Tips, Strategies For Numerical Tests, Psychometric, Aptitude Tests

2/26/2014
tips, strategies for numerical tests, psychometric, aptitude tests
Tips and advice for numerical reasoning test preparation

Welcome, if you're here, you've taken that step towards doing better in numeracy tests
There's practice. And then there's practice. Your effectiveness during assessments depends on which kind of practice you put yourself through. Good performance in your numerical tests (loosely also referred to as numeracy tests, psychometric assessments, data intrepretation tests, problem solving tests etc.) or case interviews is a combination of two important dimensions skills relevant to the test faced confidence If we were to lay down a simple 2 x 2 matrix (consultants love them) to position each aspirant before an test or an interview, it would look something like this:
http://numericalguru.azurewebsites.net/tips-and-advice-for-test-preparation
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What you want to do is position yourself closer to the top-right quadrant.As you prepare, not only do you want to get better and better with the hard skills required to do well in the test, but also grow in confidence that you will do well - no matter how many others you compete against. To that end, here is a list of tips and advice, in no particular order, that should help in how you approach preparation.
Our top 10 list of advice, tips and preparation techniques

You're not alone It is needless stress to imagine a huge gang of superhuman brainiacs invading your test center or interview sessions. The reality is most others are just as nervous, worried. So don't think about others in your test room - your preparation focus should be "I can do this" and worry less about uncontrollable external factors. If you're up against Stephen Hawking (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Hawking) for your next job, well bad luck. Practice. Practice. Practice.- Most people think doing a bunch of tests or mock interviews is "practice." It's not. Good practice requires dedication, working with focus, analyzing what went wrong, working on those weak spots and then hitting the practice material again - all the while getting better. Doing 10 tests means nothing. Doing 20 tests from a smattering of sites means nothing. If you can't see consistent improvement in accuracy or speed, then you're not preparing right. Being mediocre isn't hard but being really good at your skills takes a lot of effort. Don't give up- "This is too hard." If you're struggling with numbers, then it takes time to get better. Don't give up. It's OK to fall, pick yourself up and keep going. Millions before you have done that and you're no different. Focused effort pays. Some of our tests, for e.g., are pretty hard - and that's with a reason. If it were all simple, you'd feel nice in the practice and fail in the real tests, which is not what you want. You want your real tests to feel comfortable. Don't give up. Keep going. Practice with a fresh mind - Have a good plan for your preparation. Choose a time of the day that works for you. Be fresh when you sit down, keep distractions away, time yourself, adhere to the rules and when you take a swing at your practice
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test - do it with full concentration. Don't stop midway, don't abandon the test because it "didn't feel right." Once you start, don't stop until it's done. Then work on analysis. Prepare well, thoroughly and with discipline. Surprisingly large number of people prepare poorly- and use that to your advantage. It's just like all those resume stories you read. You'd think people do not submit sloppy cover letters, but they do all the time. Similarly, a lot of people are simply not too well prepared, and just spending some time preparing well will take you to a level where you're competing with the good ones. Remember that it's as much psychological as it is skills - if you let the test, its environment, the people intimidate you, you've lost half the battle already. Shut the world out when you're practising. Shut it out during the tests. Pay attention to the tips - No matter what material you use for practice, absorb the tips and short-cut techniques. Employ them. In our tests we often show tips in the solution or explain how you could solve a question faster. Try to use them next time - the practice environment is a "safe" environment, and there's no penalty for getting it wrong. Just being a few seconds faster in a real test can make a big difference. Tune your mind to compute - Test materials are great, but for flexing your mind muscles on numerical ability and quantitative aptitude, the world around you offers plenty of practice. Calculate your lunch or dinner tips in your head, calculate percentages and ratios as you read business articles, make mental calculations of revenue of the shop near your house - they're all great ways to keep numbers flow through you. For some, numbers are easy and natural, but for most others, it needs practice. Few win every battle - Maybe Alexander, maybe Tiberius (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiberius). But most others do fail sometime or the other. So don't let the fear of falure hold you back. Didn't make it through test X? Never mind, prepare and act on what went wrong, go after the next opportunity
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Finally, enjoy your practice - When you do it well, you feel good, your confidence improves, and it's not an ordeal. Don't let your practice become an ordeal and a dread. Enjoy the journey. Good luck. We hope you found that useful! If you are using this post elsewhere please do not forget to credit us for it.
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Top 10 mistakes while doing numerical reasoning tests

