EIAT maths guide: decimals, fractions and no calculator

Mathematics is 30 of the 100 questions on the EIAT, and it is the section that worries applicants most. It should not. There is nothing here beyond school arithmetic. What makes it hard is doing it on paper, at speed, with no calculator.

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What comes up

NEIEP's study guide names two areas: arithmetic — addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, fractions, decimals and percentages — and algebra, meaning solving equations and manipulating formulas.

Its own example questions give you the flavour more precisely. One is a decimal long division. One is multiplying a mixed number by a fraction. One is a nested expression that has to be worked in the right order. That is the level: not hard, but fiddly by hand.

The fifth option

Each maths question offers five answers, and the fifth is "No answer". It is not filler. If your result does not match any of the four figures listed, that is the response you want.

Most practice material includes the option but never makes it correct, which teaches people to discount it and pick the closest number instead. That is exactly the wrong habit. On our maths section it is genuinely the answer on around one question in nine, so it has to be checked.

What to actually practise

Long division with decimals

Move the decimal point in the divisor until it is a whole number, move it the same number of places in the number being divided, then divide normally. Practise until you do not have to think about which way the point moves.

Fractions and mixed numbers

Turn mixed numbers into improper fractions before doing anything else. To multiply, multiply across the top and the bottom. To divide, turn the second fraction upside down and multiply. Cancel before you multiply and the numbers stay small enough to handle.

Order of operations

Brackets first, then multiply and divide, then add and subtract. A nested expression is safest worked one line at a time, writing the intermediate result down. Trying to hold three steps in your head is where the marks go.

Percentages

Ten per cent is a decimal point moved one place. Everything else builds from that: five per cent is half of it, twenty per cent is double, so fifteen per cent is ten plus five. Far faster than multiplying by 0.15.

Simple algebra

Get the term with the letter on its own, then divide. Whatever you do to one side of the equation you do to the other.

How to practise it

On paper, with a clock, and no calculator. That is not a detail. Doing these on a phone with a calculator open is practising a different skill entirely. Work the way you will work on the day: pencil, scrap paper, and an eye on the time.

Our EIAT maths practice keeps the five-option format with "No answer" in its proper place at the bottom, and shows the full working for every question.