The Advanced Numeracy Test Workbook - Mike Bryon [3]
It is important to organize your time during the test as otherwise you risk being told that you have run out of time before you have attempted every question. This is where the practice on mock tests really helps. Keep a track on how long you are spending on each question and make sure you are working at a pace that will allow you to attempt every question in the time left. Expect to do the early questions more quickly as every test starts easy and gets progressively more difficult. You have to be accurate but you must also be fast. So revise your mental arithmetic, and estimate answers and modify sums so that the calculations are more convenient; then look to the suggested answers to pick out the correct value. This is how you apply a really effective exam technique. You can only develop one through practice.
Keep going when you find a succession of difficult questions and avoid being delayed trying to pick up points that you really do not stand much chance of getting. The next section may comprise entirely different material for which you are better prepared.
Crude guessing is unlikely to improve your position. Most tests penalize wrong or unanswered questions. For every question that you cannot answer, look to the suggestions and try to rule some out as definitely wrong. If you then guess from the remaining options you may have significantly increased your chance of guessing correctly. Never try less than your best.
If you fail, ask the organization to provide you with some comments on your performance. Straight after the exam, note down the type of question and the level of difficulty. Use the experience to locate practice material and to inform a new programme of practice. Make sure that you concentrate on the areas in which you did less well.
Failing will not prejudice any future applications that you make to the company. There may be rules that mean you cannot apply again immediately. Some companies, for example, require a six-month gap between applications. However, many candidates pass on a second, third or later attempt and go on to enjoy an unimpeded career within the organization.
A key concepts reference
Make sure you are familiar with all the following operations, formulae and terms. They do not represent every operation covered in this book or in advanced numeracy tests but they represent an important start and will serve as an aide-mémoire before you take Test 1, which follows.
You are bound to be tested on these key concepts and others besides, so revise them and then practise them until you get them right quickly and every time. Then you will know they represent easy marks in a real test and you are ready to move on to the content of the later practice tests and further operations examined there.
Recognize patterns
Sequence of odd numbers:
1 3 5 7 9 11
Sequence of even numbers:
2 4 6 8 10 12
Sequence of prime numbers (has only two factors, 1 and itself):
2 3 5 7 11 13 17 19
To test a number to see if it is a prime number, find its square root and then divide by the prime numbers up to the value of the square root. If none divide exactly it is a prime number.
A list of whole number factors to the value of 18 (prime numbers excluded).
Whole number factors of:
4: 1, 2, 4
6: 1, 2, 3, 6
8: 1, 2, 4, 8
9: 1, 3, 9
10: 1, 2, 5, 10
12: 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 12
14: 1, 2, 7, 14
15: 1, 3, 5, 15
16: 1, 2, 4, 8, 16
18: 1, 2, 3, 6, 9, 18
The first 12 square numbers:
1, 4, 9, 16, 25, 36, 49, 64, 81, 100, 121, 144
Remember, square numbers are whole but any number can be squared.
To find the square of a number multiply it by itself.
Learn the first 10 cubed numbers:
1, 8, 27, 64, 125, 216, 343, 512, 729, 1,000
1 and 64 are both squared and cubed