How to tackle the Quantitative Reasoning

Some applicants may find the QR section of the UCAT to be one of the most challenging subtests in the exam. QR tests you not only on your mathematical abilities, but also on your time management and quick thinking. Brush up on your mental maths. The QR section heavily focuses on interpreting data, and making calculations.

You can save valuable seconds on a question, by solving calculations in your head. There are many exercises available online to help with this.

Re-visit key GCSE maths topics Many GCSE maths topics can come up in the QR subtest, such as speed- distance-time, area/volumes of shapes, and mean, median, mode and range.

You may wish to recap these key concepts, as the core knowledge will be vital in ensuring you know how to answer these questions. Watching YouTube videos, or even digging out your old notes, are just some of the ways you may want to go over these topics.

Become familiar with the calculator One reason why some applicants find the QR section particularly challenging, is due to the calculator. It’s a very basic digital calculator, unlike ones you may have used at GCSE/A-Level. It is accessible by pressing either the ‘calculator’ button at the top, or pressing ‘alt + C’ on your keyboard. It can be quite time consuming clicking all the numbers on the screen. This is why it is vital to use a number pad in practice, so that the digits are all easily accessible.

Another aspect of the calculator, is the memory function. When typing a number, pressing M+ will add it to the memory. Then, if you want to subtract something from memory, type a number and press M-. Press MRC to see your new value. Guess, flag and skip long and more complex questions

In QR, long and complex questions are intentionally added, to see whether you are able to distinguish which questions aren’t worth spending time on. There will never be enough time for every question, so it is important you guess, flag and skip questions which either look complex, or are taking you too long. You can return to these at the end, if you have some time.

I hope these tips have made you feel slightly more confident in your quantitative reasoning abilities, good luck to you all!