Practice · Quant prep · Mental maths tests
Mental maths tests for trading
The arithmetic screen is where most trading applications end. These tests copy the formats candidates report, down to the pace and the negative marking, and every question is generated fresh, so a good score means you can do it, not that you have seen it.
Multiple choice, marked +1 / −1
Typed answers
Keys: 1–4 answer multiple choice · Enter submits a typed answer · Tab skips a sequence · Esc ends the test. Fractions such as 3/8 and negatives such as -4 are accepted. No calculator: the real tests do not allow one.
Accuracy and pace by question type, weakest first
What these tests are, as candidates describe them
None of the firms publishes its test, so everything here comes from what candidates report, and the formats have drifted from year to year. The reports agree on the essentials.
80 in 8
Eighty arithmetic questions in eight minutes, one at a time, four options each, no calculator and no going back. A right answer scores a point and a wrong one loses a point, so a guess only pays when you can rule out two options. Most candidates do not reach the end. The questions are not hard one at a time: 373 + 57, 0.35 × 12, 3/8 + 1/4, 66 × ? = 138.6. The test is the pace, six seconds a question, and the discipline of not guessing.
60 in 6
The same idea at the same speed: sixty questions in six minutes, marked +1 and −1, with a larger share of decimals and fractions. Candidates also describe a separate sequences paper of about twenty-five questions in about twenty-five minutes, where a skipped question scores nothing and a wrong one loses a point. The sequences test on this page follows that pattern.
Zetamac
Zetamac is not a firm's test but a free drill that many candidates use to train. Its default game runs for 120 seconds: addition with both numbers between 2 and 100, subtraction as the reverse, multiplication up to 12 × 100 and division as the reverse. The sprint here uses exactly those ranges, so the scores are comparable. Candidates commonly treat 50 as a working base and 70 or more as strong.
The rapid screen
Some firms begin with a call rather than a test: ten to twenty questions read aloud, each with a short time limit, mixing arithmetic, estimates and simple probability. The rapid screen imitates that pace. Estimates are marked right within 1% or 2%, as an interviewer would accept "about 44.7" for √2000.
How to get faster
Learn the facts, not the tricks. Most slow answers come from rebuilding something you could have remembered: squares to 30, the eighths and sixteenths as decimals (0.125, 0.375, 0.0625), the fractions of 1 up to twelfths, and 2 to the tenth power. Recall is faster than any shortcut.
Train at the real pace, then above it. Ten minutes a day of the sprint builds speed on the basic operations. The hard drill is deliberately beyond the real tests: after a week of it, six seconds a question feels generous.
Practise not guessing. Under +1 / −1 marking, a blind guess among four options loses half a point on average. Build the habit of eliminating the options with the wrong last digit or the wrong size first; that usually leaves one.
Read your results. After each run the breakdown shows which question types cost you points and time. Work on the weakest type in isolation for a few days, then return to the full test.
Related practice
The mental arithmetic questions have worked methods for each type. For the interview rounds that follow the screen, see the probability questions, the brainteasers and the timed quant papers.