Numerical Reasoning

How it is scored

One point for every question answered correctly, out of 12. Nothing is deducted for a wrong answer, so a guess is never worse than a blank. Skipped questions score nothing and cannot be returned to. The run ends when the eighteen minutes are up or when the last question is answered, and nothing is marked until then.

The questions come easiest first: reading and comparing rows, then percentages, ratios and projections, then weighted averages, currency conversions and two-step questions. Every question is checked before it is served so that exactly one option is right once you round as the question asks; the wrong options are what the common mistakes produce.

Where we had to choose

The three providers pace differently. SHL's Verify Interactive numerical is reported at 10 questions in 18 minutes, and the classic Verify numerical at 18 in 25; Barclays sends the mixed Verify Interactive G+, reported at 24 items in 36 minutes. Cappfinity's module is 12 chart or table questions. Talent Q Elements is adaptive, 12 items at about 75 to 90 seconds each. Twelve questions at ninety seconds sits in the middle of all of them, and is our choice rather than any provider's figure.

What all three publish is the shape: data interpretation from tables and charts, percentage change, ratios, projections, averages, conversions, and reading the right row. None publishes a marking scheme with a deduction for wrong answers, so there is none here. The firms themselves publish nothing about their configuration; every figure above is reported by candidates and prep guides rather than confirmed by the firm.

How to work through one

Read the units and the column headers before the question: a table in £000s with options in pounds is the most common trap in the format. Work out exactly what the question asks, and which row and column it needs, before touching the numbers. Estimate first: a rough answer usually kills three of the five options, and the arithmetic then only has to separate two. Skip anything that looks like it needs more than two minutes; the next question is worth the same point.