Catastrophic fire danger is forecast for North Central, Northern Country, South West and Wimmera on Friday, 9 January. Extreme fire danger is forecast for the remainder of the state. Stay informed at emergency.vic.gov.au.
emergency.vic.gov.au

Victoria Police Entrance Exam - Numeracy

Victoria Police Entrance Exam - Numeracy

This exam video tutorial explains what’s involved in the numeracy component of the Victoria Police Entrance Examination.

Victoria Police Entrance Exam – Numeracy Transcript

Hi, my name is Dave Tout and I'm a numeracy educator.

This video explains what's required in undertaking the numeracy skills tasks as part of the Victoria Police Entrance Examination and gives you advice about how to answer some of the questions you could find on the exam.

The numeracy skills section of the exam tests your ability to read and understand mathematical and numerical information and to use your skills and knowledge to answer a question.

In policing, numeracy skills are important as you will need to understand, use, apply, and interpret problems where mathematics is embedded in a context.

In the role of policing, you are required to observe and collect information and data, to write up reports, and to prepare briefs of evidence.

These reports must be clear, to the point, and accurate, and will at times include numerical and mathematical information.

In the numeracy skills section of the exam, you will find questions that test three different types of skill areas.

  1. The first is number and algebra.
  2. The second is measurement and geometry.
  3. The third is statistics and probability.

In the numeracy exam, you only have 35 minutes to do the 30 numeracy questions.

You will have access to an online calculator which you can use for doing some of the math calculations, but you will still need to have the skills and the knowledge to apply the correct mathematical processes and to understand how to solve the problem.

When you do a numeracy problem, it's useful to follow these five steps.

  • First, it's important to read the problem carefully so you don't miss anything.
    • What information is being presented?
    • Think about what the question is asking you to do.
  • Next, think about the mathematical processes.
    • How are you going to work out the answer?
    • What mathematical knowledge and skills will you need to use to do this?
    • You might need to make some notes.
    • If you need to simplify the problem, write it down in your own words, including using math symbols and expressions.
    • You may find it helpful to write down the calculation needed or to even draw a diagram.
  • The third step is to now do the maths required to solve the problem and answer the question.
    • There's likely to be a few steps to doing this. These might involve doing some working out or undertaking calculations on paper or using your calculator.
  • The fourth step is to select the correct answer or write down your answer.
    • Make sure you answer the question in the right way. Of course, this depends on the type of question it is.
    • In the numeracy skills section of the exam, you may find multiple choice questions or true and false type questions or questions where you have to enter a number.
    • In numeracy, the multiple choice questions require only one answer.
    • With multiple choice, it's a good idea to eliminate the answers that you know are wrong straight away.
    • If none of the alternatives provided seem close to your answer, then reread the question and try and work out what you have done incorrectly or what you might have missed. There is always one correct option.
    • If it's a true or false type question, make sure you choose true or false or it might be yes or no for each statement.
    • If the question asks you to enter a number or a measurement, make sure that you pay careful attention to what sort of number it is and whether you need to change it to a correct measurement or round off the number.
    • For example, if the question and answer is about money, don't write in an answer like $12.666. 66666. This should be written as $1267, which is rounded to the nearest cent.
    • If it's a measurement, make sure the answer is written in the correct unit of measurement. For example, is the question asking for an answer in centimetres or kilometres.
    • Also, if the answer is something physical that can't be a fractional amount, but your answer to your calculation gives you a fraction, make sure you round the number to the best whole number value.
    • For example, if the answer required you to calculate the number of whole packets of an ingredient required for a job and the answer to your calculation says it's 4.2 packets, you would need to round this up to five whole packets. This is because you cannot buy 0.2 of a packet and four packets would not be enough.
  • Lastly, the fifth and final step is to check your answers.
    • Have you entered the number you got? You don't want to make an error in how you type it in.
    • And it's also critical that you check that your answer seems correct and reasonable. Use your own knowledge and common sense.
    • Does the number seem about right for the situation, or does it seem way too high or too low?
    • You can change your answer as many times as you like but always remember to take time to check.

To help you understand what this all means in practice, we're now going to look at how to answer a numeracy problem.

The first one is an example of one of the types of tasks you could be asked to do in the numeracy section of the exam.

First, remember to read the problem carefully so that you understand what you are being asked to do.

In this problem, the car costs $19,990, but Adut decides to use the company's finance, which means she will have to pay $410 a month for the next 5 years.

The question asks how much interest she will pay, which will be the extra amount over the actual cost of the car, the $19,990.

Now, read the question again and think about what math you will need to do to solve the problem.

