Short, direct answers, each with its source. Where the Army has not published something, this page says so instead of guessing. Official means jobs.army.mod.uk or Army staff answering on the Army's own Q&A site, ask.jobs.army.mod.uk.
Not in the pass-or-fail sense. The ACT produces a score, your General Trainability Index (GTI), and each role has its own score requirement. A low score narrows which roles you can apply for rather than ending your application. If your score is below the role you want, Army staff say you are given the opportunity to return and re-attempt at a later date.
The individual questions are easy. The difficulty is the clock and the memory element: in most sections the rules or calculations disappear when you press Next Step, and you answer from memory against a running timer. Candidates who find it hard are almost always unfamiliar with the formats, which is why the Army provides free practice. The five formats are learnable in an afternoon; speed takes longer.
It depends on the role, and the Army sets requirements per role, not per corps. The only official worked example we have found: Army staff told a candidate with a GTI of 44 that it qualified them for Royal Logistic Corps roles including Port Operator, Driver, Postal Courier, Logistics Supply Specialist, Air Dispatcher and Chef, subject to GCSEs and the fitness tests. Your recruiter can give you the list of roles your own score qualifies you for. Ask for it.
A practice version you sit by yourself on your application portal early in the process. Army staff describe its results as being used only as practice and as an indication of how you are likely to do. The real test is taken at the assessment centre, on a computer, as a series of five tests that everybody takes.
Officially: five short, separately timed sections on a computer. The Army does not publish the exact timings or question counts. Candidates consistently report sections of roughly five to seven and a half minutes each, with more questions than anyone finishes, which is the design: it measures how many you get right in the time, not whether you reach the end. Our mock test uses those community-reported timings and says so.
Yes. The Army links to a free practice test on its assessment page, run by Mindmill, the company that delivers the real one. It is untimed and lets you try each of the five formats as many times as you like. The Army says it receives no results from it. Use it to learn the formats; use timed practice to build the speed.
Only if you do not hold GCSE Maths and English at grade C/4 or above, or the equivalent. Army staff say regular candidates must reach at least Entry Level 2 on the Functional Skills initial assessments, plus Level 1 or higher on the English speaking and listening test; results are valid for 24 months. These are sat at the assessment centre. The Army's own advice for preparing is GCSE revision material such as BBC Bitesize.
Yes, in some form. Army staff state that if you do not pass an element at assessment you can return and re-attempt it at a later date. What the Army has not published is how many attempts you get or how long you wait between them, so treat any confident numbers you read elsewhere as unverified. Once you have enlisted, the score on your record is the one you keep.
The ACT replaced the BARB test as the British Army's entry aptitude test, for the same purpose: a trainability score that decides which roles are open to you. If you are searching for BARB test practice, you want ACT practice. The formats are not identical, so practise the current five sections rather than old BARB material.
Soldier assessment page and fitness page, jobs.army.mod.uk, read 12 October 2026. Army staff answers on ask.jobs.army.mod.uk: the screener (18 Jul 2022), re-attempts and the order of the day (14 Mar 2020), the GTI of 44 and the literacy and numeracy levels (Amie P., February 2025). Section timings: candidate reports, not official, and labelled as such above.
If you find an official source that corrects anything here, tell us and we will change it the same day.
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