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UCAT Quantitative Reasoning - How to Prepare in 2024

Struggling with your preparation for UCAT Quantitative Reasoning? We've put together these slides to get study tips, a breakdown of UCAT Quantitative Reasoning question types and learn more about how to best prepare for Quantitative Reasoning.

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UCAT Quantitative Reasoning - How to Prepare in 2024

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  1. UCAT QuantitativeReasoning: How to Prepare in 2024

  2. UCAT® Quantitative Reasoning Overview What is UCAT® Quantitative Reasoning? • Quantitative Reasoning is the third subtest of the UCAT® exam and is designed to assess your ability to use numerical skills to solve problems. Sometimes considered an ‘easier section’ given that it is akin to high school maths exams, it is important to note that UCAT® Quantitative Reasoning is more of a ‘reasoning’ test rather than a maths test. Why is Quantitative Reasoning Important for Medicine? • UCAT® Quantitative Reasoning assesses your ability to use numeracy skills to solve various problems. It is a necessary skill for doctors and dentists as they need to analyse data and make calculations on a daily basis. Is Quantitative Reasoning Hard in UCAT®? • The UCAT® exam is characteristically a difficult exam, designed to differentiate the already competitive pool of medical and dental school applicants. Students may find the subtest difficult either due to the difficulty of the questions or the sheer amount of questions within the limited time.

  3. UCAT® Quantitative Reasoning Structure UCAT® Quantitative Reasoning questions are structured with a premise, followed by 1 to 4 questions. This premise may involve a graph, table or chart but they vary significantly. Your job is to extract the necessary information from the premise to best answer the option. Each question will have five answer options. How much time do you have on UCAT® Quantitative Reasoning? • In UCAT® Quantitative Reasoning, you will be presented with 36 questions in total with 24 minutes to answer them all. This averages out to around 1.5 questions per minute or 40 seconds of UCAT® Quantitative Reasoning time per question. This serves quite a difficult task when answering all of the questions within the given time frame. UCAT® Quantitative Reasoning Timing • Test Time: 24 minutes    • Number of Questions: 36 questions   • Average Time per Question: 40 seconds  

  4. UCAT® Quantitative Reasoning Question Types There are 6 main types of UCAT®  Quantitative Reasoning questions: • Averages - These will ask you to calculate the average from a set of data, for example “calculate the average height of …”. Questions can become increasingly difficult with larger data sets and may include conversions.  • Percentages - Calculations may often include percentages. This can include things such as the percentage difference or what percentage of a set falls into a particular category. • Diagram, Charts and Tables - Diagrams can vary vastly between questions and may include tables, tax tables, bar graphs, line graphs, pie charts or really any diagram. These questions can get more difficult when there are multiple tables or unique displays of data.

  5. UCAT® Quantitative Reasoning Question Types There are 6 main types of UCAT®  Quantitative Reasoning questions: • Median/Mode - These are very similar to average type questions, and are often quite straight forward as long as you remember what these are. The median is the midpoint of the dataset when placed in ascending/descending order and the mode is the most common data point. • Conversion - Conversions are often parts of more difficult questions to involve extra Quantitative Reasoning skills throughout. This can involve conversion between proportions, ratios, fractions, decimals or percentages as well as between units of measurement such as metres, miles, kilometres. • Volume, Area, Perimeter - These are often accompanied by a diagram to display this information in more detail. More often than not, a question will usually provide the necessary formula for a shape. However, in some cases it may be helpful to simply remember some key maths formulas such as the areas of triangles and rectangles/squares.

  6. How to Prepare for UCAT® Quantitative Reasoning • Ultimately, as with any other exam, practice is key to improving your UCAT® Quantitative Reasoning skills. It is important to keep in mind that for UCAT® Quantitative Reasoning practice doesn’t make perfect, rather perfect practice makes perfect. Essentially, many students will go through hundreds of practice questions and reach a stagnation in their improvement. How can I get better at Quantitative Reasoning? • Polishing your graph and table interpretation skills is key. Some UCAT® Quantitative Reasoning questions require you to interpret information from graphs or tables and it is important to get into the habit of making sense of this data quickly and efficiently. What strategies can I use to answer UCAT® Quantitative Reasoning questions? • Avoid Misreading & Critical Reading • Headings and Titles • Skipping Questions • Multi Step Calculations

  7. UCAT® Quantitative Reasoning Tips • Time management - Timing plays a huge part in the difficulty of the UCAT® exam. These previous strategies such as multi-step calculations, reading critically and skipping difficult questions will give you the best chance at performing well. • Mental mathematics and estimation - Being able to perform simple calculations in your head will allow you to shave a couple of minutes of your exam time and allow you to answer more questions. This can be used alongside rounding and estimation skills. • Diagram interpretation - These can vary vastly between questions, from pie charts to tax tables and graphs. The pretext and headings are crucial to read and may help you to quickly gather the necessary information before approaching the questions. • Multi Step Calculations - The UCAT® on-screen calculator can be a little bit tedious to use and quite different from the scientific calculators we are quite used to. Make sure to use the UCAT® calculator throughout practice to ensure that you know the relevant shortcuts and functions that will help you to save time on exam day.

  8. UCAT® Quantitative Reasoning Summary What is a Good UCAT® Quantitative Reasoning? • As with all the other subtests of the UCAT® exam, the Quantitative Reasoning section is scored between 300 and 900. The average mark for Verbal Reasoning and Decision Making questions is typically lower than that of Quantitative Reasoning and Abstract Reasoning questions. • Average Mark: 671 • Competitive Mark: 740 • 90th Percentile Estimate: 803 UCAT® Quantitative Reasoning Final Advice • Ultimately, the UCAT® exam will come down to preparation and remaining composed throughout such an intense exam. Knowing the key question types and keeping in mind timing and pace will give you the best chance to perform well. Practising with mental maths and using the calculator can maximise your speed and accuracy.

  9. Further Materials • Australian Medical Schools: General Overview • Australian Graduate Medical Schools - Admission Requirements • Medical Pathways in Australia • Free GAMSAT Practice Questions and Materials • GAMSAT Results: The Definitive Guide • Don’t forget to tune in to our GAMSAT® To Med School Podcast! Listen as our experienced GAMSAT® tutors explore diverse topics about everything from the GAMSAT® exam to their journeys through medical school: https://gradready.com.au/gamsat-podcast

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