Difficult questions

To get a high QR score, you will have to answer most questions on your first pass through the section.

You must also pace yourself to achieve speed and accuracy. This means 30 seconds or less per question for the vast majority of Quantitative questions.

Otherwise, you will run out of time and run the risk of leaving questions blank.

You can then bank time for your second pass, allowing you to invest time in the harder questions after you have locked in all the simpler, quicker marks.

Good QR pacing depends on you recognising difficult questions and having a firm, consistent approach to deal with them.

The good news: You know to prepare for difficult QR questions, so you can take steps in your UCAT revision to ensure you refine your approach ahead of Test Day.

Some Quantitative Reasoning questions may be more difficult than others due to:

• Complex calculations: Any questions requiring four or more steps or a complicated formula to solve.
• Unusual phrasing in the data, text or question: If you don’t know what the goal is, you won’t be able to solve the question.
• Confusing or unclear data: If you don’t understand the data, you won’t be able to identify the relevant data to use.

If a question seems particularly difficult at a first glance, flag it for review and keep moving. The ability to stay focused and not let yourself get sidetracked into spending too long on a difficult question is key to good pacing in QR

As you work through the other questions in a set, you will become more familiar with the data and may find any harder questions that you flagged are easier on a second pass.

If a QR question is hard to understand and you don’t know how to start, it can be difficult to plan your steps with a focus on the goal. In such cases, it may be unclear how to reach the goal.

Instead, focus on simple maths, piece by piece. Think about which of the basic operations may be necessary as the first step.

Ask yourself, as the first step:

• Do you have to sum up a column or part of a column?
• Do you need to find a difference?
• Is there something to multiply or divide?

Allow a few seconds to concentrate on the first step. It may help you to find the next step, which will put you closer to the goal.

Remember that you must not try to count the individual steps in each QR question to determine whether it is a simple or complex calculation question.

Instead, you must go on a quick visual estimate and your broad sense of the vibe of each question:

• If it looks relatively straightforward, assume it is a simple calculation question and do it immediately in 30 seconds or less.
• If it feels familiar in terms of the apparent steps required to solve, you might similarly treat it as a simple calculation question.
• If it clearly requires 4 or 5 steps (or more), assume it is a complex calculation question, in which case you should flag it for review and save for a second pass.
• If it seems like lots of steps are required, you might take a few seconds to see if you can grasp the steps and confirm whether it is a complex calculation question. Then, follow the simple or complex approach as appropriate.
• If you have no idea how to begin, the best option is to immediately skip the question and flag for review. See if other questions in the set help to clarify things, or leave it for the second pass through QR.

Train your eyes to spot complex calculation questions as you revise for Quantitative Reasoning. This will allow you to quickly identify difficult questions that are better to flag for review without attempting, which is invaluable for good pacing in QR.

If a question seems super elaborate or like it might need 4 or 5 steps (or more), you will likely prefer to skip it on your first pass through the section.

A good hint to skip a question is if it includes 3 or 4 sentences (or more) in the question stem, especially if the sentences introduce new numbers or new context.

New information in a long question stem will force you to slow down to understand and apply the new context while you also must figure out how to use the new numbers.

In some cases, this process will take 10-15 seconds or more, even if you are excellent at maths.

If a QR question seems to require complex calculations with several steps that appear quite challenging to untangle:

• Take a few seconds to mentally talk through each step.
• Focus on the operation you need in each step: add, subtract, multiply or divide.
• Where needed, double check to ensure you have not skipped a step, inverted the maths (such as multiplying instead of dividing) or misinterpreted the maths (such as dividing instead of subtracting).

In a complex calculation question, it is worth taking this extra time to allow yourself to think before you calculate. If you slow down to set up mentally, you can solve quickly using the onscreen calculator.

Don’t let the answer choice format delay you in figuring out how to solve a Quantitative question.

If you see an unusual or challenging answer format – such as ratios written with a colon – it’s good to be aware of an extra step as you select the correct answer.

But you can work with numbers in any form or any units as you use the calculator. The priority is to get to the answer quickly, but you can always convert as a final step.

A Quantitative question may be difficult simply because it is a very long sentence. This can make it very tough to translate words into maths. You may need to:

• Use the number format and units in the answer choices to help you understand the goal.
• Single out words in the question that indicate the goal or possible steps to solve for the goal. Examples: ‘How much less’; ‘increase’; ‘average’; ‘per’; ‘of…to’.
• If the question is a comparison, take a moment to consider the two groups being compared and the maths needed to calculate the comparison.

Any QR question can be more challenging when it involves a negative or missing group. This can make for lengthy question stems that are harder to turn into maths.

A negative group is a type or category defined in negative terms compared to other groups in the data. Examples of negative terms: ‘unsold’; ‘not booked’; ‘absent’.

This may feel like a missing group since it is not directly stated in the data. You may need to:

• Subtract one or more groups from the total amount to find the missing group.
• Multiply or divide using a fraction, decimal, percentage or ratio to find the missing group as a proportion of the total or relative proportion to another group stated in the data.

Note that you may need to slow down to ensure you see the steps required when there is a negative or missing group, as you must use the data in order to fill the gaps.

In a very long QR question, you may need to remember several values that you calculate on the way to the goal.

Be sure to use the calculator memory where possible. But you can only store one value.

Sometimes, then, you must write intermediate values in your notebook. Use scrap paper and a pen as you practise QR to simulate rough working on Test Day.

As you revise for QR, try to train your eyes to look for shortcuts.

A shortcut is any chance to simplify maths or skip a calculation that you might include if you had to show your working in a normal maths exam.

Medify explanations will focus on shortcuts wherever possible. QR shortcuts are generally best identified when you set up mentally, as they let you save time in calculations.

Remember, in the UCAT you only get a mark for clicking the correct answer. The test does not know or care how you get there. Thus, you must take the shortest path wherever possible.

It is impossible to predict every possible variation of difficult questions that may appear in Quantitative Reasoning.

The UCAT can devise almost endless possibilities, but you can be consistent in your approach to difficult QR questions.

For questions with unusual phrasing or unclear data, the key is to identify the goal and set up mentally before you solve in the calculator.

You will also want to take an extra step in a difficult question to decide early on whether to tackle the question immediately or make a guess, flag for review and move on.

Once you’ve gone through the simplest questions first, you will have picked up all the quickest marks in the section and be able to use your remaining time for the hardest questions that you flagged for review.

Remember that there is no negative marking in the UCAT. You will not get more points for a difficult question. You must ensure you click an answer for every question before time runs out.

In the worst case, it is better to click a random guess for the last few questions in the final 10-15 seconds so you have a chance of picking up the marks. A blind guess is better than leaving a question blank. With practice and good pacing, you won’t need this backup strategy.