What the Applied Math test is
Applied Math is one of the three ACT WorkKeys tests behind the National Career Readiness Certificate (NCRC), alongside Graphic Literacy and Workplace Documents. Every question is set in a job: a cashier totalling an order, a supervisor comparing two suppliers, a technician working out how much a tank holds. You choose one answer from the options given.
The questions run through five levels. Level 3 is one operation on whole numbers, money and time. Level 4 adds averages, simple ratios and rates, and information you must put in order first. Level 5 brings several steps: unit conversions, mixed units, best deals, perimeter and area, discounts, mark-ups and tax. Level 6 needs real setting up: reverse percentages, multi-step conversions, rearranged area formulas and the volume of boxes. Level 7 adds unusual or incomplete problems, fractional rates, the volume of spheres, cylinders and cones, and weighted averages.
A calculator is allowed on this test only, and the online version has one built in. A formula sheet with the formulas and conversions the test needs is provided inside the test, and you can show or hide it. ACT says every problem can be solved without a calculator.
How Applied Math is scored
Your raw score is the number of scored questions you get right. Some questions on every form are unscored trial items you cannot spot, so the raw score is out of fewer than 34. ACT converts the raw score to a scale score from 65 to 90 and then to a level: 72 to 75 is Level 3, 76 to 79 Level 4, 80 to 82 Level 5, 83 to 85 Level 6 and 86 or more Level 7.
ACT publishes the raw cut-offs for one official practice form, scored out of 31. On that form Level 3 started at 10 correct, Level 4 at 14, Level 5 at 20, Level 6 at 23 and Level 7 at 26. Other forms convert a little differently, so use these as a guide to what each level asks of you, not as exact pass marks.
A method for each question
With about a minute and a half a question, a steady routine beats rushing:
- Read the last line first, so you know whether you are finding a total, a difference, a rate or a size.
- Note the unit the answer must be in. A wrong unit is one of the commonest wrong options.
- Estimate before you calculate. If your answer is ten times your estimate, a conversion has slipped.
- Write each step on your scratch paper. Wrong options are built from stopping a step early.
- Check rounding against the situation. You cannot buy 7.2 boxes of tiles, so you round up to 8.
Worked example
A Level 5 style question: “You run the stock room. One supplier sells packs of 12 hinges for $8.40, and another sells packs of 20 for $13.00. You need 240 hinges. How much do you save by buying from the cheaper supplier?” The options are $0.05, $3.00, $12.00, $156.00 and $168.00.
From the first supplier you need 240 ÷ 12 = 20 packs, which cost 20 × $8.40 = $168.00. From the second you need 240 ÷ 20 = 12 packs, which cost 12 × $13.00 = $156.00. The saving is $168.00 minus $156.00, so $12.00.
Each wrong option is a step left out or a wrong turn: $168.00 and $156.00 are the two costs, not the saving, $0.05 is the difference per hinge, and $3.00 comes from a units slip. That is how the real test builds its options, so finish every step the question asks for.
Tips for the real test
- Open the formula sheet at the start and see what is on it, so you know where to look for the circle, cylinder and cone formulas when you need them.
- Use the built-in calculator for multi-step sums, but write the steps down first.
- Skip a question that is taking more than two minutes and flag it. You can come back while time remains.
- Answer every question before the clock runs out. A blank is the only certain zero.
- Revise percentages both ways: finding 15% of a price, and finding the price before a 15% discount.
- Learn the US units the test uses: inches, feet, yards, gallons, quarts, ounces and pounds.
Practise WorkKeys Applied Math on CogniPrep
Our Applied Math practice is the real length, 34 questions in 55 minutes, with a built-in calculator, a formula sheet you can show or hide, free movement between questions and a review grid. Every wrong option is built from a named mistake, so your result tells you which mistakes you made, along with the level you would most likely reach using ACT’s practice-form cut-offs in proportion. Every question of ours is scored, and the formula sheet is ours, since ACT does not publish its own.