Career & communication · course 63 of 105

Test-Day Numbers: Numerical Reasoning Drills

Get ready for an employer’s numerical reasoning test: percentages and working back to the original, ratios, rates, currency exchange, reading a small table, and number series.

4 modules

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Runs in Claude (claude.ai, the Claude apps or Claude Code) with your own Claude account. A course opens there as soon as your payment goes through; nothing is shipped.

Preview

What it teaches

What an employer’s numerical reasoning test is and the rules it comes with (some tests allow a calculator and some don’t; many are timed, and the London School of Economics (LSE) careers page calls the time limits “intentionally tight”; most are pitched at GCSE, or “high school”, level), quoted from three careers pages. Then practice in areas the pages name or point to (percentages, ratios, tables, progressions, currency and exchange; rates are the course’s own choice): percentages and percentage change (including working backwards to the original), ratios, rates (speed, unit price, time), exchange with a rate you are given, a small data table written as text, and number series (one rule each). The AI asks 3 questions, places you, shows a short card per module, then gives you one question at a time.

Not a practice-test simulator: it doesn’t time you, has no charts or graphs, and can’t tell you what any one employer’s test will contain.

How long

45 items. About 12-30 rounds for a student who already knows the maths up to about 90 for a beginner, plus a 12-item final: 2-3 sessions (estimate, not timed with a real student). The tutor gives a one-line save code at the end of each session.

The modules

4 modules, drilled one item at a time.

M0
The tests
What numerical reasoning tests are: format, calculators, timing and level
M1
Percentages and percentage change
Percentages and percentage change, including working backwards to the original
M2
Ratios, rates and exchange
Ratios, rates (speed, unit price, time) and exchange with a rate you are given
M3
Tables and number series
Reading a small data table written as text, and finding the next number in a series

Before it teaches, it asks

1
Which test are you preparing for (a graduate scheme, an apprenticeship, a school-leaver role, not sure yet), and do you know if you can use a calculator?
2
A price rises from £80 to £100. What is the percentage increase?
3
£480 is shared in the ratio 3:5. How much is the larger share?

What’s exact, and what isn’t

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Straight from the course’s own notes.

The tests (M0): Every quoted phrase is word for word, the words around the quotes and the ten Answers are the course’s own; the quotes come from one of three pages, all read 2026-10-12: the National Careers Service (NCS) page “Psychometric tests: prepare and practise” (undated; its footer says the content is under the Open Government Licence v3.0); the LSE careers page “Numeracy tests” (footer “© LSE 2026”); and TARGETjobs, “How to pass numerical reasoning tests: our tips and tricks” (byline dated 1 Aug 2024). A script checks every quote on a saved copy of its page and checks that each fact in an M0 Answer is both in the Answer and in the cited quote. It does not re-fetch the live pages.
Computed by script: Every M1, M2 and M3 key, in exact fractions (rounded half up only where the question names a rounding), each checked a second way (working backwards from the key, or a second formula). Every listed wrong answer is computed from the slip it names and must differ from the key. Each number series must fit exactly one of four rule families (add a step, multiply, a growing step, sum of the two before), and that rule must give the key.
The course's own words: The method lines on the M1, M2 and M3 cards are not quotes; they are the usual school methods, written out. A script checks that the keys they lead to are right, not the wording.
Made-up numbers: Every amount, table and exchange rate in M1-M3 is invented for practice. None is a real price, sales figure or exchange rate.
Honest limits: The pages describe numerical reasoning tests in general and say tests vary (the LSE: a calculator is allowed in some and not in others; TARGETjobs: the length of a test can vary between providers). This course says nothing about any one employer’s test, and it isn’t connected to the NCS, the LSE, TARGETjobs or any test provider. Calculators are fine here; the course is not timed. Tables are text only (TARGETjobs lists “Table and graph questions”; this course has no graphs). UK flavour: the sources are British, so pounds and GCSE appear.
Not in it yet: Charts and graphs, probability, fractions and decimals as drills of their own, algebra and the rest of the LSE’s topic list, medians and modes, timed practice, verbal, abstract and personality tests.