The Quantitative Reasoning section tests students’ mathematical abilities. 36 questions are provided, to be completed in 24 minutes, meaning that 40 seconds are available for each question. This highlights the main difficulty of this section; whilst the questions themselves are not particularly difficult, testing basic mathematical skills, the time constraints make it hard to successfully complete all the questions in the time provided.
In this section, 9 sets of data are given, with four numerical reasoning questions being asked for each one. For each piece of data, there will often be a graph or chart provided, with a body of text accompanying this. The skills tested are generally percentages, ratios and fractions; unit conversions; speed, distance and time; and areas and volumes. Whilst a whiteboard is provided in the exam, it is often faster and more efficient to do calculations mentally, thus it is important to practice mental arithmetic beforehand.