Numerical tests, in their various forms, are an uncomfortable reality. Whether you're doing a standard numerical reasoning test - SHL style, or a McKinsey PST (Problem Solving Test), or a case interview, ability to handle numbers is critical. Many sweat at the prospect of writing another numerical reasoning test (or a purely data interpretation test) or face a quantitative - numbers laden case interview as part of job interviews, assessment days or school admissions, Let's look at the top 10 mistakes committed by most numerical reasoning and quantitative aptitude test preparers (let's keep the mathematically gifted out of this equation) 1. Not preparing for the format of the test - not a surprise. Going into a test or a case interview without really knowing the format of the assessment is a basic, yet very widely committed mistake! If you just took the time out to understand the format and style of the test or an interview, prepared for it even for a few days, you've probably already got a foot ahead of more than 1/2 your competitors. 2. Advance fear of the test - for many people, the very fact that there is a "mathematics" test is enough to undermine their confidence even before the test. Shakiness with numbers, and just fear of calculations can take chunks of
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performance away from you. If you're prepared, this will get you ahead of another bunch of competitors. 3. Worrying about the past - many people worry about a question they could not solve, when they move on to the next question. They worry about their previous test where they may not have done well.This distracts from a singular focus of the current test, current question. In all numerical tests, focus on the TEST YOU'RE DOING NOW, and the QUESTION YOU'RE DOING NOW. Everything else is inconsequential and damaging. 4. Obsession with test score - There are two critical elements in a test. Absolute score (total correct / total possible), and Accuracy (total correct/ number attempted). Some worry about "finishing every question in time" and get many wrong, or guess them randomly. This reduces accuracy. Some others focus so much on accuracy, that they miss out many questions and have a low score. Both will weaken your chances! The best strategists know how to do as much as possible, efficiently, and accurately. There will be hard tests where very gifted few can actually finish all questions in the allotted time - the smart test takers know how to play the game. They know when to skip a question and when to guess. 5. Obsession with accuracy - this is one of the most common reasons for poor test performance. Many numerical reasoning or data interpretation tests have questions that simply cannot be solved in the given time. A lot of test takers just don't realize that they spent way too much time on some of them. If a test has 20 questions and 25 minutes, and you spend 3 minutes on a question - you're digging your own grave. It's critical to learn the skill of "when do I skip a question?" our tests often have questions which simply cannot be answered in time and they're there to just test one thing - "did you skip this question?" 6. Using poor question solving strategy - there are usually three ways of solving quantitative questions (a) compute the answer (b) use the answers and see which answer fits the question (backsolving) (c) eliminate answers that don't make sense. Smart test takers use all of the techniques when taking a test. Some questions may seem long, but all it needs is quick elimination of nonsensical choices. Some seem really hard to create an equation for, but all it needs it to plug the answer into the
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question. You should be comfortable with each strategy and not rely on any one. Keep this in mind: Solving a question in a time-bound numerical test to derive the answer is neither the only, nor the best way to get an answer! 7. Forgetting the calculator! - Oh yeah. Happens. All the time. Many companies (say SHL) administer tests on behalf of recruiters. More often than not, you are allowed to use calculators to do these tests, so don't forget to use one when needed! You're usually never allowed to use calculators in case interviews though. The complexity of the questions in tests that allow use of calculators will often be higher than those without. 8. Not reading the entire question - Many test takers will jump to solving the first part of the question before even reading the entire question. Read the entire question first! Many a time there will be a question where part of the data is completely irrelevant to the solution. It's there just to waste your time. Only a piece of the data in the question is relevant, and you won't know that if you don't read the question in its entirety. 9. Marking the wrong answer - solving for (b) and marking (c). Yes, many do that, and in fiercely competitive tests (maybe a McKinsey test, for example) a single wrong question can mean not progressing to the next round. Take just 2 seconds (literally) to cross-check that you marked the question you really intended to. 10. Insufficient preparation - the biggest mistake of them all. Not taking the time and effort to do many practice tests, analyze weakness, and improve upon them. Assuming that just doing a 'bunch of tests' will improve numerical skills. If you're weak at these tests, the only way to get better is to practice, learn techniques to do better, analyze your weaknesses and strengths and do more tests by addressing them. Now that you know it, pay attention to them and good luck with your preparation! Remember - systematic preparation, practice and improvisation are key to success.
Looking for case preparation tips and strategies? go here (/preparing-for-management-consulting-case-interviews)
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Numerical test taking tips: dealing with all the zeros

