Numeracy Skills Test Topics
The professional numeracy skills test contains a number of topics set out on the government’s STA website. Both the mental arithmetic section and written section can contain any of the following topic types:
- Addition, subtraction, multiplication and division
- Money and time conversions.
- Measurements from speed, distance and time to area and volume.
- Fractions, percentages and decimals. You will have to be able to easily convert between these with some questions given as a fraction but requiring a decimal answer.
The written section of the professional numeracy skills test has a much wider scope for question types as it is able to contain graphs and tables. The written section may also contain some or all of the following topics:
- Interpretation of data in the form or tables, charts and graphs which include bar charts, composite bar charts, Pie charts and two way tables. Scatter graphs and Line graphs may also be included.
- Box-and-whisker diagrams and cumulative frequency curves are a common feature in the numeracy skills test.
- Use of different formula’s, often quite basic but practising how to substitute values into equations is advised.
- Fractions, decimals and percentage questions. Just like the mental arithmetic section you may get asked to convert between these but often the calculations are more convoluted in the written section as you have a calculator to do them.
- Time, currency and measure conversions which are often combined with ratio or proportion style questions.
- Speed, distance and time questions. It is advised that you learn the formula, Speed = Distance/Time
- Mean, median and mode are included in different formats from cumulative frequency curve medians to calculating the mean of data set out in a table. Range calculations are also sometimes included and again these can be within with box plot questions or based on data presented in another form.
At QTS Maths Tutor we are consistently updating our service to include as much information and guidance with regards to the professional numeracy skills test in order to help as many people as possible to pass the numeracy skills test. If you would like additional support in the form of expert numeracy skills tutors, or simply more resources for your numeracy skills test, contact QTS Maths Tutor today.
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