UCAT Quantitative Reasoning – Free Guide and Strategy Tips
The Quantitative Reasoning section of the UCAT tests your maths and numerical problem-solving skills. It lasts 24 minutes and it would probably come as no surprise that this is the section that most students score highest in.
How is UCAT Quantitative Reasoning tested?
You will be given a scenario and some information, often in the form of a table or other visual representation. You will be then given a choice of five answers and be asked to choose the correct one.
There is no negative marking – which means that marks are not deducted if you put down a wrong answer, so make informed guesses if you are stuck and running out of time.
The questions are set at GCSE level. Hopefully most medical school candidates will have a high GCSE maths grade. It is worth revising GCSE maths again, perhaps from a revision guide. There should be no advantage to students doing A-levels maths if the student does the correct revision.
The questions are designed to test your problem-solving skills rather than pure numerical skills and you may need to go through several steps to get to an answer.
Why is quantitative reasoning being tested?
Doctors need to review and interpret numerical data throughout their career and then make a decision on the findings
Doctors need to be able to calculate doses of drugs, work out statistical risks of disease, take into account age, gender, weight, use blood test results for example.
You have to look at research papers, interpret the data, critique them and apply the findings to the care of your patients.
You will also come across this in medical school interview stations – perhaps combined with a practical station.
What skills are useful to revise?
There are some concepts that are used in UCAT quantitative reasoning questions on a regular basis. This includes approximation, estimation, unit conversions and financial concepts.
You do have access to an online calculator. This is a basic calculator based on the Texas instruments TI-108. It is fiddlier and slow using an online calculator. As a general rule you should try and avoid the online calculator as best as you can. Practice on the windows (or mac) calculator using a mouse to get accustomed to using this method of data input. Make use of the memory and square root functions.
Come to our UCAT courses and get more tips and strategy for UCAT Quantitative reasoning (including formulae we recommend you know and an in depth review of the mathematical knowledge required) taught and designed by doctors and top A-level critical thinking teachers.
Learn all the strategy to need to answer questions in all sections quickly and accurately. We also give you a calibrated question bank and over a hundred support tutorials. Click here to learn more about our UCAT courses.
