Could be in dollars or euros etc. But I don't think they used terms like "penny", "nickel" and all that.
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UCAT: Quantitative Reasoning
- Thread starter unknownuser123
- Start date
Could be in dollars or euros etc. But I don't think they used terms like "penny", "nickel" and all that.
Fairyfloss
Lurker
What did you use to work on maths in isolation to the UCAT?
Unfortunately, that user is no longer active, they must have deleted their account. Imho the maths involved in QR isn't really too hard - it's the maths you use in the first years of high school. The biggest problem is speed - so probably just practice some high school math but using the num-pad on your computer to get faster.
threefivetwo
less gooo
Fili above answered your question, but I also wanted to add some tips. A big part of getting faster is also being able to extract information from the question stem (table, diagram, timetable etc.) quickly and intuit what calculations are required based on that. The only way to really get better at it is to do QR practice IMO - as you do more practice, you'll begin to recognise what calculations you need for the question faster → answer faster. Also, don't be afraid of flagging questions that involve complicated calculations and returning later - better to do them on the second pass when you've secured easy marks.
Also be careful of extra information in tables, graphs etc. (i.e. asterisked at the bottom) which can be crucial to the question stem.
I found QR in the UCAT last year to be much easier than the mock exams I did, although that could have been due to improvement from practice. So take from that what you will.
I think that it was a common sentiment that the real QR was considerably easier than practice, so if the same holds true this year then expect a 100+ score increase from your practice average, assuming everything else goes well.I found QR in the UCAT last year to be much easier than the mock exams I did, although that could have been due to improvement from practice. So take from that what you will.
ProfessorPond
Yahallo!
Learn to use the onscreen calculator for complex calculations, because you can only do one step at a time. Using the keyboard is a lot faster than tapping the numbers on screen.
Also, do BEDMAS in your head and work out which steps need to be carried out first because the calculator doesn't do that for you.
I'd like to point out my outlier example. In practice I could easily get 880-900. In the real thing, I could thrown off by a hard question stem and ended up with 800. So it really depends.
I mean common sentiment is that it's much easier but dont be overconfident like I was.
N
nb
Guest
Hey,
I was in your same position when I first did QR. By no means am I a QR god, but I think I know how you feel right now. It was so confusing as I would most definitely consider myself as a more 'maths' than 'english' person. However, the sooner you understand that QR isn't actually really testing your maths, the sooner you will see your scores improve. The main thing it is testing is time. Practice using the on-screen calculator, and get really good at it. This means being able to type numbers while you are looking at the screen, being able to type these numbers really fast without errors and finally, using the memory recall function. Once you've got these three things patted down, I strongly believe you will feel much more confident with your QR abilities! If you have any more questions, feel free to PM me.
Happy UCATing
Look I didn’t do well on the UCAT last year if I’m completely honest. But I had exactly the same problem. I did spesh and loved maths, but couldn’t figure out for the life of me why I was so terrible at QR (even now, when I’m practising again for the UCAT I still score the lowest on it). I was probably getting around only 10/36 questions right (and sometimes it was even lower
). And I totally get what you’re saying about losing motivation, because scoring so low on it really dropped my self-esteem and confidence. But come test day, my highest subtest score was miraculously QR. And my other subtest scores were also a bit higher than when I practiced. Definitely do what noodleboy123 said (that’s what I’m trying to do as well), but don’t beat yourself up too much over the QR score.Personally I found that the large qn stems with a big table of info was where I would often screw up, so I’m currently trying to perfect the art of learning how/when to skip. I think if I try to do the ‘easier’ qns, that don’t require much interpretation earlier on, and as quickly as possible, I would have time to go back and rethink the ones that make me stumble. Good luck with practice! If you come across any ground-breaking methods, pls let me know!
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threefivetwo
less gooo
Heya! I've been getting around 850+ on my mock exams so far for QR when it used to be one of my worst. I did the UCAT last year too, and did alrightish in it for QR too (780). Here're a couple of tips:
- QR is about testing your ability to sort through the data in the question, locate the relevant information, recognise the calculations you need to do, and perform them quickly. Basically, it's about speed and recognition.
- I would recommend doing the subtest in passes. On your first pass, only do the questions you find easy, and if it takes longer than 10-15s, flag it and move on. Complete your flagged questions on subsequent passes, leaving harder questions for later passes.
- The first pass should be completed as quick as possible to free up time for harder questions. By doing this, you know you have your easy marks locked down, so it should ease your stress a bit.
- Really the only thing you can do to improve your timing in QR is do a lot of timed practice, so sets of 40 questions or subtest mocks - so you get used to the time pressure and how speedy you need to be. As you do more practice, you'll start to find some recurring themes in questions in QR (i.e. area of a garden, currency conversions, grocery shopping with recipes), and have the calculations loaded up in your head ready to go as soon as you encounter those sorts of questions. This makes life easier.
- Like noodleboy mentioned above, get good at the numpad so that you can start punching numbers in and making calculations as quickly as possible. typing.com is good for numpad practice, and has drills for it. The numpad is your best friend!
- Don't be afraid to use the noteboard to write down numbers that you need later. It'll clear your head and allow you to focus on the calculations.
- Look on your mock exam provider's LMS for tips on using mental maths and eyeballing.
- Essentially, for questions with large datasets/a lot of options, eyeball the data and eliminate options that obviously don't fit.
- Consider internalising a quick breathing exercise to perform for when you're feeling stressed during QR. If you feel yourself growing too stressed, note this without any judgement, breathe, and let the feeling pass on the next exhale.
