 60 for the Royal Military Police
- Our marking follows BARB's published correction for guessing, which the ACT is not confirmed to keep, and our full-test estimate averages the five sections because the Army does not publish its weights
Ready to Start Practising?
Start free with Error Detection, the first section on the Army's own practice site, then unlock all 7 British Army tests for unlimited practice.