Facing those damn numerical tests

– some of the many names they have!) are a

fact of life. Love them or hate them, they‟re
FACING THOSE not going away. The only thing that you can
control is what you can do. This little book
DAMN is all about that – what “you can do” do help
NUMERICAL yourself and hopefully do better than what
you‟ve done before. Let‟s put it this way –
TESTS you kick ass, or get yours kicked, so what‟s it
gonna be?
BY NUMERICALGURU
HTTP://WWW.NUMERICALGURU.COM
3 TYPES OF TESTS
A FEW THOUGHTS, TIPS AND STRATEGIES ON
There are many types of tests you will
FACING NUMERICAL REASONING, DATA
encounter as you look for a job, and GMAT
INTERPRETATION AND PROBLEM SOLVING
TESTS FOR ASSESSMENTS tends to be the most popular test if you are
planning to go to B-school. Let‟s look at the
more popular numerical tests
1 CONTENTS
1. Numerical reasoning / data
2 Introduction .................................................... 1 interpretation tests – questions
3 Types of tests.................................................. 1 that require you to interpret
numbers, understand graphs and
4 Playing the test game.................................. 2
charts, and work out solutions to
5 Basic techniques ............................................ 3 specific questions
5.1 Is there a magic trick? ........................ 3 2. Problem solving – requires you to
know more than basic mathematical
6 Three traps that wait for you .................... 4
knowledge, for e.g. trigonometry,
6.1 I Love you and i love you not .......... 4 algebra, high school level
6.2 Notorious big ........................................ 4 mathematics. The quantitative
6.3 Gotcha! .................................................... 5 section in GMAT is a typical version.
3. Picture interpretation/logical
7 Ten mistakes test takers make ................. 5
sequence – look at a sequence of
8 Closing arguments ...... Error! Bookmark pictures and find the next one/pair
not defined. in the sequence

This book is more about the numerical

2 INTRODUCTION
Assessment tests (numerical reasoning,
numeracy, psychometric, data interpretation
1 Introduction | http://www.numericalguru.com
reasoning and data interpretation tests -
though the techniques and traps outlined
work equally well for other numerical tests
as well
 Facing those damn numerical tests
4 PLAYING THE TEST
GAME
Think of the test whispering in your ear –
“let‟s play a game” (sort of like Jigsaw in
SAW, and all you want is to get out of the
test un-mutilated) and you go ahead and
play the game well and win, or you lose
your nerve and lose. Most numerical tests
test you on two things –
1. Speed
2. Accuracy
Let‟s delve deeper, how do you do well on
speed?
a) Strong reading comprehension –
ability to read and comprehend the
question quickly
b) Sharp mathematical skills – can do
the mathematical operations quickly
c) Ability to make a decision – do
you skip the question or do you
plough ahead to solve it? Can you
make that call quickly?
And then there is accuracy
a) Knowing the right approach to
problem solving
b) Watching out for traps
c) Avoiding silly mistakes
So, in effect, you need a combination of
about 5 skills. In fiercely competitive tests
you better be good on all of those, or a
single point loss might mean a great job or
back to the road hunting for one.
2 Playing the test game | http://www.numericalguru.com
Now, let‟s get deeper on each of those skills
and quickly check what we need to be good
at each of these
a) Demonstrating reading
comprehension – comes over
time and with practice. It‟s not
just about reading something
fast, but knowing what to absorb
and what to ignore as you read
b) Showing Sharp mathematical
skills – unless you hate math
and ignored it throughout your
education, this is not actually too
hard. A few solid weeks (or
months) of practice and
knowledge of shortcuts and
tricks, and you can get pretty
quick with basic mathematical
operations.
c) Ability to make a decision –
this is one of the most common
pitfalls of test takers – inability to
make a call and move on. You
need to make a decision quickly
as you see or read a question – is
it something you can solve in the
time you have, or do you
guess/skip and move on?
d) Knowing the right approach to
problem solving – you have
little time, but you need to figure
out quickly what approach you
want to take to get to the
solution. In consulting speak, it‟s
also called “not boiling the
ocean”
e) Watching out for traps – not all
questions are innocent and
 Facing those damn numerical tests

