Mathematics: adaptive number, shape and data questions
The Mathematics section of the ISEB Common Pre-Test is an on-screen, multiple-choice paper taken without a calculator. Its content follows the Key Stage 2 national curriculum - number and place value, the four operations, fractions, decimals and percentages, ratio, early algebra, measurement, geometry and statistics - but the questions push towards the top of that range. The paper is adaptive: the difficulty of each question is chosen from how you answered the ones before, so accuracy on the straightforward opening questions shapes everything that follows.
Core content to have secure
- Number: long multiplication and division, negative numbers, rounding, order of operations (brackets, indices, division/multiplication, addition/subtraction).
- Fractions and percentages: equivalence, fraction of an amount, adding fractions with unlike denominators, percentage increase and decrease, finding the original amount after a change.
- Ratio and scale: simplifying ratios, sharing an amount in a given ratio, map scales.
- Algebra: continuing and describing sequences, finding the nth term, solving simple equations, substituting into formulae.
- Geometry: angle facts (angles on a straight line sum to 180°, in a triangle 180°, at a point 360°), area and perimeter of rectangles, triangles and parallelograms, volume of cuboids, coordinates in all four quadrants, properties of 2D and 3D shapes.
- Statistics: mean, mode, median and range, and reading tables, bar charts and pie charts.
Worked example
A coat is reduced by 20% in a sale and now costs £48. What was its full price? The £48 represents 80% of the original price. Divide by 8: 10% is £6, so 100% is £60. Check: 20% of £60 is £12, and £60 − £12 = £48. The tempting wrong answer is £57.60, obtained by adding 20% of £48 - that fails because the discount was taken from the larger original amount.
Traps that cost marks
Answering the wrong quantity (perimeter when area was asked, or the discount rather than the original). Mixing units - centimetres with metres, minutes with hours - before calculating. Rounding mid-calculation and then choosing the rounded option. Skimming past words such as not, least or estimate. Staying too long on one hard question, since the adaptive engine is already selecting the next item.