Maybe it would surprise you (or maybe not), that one of the common ways people trip while doing basic math in numerical reasoning / quantitative aptitude or problem solving tests and case interviews is because of the confusion with zeros (0's). Yes, zeros. The moment someone has to deal with something like this:
2 4 0 0 0 * 5 0 0 0 0 * 1 0 0 0 0 0 0
or
6 0t h o u s a n dp e o p l ee a r n i n g1 . 3m i l l i o n$e a c hf o r2 0 0d a y s=?
all hell breaks loose. You miss zeros, add extra zeros, get all zero'd up - so how do you do it without getting confused like crazy? Here's a valuable tip - use '10 to the power notation'. If you don't know what it is, then spend a little time learning it the notation is essentially
1 0 0=1 0 s q u a r e d=1 0 ^ 2( 1 0t ot h ep o w e ro f2 ) 1 0 0 0=1 0 ^ 3 1 0 0 0 0=1 0 ^ 4 m i l l i o n=1 0 ^ 6 b i l l i o n=1 0 ^ 9
so
6 0t h o u s a n dp e o p l ee a r n i n g1 . 3m i l l i o n$e a c hf o r2 0 0d a y s=?
instead of killing yourself with 60000 * 1300000 * 200 and getting your zeros messed up, you would write it is
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( 6 * 1 0 ^ 4 ) * ( 1 . 3 * 1 0 ^ 6 ) * ( 2*1 0 ^ 2 ) =6 * 1 . 3 * 2 *( 1 0 ^ 4 * 1 0 ^ 6 * 1 0 ^ 2 ) = 7 . 8 * 2 * ( 1 0 ^ ( 4 + 6 + 2 ) ) = 7 . 8 * 2 * ( 1 0 ^ 1 2 ) = 1 5 . 6 * 1 0 ^ 1 2
Don't get worried about this looking confusing - do it a couple of times and you'll find it a whole lot easier than writing lots of 0's. The basic steps are 1. Write all the '00, '000 etc in 10^ notation and isolate them to one side 2. Add up the powers (you have to learn basic math of multiplication and division of powers) 3. Multiply the other numbers Compare this with the oops situation of tripping with zeros! Let's take another example, how much is 75000 * 13 million divided by 9000?
= 7 5 * ( 1 0 ^ 3 ) * ( 1 3 * 1 0 ^ 6 ) / ( 9 * 1 0 ^ 3 ) = ( 7 5 * 1 3 ) * ( 1 0 ^ 6 * 1 0 ^ 3 ) / ( 9 * 1 0 ^ 3 ) = ( 7 5 * 1 3 / 9 ) * 1 0 ^ 6 ~ 1 0 8m i l l i o n
Try this a few times and you'll no longer lose points because you messed up a few too many zeros! Remember - systematic preparation, practice and improvisation are key to success.
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When accuracy is important

