Difficult data

You will come across sets with difficult or unclear data on Test Day. These sets are designed to confuse you and make you slow down.

Don’t be distracted by data that isn’t needed to answer the question. You need a few pieces of data for each question, so you can often cherry pick the data you need even if the overall format or context is hard to understand.

If the data is in an unusual or hard-to-work-with format, go right to the first question as context clues in the question stem may help you decipher the data.

You can help combat the challenges of difficult data by always finding the goal of the question before even looking at the data, then focusing on the relevant information (which may only be a small part of the overall data).

QR sets with difficult data may include:

• Unusual units, or familiar units in an unusual context
• Powers or exponents resulting in extremely high or low values that are difficult to use in the calculator
• Extensive textual information with essential concepts or bespoke formulae, often with excessively wordy phrasing

In a QR set, the data format itself may be unusual or hard to work with. You might see:

• a circle graph
• a line or bar graph with two y-axes
• an uncommon chart format like a treemap or sunburst chart
• a flowchart with confusing labels or crossing lines
• a table with multiple sections or headings on both sides of rows or columns

All these formats have appeared in official UCAT practice in recent years, and you will see them in your Medify QR practice.

Note that the UCAT could come up with further unusual data formats on Test Day. Thus, you must prepare for uncertainty so you do not freeze and hesitate when you see it.

You may see a circle graph in the QR section on Test Day.

A circle graph is a pie chart that is labelled with degrees of a circle instead of numerical or percentage values. Look out for the degree sign in each sector.

You must divide the degrees from the pie chart by 360° to convert to a decimal in parts per hundred, like the decimal form of a percentage. Then, use the decimal to complete your calculations.

Wrong answer traps may play on misreading the degrees as percentages or otherwise failing to distinguish whether you are working with degrees (out of 360°) or percentages (out of 100).

If a circle graph involves times in hours and minutes, be careful to distinguish:

• hours written with a decimal representing a partial hour
• hours and minutes written with a colon, as in a normal clock time

You may have a further step to convert the decimal portion indicating a partial hour into minutes. Wrong answer traps may tempt you to skip this step.

If a QR set includes a graph with 2 y-axes:

• Take a moment to read all axis labels to help keep the y-axes distinct in your head.
• Take a moment at the start of each question to ask: ‘Do I need the left y-axis or the right y-axis to solve for the goal?’
• Put your finger or pen by the y-axis required for each question to ensure you compare the data points to the correct tick marks or axis labels.
• Repeat the process for each new question.

You are very likely to see wrong answer traps based on reading the right data point against the wrong y-axis.

QR data can be difficult because it includes maths words in unfamiliar contexts, often with little or no explanation in the stimulus.

In some cases, the QR data could use a maths word in a way that is unrelated to its normal meaning.

In that case, you could go wrong by trying to apply an irrelevant maths concept that will not help you solve for the goal.

Think of these words as data labels or categories. Look to each question stem for the essential maths clues to help you figure out the operations needed to set up and solve.

As always in QR, you must solve for an unknown. Focus on how to set up the maths using the numbers provided, even when the unknown is an unfamiliar term or concept.

If the data is very unusual or hard to work with, you may find the first question is difficult, making it little help in figuring out what to do or how to use the data.

In this case, skip the first question and flag for review without attempting it. Allow yourself a quick flick through the other questions in the set to find a simpler question.

You can then answer the questions out of order in that set, from the simplest to the most complex. This approach ensures you can lock in the marks on simpler questions.

Even so, you may need to skip the hardest question in the set and leave it for a second pass, when you can budget your leftover time to try and pick up the mark.

On the plus side, questions that seemed harder at first glance may become more straightforward once you unpack the data on one or more simpler questions. This approach allows you to use previous work to help understand harder questions, even in a set with the most difficult data.

In sets with difficult data, it’s even more essential to follow the recommended pacing advice and triage quickly and brutally.

The sooner you see that a question is objectively difficult, the less likely you are to get ‘sucked in’ and spending longer than 30 seconds on the question.

Once you complete the other questions in a set, you will be much more familiar with the data and better placed to tackle the harder questions.

You can always:

• Return to the hardest question in a set after completing the others.
• Leave the skipped question for a second pass, ensuring that you flag it for review.