Questions in the Quantitative Reasoning UCAT sections are multiple choice, and are designed to assess the candidates’ ability to comprehend and respond to abstract and practical mathematical concepts and processes. It’s not just a ‘math test’, but rather a test on your reasoning that requires mathematical skills.

The test is broken down into: 

Time: 25 minutes
Questions: 36
Average time per question: 41 seconds

A simple on-screen calculator is available for use in this section

Being able to make calculations in your day-to-day work is key for doctors. These need to be made quickly and use these calculations as a basis for making decisions and problem-solving.

An in depth breakdown

All Quantitative Reasoning Questions are multiple choice, with 5 choices for each.

They will test you on these specific question topics:

• Rates
• Averages
• Percentages
• Proportionality (unit conversions)
• Other basic arithmetic, data interpretation, ratios and geometry

Most questions will be shown as sets of four questions, each connected to the same data. There may be some standalone questions that do not share data.

Repetition, repetition, repetition

Being able to understand what a question is asking of you and the appropriate formula or arithmetic is key in keeping up under the time crunch. When you solve practice questions regularly, you begin to recognise that many of these questions have a pattern and fall into a particular type or style of question. These commonly include questions using data found in a table or graph. Once you understand the patterns, it’s just a matter of knowing what numbers to pull together.

Our partnership with Medify gives you a Full Season Pass, in addition to access to our own ACE HSC question bank, to allow you to practise these styles of questions as often as you need. Alongside this, you also get access to specialist support from some of the best and most experienced tutors in NSW.

Get used to time restrictions

Once you’ve got an understanding of how to best answer each type of question, practising under exam conditions will allow you to understand how best to split your time up on each question. Consistent allocation of time per question will allow you to gauge your performance and give you ‘checkpoints’ on your progress through each subsection.  

ACE HSC offers fortnightly Trial Exams to practise held under exam conditions, letting you as well as track your performance against other candidates in the ACE HSC cohort.

Remember your basics

From quick conversion of distance and time units to the formula of a sphere’s area, having these basic mathematic concepts locked to memory will allow you to free up your time.

The UCAT is designed to test both competency in skills alongside the ability to use and plan your approach effectively. No questions are harder than the concepts you would have previously learned in the HSC, so you will always have the tools to answer all the questions.

How ACE HSC Helps you Practise

Not only do you receive support from our experienced UCAT tutors and our own bank of UCAT preparation questions, and sit fortnightly trial Exams, you also get a Full Season pass to the Medify UCAT question banks, which provide a huge range of opportunities to become familiar with every part of the test, including Verbal Reasoning, the hardest UCAT section.

Call ACE HSC on (02) 9874 7045, email us or make an enquiry if you want to find out how we can help you prepare for the UCAT!