Accuracy in your test is total correct answers / total questions answered. High accuracy is all the more important in some conditions Tests with negative marking - in some tests there is a penalty for every wrong answer.
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Adaptive tests - GMAT, for e.g., changes the difficulty of its questions based on whether your answer was right or not. The more you get incorrect in the beginning, the worse your changes of a high score. Tie breakers - when more than one candidate has the same number of right answers Therefore, when you do tests, pay attention to both the overall performance and accuracy numbers. Aim to steadily improve accuracy.
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Useful ratios and percentages to speed up problem solving and analysis

Many questions in numerical reasoning, data interpretation and other problem solving tests involves the usage of percentages and ratios. You may need to multiply by percentages, use ratios as part of calculations, divide by decimals and so on. Often, these % and ratios tend to be "familiar" (it's rare for questions to ask you to calculate 39.2% of something - it will probably be 40%) Below is a table of popular ratios with their equivalent percentages and decimals. Knowing them at the top of the mind can significantly speed up mental or calculator based calculations by helping you 'skip' intermediate steps. Let's look at some examples What is 75% of 250? Would you do 75% x 240? No. What you should do is (3/4) x 240 = 3 x 60 = 180. Which is much simpler than doing 240 x 0.75. Similarly, why do x 15% when you can do x 3/20? Look for opportunities to use simple fractions instead of 2 digit multiplications. Whether you are strong with math or not, learn these ratios well and they can help you speeding up approximations and a lot of other calculations.
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Fraction 1/3 1/4 1/5 1/6 1/7 1/8 1/9 1/10 1/11 1/12 1/20 1/40 2/5 3/5 3/8 3/4 3/20
% 33% 25% 20% 17% 14% 13% 11% 10% 9% 8% 5% 2.5% 40% 60% 38% 75% 15%
Decimal 0.33 0.25 0.20 0.17 0.14 0.13 0.11 0.10 0.09 0.08 0.05 0.025 0.40 0.60 0.38 0.75 0.15
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4/5 5/9
80% 56%
0.80 0.56
A few examples:
-W h a ti s7 5 %o f1 2 0 ?( 1 2 0x3 / 4=9 0 ! ) -3 / 5 t ho fac o m p a n y ' ss a l e sc a m ef r o mb o o ks u b s c r i p t i o n s( . . y o um e a n6 0 % ! ) -E x p e n d i t u r ei s0 . 3 8o ft h es a l e s( =s a l e sx3 / 8 )
and so on. Success in numerical reasoning tests is not just about knowing how to solve a problem, it's also about how to solve a problem quickly, efficiently and by intelligent application of mathematical shortcuts and eliminations. Knowing how to shave a few seconds off of each question will simply mean solving a couple of extra questions which might mean a big difference in the final outcome.
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Tips, Strategies For Numerical Tests, Psychometric, Aptitude Tests

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2/26/2014

tips, strategies for numerical tests, psychometric, aptitude tests

Tips and advice for numerical reasoning test preparation

tips, strategies for numerical tests, psychometric, aptitude tests

Our top 10 list of advice, tips and preparation techniques

tips, strategies for numerical tests, psychometric, aptitude tests

tips, strategies for numerical tests, psychometric, aptitude tests

Top 10 mistakes while doing numerical reasoning tests

tips, strategies for numerical tests, psychometric, aptitude tests

tips, strategies for numerical tests, psychometric, aptitude tests

Looking for case preparation tips and strategies? go here (/preparing-for-management-consulting-case-interviews)

tips, strategies for numerical tests, psychometric, aptitude tests

Numerical test taking tips: dealing with all the zeros

tips, strategies for numerical tests, psychometric, aptitude tests

When accuracy is important

tips, strategies for numerical tests, psychometric, aptitude tests

Useful ratios and percentages to speed up problem solving and analysis

tips, strategies for numerical tests, psychometric, aptitude tests

tips, strategies for numerical tests, psychometric, aptitude tests

numericalguru 2013 v7.1.5 | contact (/contact)

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