  1. You need to find out how much she actually paid in total, which will be for 5 years times the 12 months per year for the total number of months.
  2. Then you need to multiply that by the $410 per month.
  3. Then finally, you need to take the actual cost of the car, the $19,990, away from what she paid.

The third step is that you now need to do the maths and work out the answer.

First, work out how much she paid in total for the car, which is 5 years * 12 months equals 60 months.

And then 60 months * $410 a month, which equals $24,600.

Now you need to take away the cost of the car. That is take the $19,990 from the $24,600. And $24,600 minus $19,990 equals $4,610.

And you probably needed to use your calculator to check that. So, Adut paid $4,610 in interest.

Now the next step was you needed to select or write down your answer.

In this example, you need to write down your answer of 4,610.

Note that often the dollar sign is already written in for you in the answer space. So don't repeat it.

And then finally, the fifth step was that you needed to check your answer. Make sure it's written in the right format using dollars and if appropriate cents because the answer doesn't have any cents.

You could simply write 4,610. Or you could write because it is money 4,610. 0.

Both answers will be considered correct.

Then ask yourself, does the answer seem reasonable? In this instance, the answer of $4,610 seems to be reasonable for the payment to the finance company.

Let's have a look at a second problem.

This question requires you to read and understand quite a complex chart.

So, first you need to read the chart and make sure you know what it's about and what all the different bars are telling you.

This graph is telling you how many meters a car will travel before it actually stops, taking into account the speed of the car, the driver's reaction time, and then how far a car will travel even after the brakes are applied.

The question asks you what the reaction distance would be if the car was traveling at 130 kmh.

This information isn't even in the chart, so you will need to work out the answer, looking for any patterns in the data.

The second step is to read the question again and think about the maths you will need to do to solve this problem.

The question is asking you to work out the reaction distance at a speed of 130 kmh. The graph shows you that at 110 km/h, the reaction distance is 46 m.

The question asks you though for the reaction distance at 130 km/h, which is going to be higher than 110 km/h shown on the graph.

You need to see if there's a pattern in how the reaction distance increases when the speed goes up each time by 10 kilometres/h.

When you look at the distance travelled when the driver is reacting, which is shown by the grey bars on the left, you can see that the car travels an extra 4 m for every 10 km/h that the car travels. Although in just one instance, this increase is in fact five.

So, you will need to work out how much faster the car is traveling than the 110 km/h and then you will need to add 4 m for each extra 10 km/ hour that the car is traveling.

Step three is now to do the maths.

So, start by working out how many kilometres extra 130 is from the 110 km/h that is shown on the graph.

So, take 110 away from 130 gives you 20. So that's 20 km/h over the 110 km/h that is shown on the graph.

And for each extra 10 km/h the car travels an extra 4 m.

So, as the car is traveling 20 km/h above the 110, you need to add on 4 m twice. So that's an extra 8 m.

So, starting with the reaction distance travelled at 110 km/h which is 46 m.

Now you need to add on the extra 8 m which makes it 54 m.

Step four is to then select or write down your answer. As this is a multiple choice you have to select an answer.

Option C matches your answer of 54 m. So option C is the correct answer.

Step five is checking your answer.

Have you chosen the correct answer?

In multiple choice, it can be very easy to click on an incorrect answer, especially if you are in a hurry, and ask yourself if the answer and the pattern seems to be about right.

In this example, the answer does seem to fit the pattern. And the good thing about multiple choice questions is that if your answer matches one of the options provided, it indicates that you must be on the right track.

You can use this process for all the different types of numeracy questions.

The best way to get better at numeracy questions is to practice.

You can practice undertaking a range of calculations using whole numbers, fractions, decimals, and percentages.

You can also read the chapter in practice now, Victoria Police Entrance Examination on Numeracy Skills.

It goes over the points we've been talking about and also shows you how to do the different types of questions.

Read over the explanations, have a go at the practice exercise, and compare it with the one that's been done in the book Practice now is produced by ACER.

The book's available from ACER Bookshop and Commercial Book Sellers. When you think you are getting better at these types of questions, have a go at the practice tests. There's information about how to get the practice tests on the Victoria Police Entrance Exam web page. 

If you are having difficulty answering the numeracy questions, you could contact the reading writing hotline.

They can suggest organizations that might be able to assist you or resources you could use to help you overcome any problems you are having.

And good luck with the exam.

Victoria Police recruitment processes and entrance exam

Discover more about on the recruitment processes for different police roles, including exams:

For more information on the entrance exam, visit ACER (Victoria Police’s examination authority).

Come work with us

Make a difference every day in a role as a police officer, protective services officer (PSO), police custody officer (PCO), or Victorian Public Service (VPS) employee.

Updated

Back to top