Improvement builds up slowly until you reach a point called 'the plateau of latent potential'. Once you break through it, your scores will improve dramatically. You aren't destined to be bad at QR - you just haven't reached that point yet! So keep on practicing and your time will come
Things will click together and you'll wonder why you ever had any trouble with it.
AJ13
Member
Thanks for the tips legend!Heya! I've been getting around 850+ on my mock exams so far for QR when it used to be one of my worst. I did the UCAT last year too, and did alrightish in it for QR too (780). Here're a couple of tips:
Don't beat yourself up over your performance now and focus on continual improvement and putting in the work, and you will get better. This graph illustrates what I mean pretty nicely:
- QR is about testing your ability to sort through the data in the question, locate the relevant information, recognise the calculations you need to do, and perform them quickly. Basically, it's about speed and recognition.
- I would recommend doing the subtest in passes. On your first pass, only do the questions you find easy, and if it takes longer than 10-15s, flag it and move on. Complete your flagged questions on subsequent passes, leaving harder questions for later passes.
- The first pass should be completed as quick as possible to free up time for harder questions. By doing this, you know you have your easy marks locked down, so it should ease your stress a bit.
- Really the only thing you can do to improve your timing in QR is do a lot of timed practice, so sets of 40 questions or subtest mocks - so you get used to the time pressure and how speedy you need to be. As you do more practice, you'll start to find some recurring themes in questions in QR (i.e. area of a garden, currency conversions, grocery shopping with recipes), and have the calculations loaded up in your head ready to go as soon as you encounter those sorts of questions. This makes life easier.
- Like noodleboy mentioned above, get good at the numpad so that you can start punching numbers in and making calculations as quickly as possible. typing.com is good for numpad practice, and has drills for it. The numpad is your best friend!
- Don't be afraid to use the noteboard to write down numbers that you need later. It'll clear your head and allow you to focus on the calculations.
- Look on your mock exam provider's LMS for tips on using mental maths and eyeballing.
- Essentially, for questions with large datasets/a lot of options, eyeball the data and eliminate options that obviously don't fit.
- Consider internalising a quick breathing exercise to perform for when you're feeling stressed during QR. If you feel yourself growing too stressed, note this without any judgement, breathe, and let the feeling pass on the next exhale.
View attachment 3420
Improvement builds up slowly until you reach a point called 'the plateau of latent potential'. Once you break through it, your scores will improve dramatically. You aren't destined to be bad at QR - you just haven't reached that point yet! So keep on practicing and your time will come
What was your total score last year? If you don’t mind sharing
threefivetwo
less gooo
3020!Thanks for the tips legend!
What was your total score last year? If you don’t mind sharing
Percy Abner
Member
Hey all, what resources would be a good starting point for someone 2-3 years away from sitting the UCAT? I'd prefer at this stage to stay away from the paid courses available until I am really ramping up my prep. Just after a website with good QR and other logic puzzles, or anything else you think might be useful at this early stage... I'm just waiting to start session 2 in July and thinking of what I can do in the meantime.
PA.
PA.
At this point just don't let your basic maths skills slip. UCAT QR isn't necessarily hard, it's just the time constraints that make it hard so just get used to solving maths questions quickly and accurately.
But tbh, UCAT is so far away for you that my biggest tip is to not stress about it and enjoy your highschool days. Defs just enjoy highschool, you don't need years to prep for UCAT.
Oh right. Then it's really just basic maths and speed being the hardest bit. I wouldn't stress about it too much until maybe a year (tbh even less) before you sit UCAT tbh.
Percy Abner
Member
Okay, thanks! Not like GAMSAT then where I could start reading widely etc.....
Not too sure. I didn't do GAMSAT and only prepped for UCAT for like 3 weeks and did well in it. You definitely don't need to prep for years for UCAT though.
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whys
Regular Member
Does anyone have any tips on how to do well on the official UCAT QR style questions? I know that the real exam tends to be easier, but I want to be able to do relatively well on the official resources for QR/other similar resources. Right now, I can't seem to get anything higher than ~20/36 and I usually can only get about 18 correct. Thank you!
Do you know why you keep making mistakes? Is it because you don't know how to do the math? Then work it out. Is it because you slow down a lot of times? Then practice getting quicker at the num-pad or just practice to get quicker at mental maths etc. Know why you make mistakes and work on it.
I know that the actual UCAT QR is supposedly easier than the official resources, but in what way is this? Is it the length of question stems (ie. shorter tables/less complicated graphs), the number of steps taken to answer a problem, or just how difficult it is to work out how to solve a problem?
With the resources I've been using, I almost always know how to solve the QR problems and what steps I would need to take, but I simply do not have time to carry out these steps. Sometimes the problem will involve taking averages of 4-8 separate sets of data, for instance, which is easy to do but takes time I don't have. This leads to me guessing ~3 4 question sets per subtest because I simply do not have time to complete them. My raw scores for this subtest generally end up around 20-ish/36 for this reason.
Should I expect the actual UCAT questions to be quicker to complete (based on previous years' experience) or do they just take less time to figure out what process to use?
With the resources I've been using, I almost always know how to solve the QR problems and what steps I would need to take, but I simply do not have time to carry out these steps. Sometimes the problem will involve taking averages of 4-8 separate sets of data, for instance, which is easy to do but takes time I don't have. This leads to me guessing ~3 4 question sets per subtest because I simply do not have time to complete them. My raw scores for this subtest generally end up around 20-ish/36 for this reason.
Should I expect the actual UCAT questions to be quicker to complete (based on previous years' experience) or do they just take less time to figure out what process to use?
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