straight forward. They‟re out to 1. Straight solving – you read the

get you! Watch out! question, you solve it linearly until
f) Avoiding silly mistakes – I you hit the solution, using all the
solved the answer c and marked steps like a good schoolboy/girl
b. What? That was 102? I thought 2. Elimination – you eliminate all
it was 120! „nuff said. answers that don‟t make sense or
quickly show themselves to be
Think of it this way: Let‟s say you are staring
unlikely candidates
at a rather hard question - you get it right
3. Backsolving – plug your answers to
and you probably are a step ahead of your
the equation proposed by the
competitors. But this is what you need – you
question and see which one satisfies
first have to read the question quite quickly,
the equation.
grasping the essentials. Then you need to
work out the right approach to solve the
problem once you decide that you want to 5.1 IS THERE A MAGIC TRICK?
solve the problem – you don‟t have all day.
Hell, no! Don‟t look for tricks to solve every
Once you figure that out, you need to be
question – that‟s why it takes practice to
able to solve it quickly with some nimble
know what approach to take. Most data
calculations, all the while making sure you
interpretation tests do tend to lend
aren‟t falling into a trap or you‟re doing
themselves to straight solving and require
something silly (like adding instead of
an eye for detail and quick calculations, but
multiplying and so on). Once you‟ve solved
many times in a combination with
it, you need to make sure you marked the
elimination. What that means is there‟s not
right choice. There, you‟re done.
a lot you can do except calculate quickly
The tests test your mettle in a pressure and accurately, after eliminating improbable
situation. If you do all questions but get answers. If you‟re lucky, a visual inspection
many wrong – you lose. If you do few and of the answers and a couple of quick rough
get them all right – you lose again. Yes, life‟s reasoning techniques can get you there too.
unfair sometimes. Now with that out of the
If you see wide variations in your answers,
way, how about we think about what can be
there is a good chance that elimination will
done to do better in these numerical and
get you close to the answer. The advantage
quantitative aptitude tests? What
of elimination is reduces your choice list
techniques might we use?
and helps you catch if you‟re going off track
in your solutions.
5 BASIC TECHNIQUES
But the pre-requisite to do eliminations is
You have a question, and you need to get to
a) You should have glanced at the
the answer. There are three basic ways of
answers once and registered the
doing this
patterns or variations

