Skill
Mental maths aptitude test practice
These tests do not contain hard sums. They contain easy sums with almost no time, which is a different problem and needs different techniques. Most school methods are built for accuracy on paper and are simply too slow.
What the test looks like
- Rapid calculation: simple arithmetic, many questions, very little time, often with no way to correct a slip once entered.
- Applied navigation maths: speed, distance and time, fuel burn, and arrival times worked from a chart rather than given to you.
- Reading figures off a table or graph accurately while a clock runs, which is as much a perceptual task as a numerical one.
How each battery asks for it
UNITED KINGDOM
In the CBAT
The RAF battery includes both the raw speed version and the applied version, where the numbers have to be found on a chart before they can be used.
AUSTRALIA
In the ADF testing and MACTS
The ADF pathway tests this twice. The Mathematical Ability Test at your YOU Session is sat by every applicant, and the aviation Additional Testing stage adds two further maths tests on top of it.
Neither is reproduced here. CBATONE practises the skill, using original material written to the published format. How the two batteries differ.
What it actually measures
- Speed and accuracy together, since either alone is easy and the combination is not.
- Whether you keep working accurately when you are behind, which is when most errors appear.
- Whether you know when to estimate rather than calculate, which is the judgement that separates scores more than arithmetic ability does.
How to practise it
- 1
Round, then correct
Move a number to something convenient, do the easy version, then adjust. 48 times 7 becomes 50 times 7, which is 350, minus two sevens, giving 336.
- 2
Learn nautical miles per minute
Speed in knots divided by 60 gives miles per minute. 120 knots is 2, 180 is 3, 240 is 4, 300 is 5, 360 is 6. Those five cover a surprising share of navigation questions.
- 3
Build percentages from ten
Ten percent is a decimal point move. Everything else is combinations of it. And percentages reverse freely, so 16 percent of 25 is the same as 25 percent of 16, which is 4.
- 4
Read the options before calculating
If they are far apart, estimate and move on. If they are close, calculate properly. That single habit is worth more than any trick on this page.
Common mistakes
Minutes treated as hours
A speed in knots is miles per hour, so time has to be in hours. Twenty minutes is a third. The answer you get from forgetting this is always one of the options.
Long division
It has no place under this kind of clock. Estimate by multiplication instead, since you are usually choosing between options rather than producing a number from nothing.
Chasing a question you have already lost
An unreached question costs the same as a wrong one, and there are always more questions than time. If you are still working at twenty seconds, commit and move.
Practise it, timed
Reading about it does nothing on its own. These run live in the browser, on the clock, and score you against a measured benchmark when they stop.
Free version with an account and no card. Premium for fresh questions every run, practice levels and the breakdown of where you lose marks.
Common questions
- What maths is on an aircrew aptitude test?
- Arithmetic, percentages, ratios, and navigation maths: speed, distance and time, fuel burn and arrival times. Nothing beyond school level. The difficulty is entirely in the pace.
- Are calculators allowed?
- Assume not. These tests are specifically measuring mental calculation, which is why the numbers are chosen to be workable in your head.
- How do I get faster at mental maths?
- Practise with a clock, always. Untimed practice builds confidence and measures nothing, because every one of these questions is easy given as long as you like.
- Does the RAAF test mental maths?
- Twice. The Mathematical Ability Test at the YOU Session is sat by all applicants, and the aviation Additional Testing stage includes two further maths tests.