3 Basic techniques | http://www.numericalguru.com

 Facing those damn numerical tests
b) You should be pretty good with
approximations and popular ratios –
sort of like “192…ok, that‟s 200,
15%? That would be something like
1/7 etc.”
c) You should know how to pick off
outliers – so, for e.g., if a company
earns 220K in the first year and
grows 12.7% each year for the next 4
years, how much did it earn in total?
Would you sit and calculate it? No.
The first thing you could do is just a
rough calculation, 220K…take it as
200, 5 years means at a minimum it
should have made 1000K. That
means any answer less than that
must be eliminated. Next, what‟s the
upper limit? 12.7% -- take that as
15% (after all you took 220 as 200),
15% of 200 is 30 – so at most in 5
years you would be around 200x5 +
100x5 = 1250 (I took 100 because
growth is compounded, and
compounding piles on quickly!), so
that gets us to an upper limit of
1750 - and your answer has to fall
between 1000 and 1750. If the
choices have wide variances, you
may end up with just 1 choice and
that‟s the answer. Sometimes you
will need an additional level of
refinement. (The answer is 1417)
6 THREE TRAPS THAT WAIT
FOR YOU
It would be great if you got questions that
said “what‟s 3+2?” but that‟s not how the
bad world awaits you. Expect to be misled.
4 Three traps that wait for you | http://www.numericalguru.com
Be prepared. While most data interpretation
and numerical reasoning questions can be
reasonably straight forward, there will be
some that try to throw you away. They‟re
also the ones that if you do well, you have
an advantage.
6.1 I LOVE YOU AND I LOVE YOU
NOT
Don‟t expect tests to increase linearly in
difficulty. Don‟t expect a pattern. Don‟t
assume the next question will be something
you hope to get. Unless the test body says
there‟s a definite pattern – make no
assumptions of difficulty pattern. You could
start with an easy one, and be trapped with
a difficult one right after that, and then a
simple one again, and then a tricky one –
keep your mind (and eyes) open.
Some tests have a general pattern. GMAT,
the most popular test in the world for
business school admissions, is an adaptive
test. That means the test difficulty
automatically adjusts itself based on your
answers. If you answer an easy question
wrong, the next one is easier (or same), if
not – it gets harder. The quicker you move
up the harder scale, the higher your score
will be.
6.2 NOTORIOUS BIG
Big question. Your head hurts as you read
through it. The Notorious Bigs will either
bury you in useless detail, or will in the end
ask you something fairly simple. If you see a
huge question – take a quick call, do you
have the time to read it all? Glance quickly
 Facing those damn numerical tests
to the end – see what they‟re actually asking
for, then work back at the question ignoring
everything irrelevant. The question has a
quote from a CEO about how he sucks eggs
in the morning? Irrelevant – move forward
and fast. Big question doesn‟t mean hard
question.
6.3 GOTCHA!
Give you numbers in weeks and ask for the
result in a year. Show currencies in $ and
ask for an answer in £. Throw you off with
irrelevant detail and twist the question in
the end. Show a cumulative graph instead
of linear. Some questions will attempt to
deceive you if you don‟t watch out. The nice
thing about it is if you‟re the careful kind,
you are a step ahead of the rest.
7 TEN MISTAKES TEST
TAKERS MAKE
We‟ve covered this in our blog – but it‟s still
worth reproducing.
Top 10 mistakes of numerical reasoning test
takers during tests or assessment days
Many students sweat at the prospect of
writing another numerical reasoning test (or
a purely data interpretation test) or face a
quantitative - numbers laden case interview
as part of job interviews, assessment days or
school admissions, Let's look at the top 10
mistakes committed by most numerical
reasoning and quantitative aptitude test
preparers (let's keep the mathematically
gifted out of this equation)
5 Ten mistakes test takers make | http://www.numericalguru.com
1. Not preparing for the format of the
test - not a surprise. Going into a test or a
case interview without really knowing the
format of the assessment is a basic, yet very
widely committed mistake! If you just took
the time out to understand the format and
style of the test or an interview, prepared
for it even for a few days, you've probably
already got a foot ahead of more than 1/2
your competitors.
2. Advance fear of the test - for many
people, the very fact that there is a
"mathematics" test is enough to undermine
their confidence even before the test.
Shakiness with numbers, and just fear of
calculations can take chunks of performance
away from you. If you're prepared, this will
get you ahead of another bunch of
competitors.
3. Worrying about the past - many people
worry about a question they could not
solve, when they move on to the next
question. They worry about their previous
test where they may not have done well.
This distracts from a singular focus of the
current test, current question. In all
numerical tests, focus on the TEST YOU'RE
DOING NOW, and the QUESTION YOU'RE
DOING NOW. Everything else is
inconsequential and damaging.
4. Obsession with test score - There are
two critical elements in a test. Absolute
score (total correct / total possible), and
Accuracy (total correct/ number
attempted). Some worry about "finishing
every question in time" and get many
wrong, or guess them randomly. This
 Facing those damn numerical tests
reduces accuracy. Some others focus so
much on accuracy that they miss out many
questions and have a low score. Both will
weaken your chances! The best strategists
know how to do as much as possible,
efficiently, and accurately. There will be hard
tests where very gifted few can actually
finish all questions in the allotted time - the
smart test takers know how to play the
game. They know when to skip a question
and when to guess.
5. Obsession with accuracy - this is one of
the most common reasons for poor test
performance. Many numerical reasoning or
data interpretation tests have questions that
simply cannot be solved in the given time. A
lot of test takers just don't realize that they
spent way too much time on some of them.
If a test has 20 questions and 25 minutes,
and you spend 3 minutes on a question -
you're digging your own grave. It's critical
to learn the skill of "when do I skip a
question?"
6. Using poor question solving strategy -
there are usually three ways of solving
quantitative questions (a) compute the
answer (b) eliminate answers that don't
make sense. (c) Use the answers and see
which answer fits the question (back-
solving) Smart test takers use all of the
techniques when taking a test. Some
questions may seem long, but all it needs is
quick elimination of nonsensical choices.
Some seem really hard to create an
equation for, but all it needs it to plug the
answer into the question. You should be
comfortable with each strategy and not rely
on any one. Keep this in mind: Solving a
6 Ten mistakes test takers make | http://www.numericalguru.com
question in a time-bound numerical test
to derive the answer is neither the only,
nor the best way to get an answer!
7. Forgetting the calculator! - Oh yeah.
Happens. All the time. Many companies (say
SHL) administer tests on behalf of recruiters.
More often than not, you are allowed to use
calculators to do these tests, so don't forget
to use one when needed! You're usually
never allowed to use calculators in case
interviews though. The complexity of the
questions in tests that allow use of
calculators will often be higher than those
without.
8. Not reading the entire question - Many
test takers will jump to solving the first part
of the question before even reading the
entire question. Read the entire question
first! Many a time there will be a question
where part of the data is completely
irrelevant to the solution. It's there just to
waste your time. Only a piece of the data in
the question is relevant, and you won't
know that if you don't read the question in
its entirety. (Yes, our tests have some
of these types of questions)
9. Marking the wrong answer - solving for
(b) and marking (c). Yes, many do that, and
in fiercely competitive tests a single wrong
question can mean not progressing to the
next round. Take just 2 seconds (literally) to
cross-check that you marked the choice you
really intended to.
10. Insufficient preparation - the biggest
mistake of them all. Not taking the time and
effort to do many practice tests, analyze
 Facing those damn numerical tests

weakness, and improve upon them.

Assuming that just doing a 'bunch of tests'
will improve numerical skills. If you're weak
at these tests, the only way to get better is
to practice, learn techniques to do better,
analyze your weaknesses and strengths and
do more tests by addressing them.

Now that you know it, pay attention to them

and good luck with your preparation!
Remember - systematic preparation,
practice and improvisation are key to
success.

8 RESOURCES

Success comes with preparation, practice,

analysis and then confidence. Just as its
stupid to be confident without preparation
(unless you are mathematically gifted), it is
equally damaging if you are prepared but
not confident. Top performance requires
skill and nerve, not one or the other.

There‟s more content you can find when

you start at http://www.numericalguru.com

Our tests will test you on the many

techniques mentioned in this book. We also
have a special test just to help you flex
those tips muscles.

If you want to contribute an original,

interesting thought, experience or strategy,
just e-mail the article to
partner@numericalguru.com and we‟ll tell
you if we plan to publish it!

7 RESOURCES | http://www.numericalguru.com