Is math your least favorite subject in school? Are you worried about how you might do on the HSPT’s Math section? The Math section makes a lot of HSPT test takers nervous, but you can give yourself a major advantage on the exam by familiarizing yourself with the different types of problems that the test asks, as well as some fantastic free resources that you can use to study exactly what will help your mathematical understanding the most.

The math section on the HSPT, or High School Placement Test, divides its problems into four categories, and by tackling each category in turn, you can prepare yourself for the entire section. First of all, the HSPT Quantitative section includes Number Series questions. These questions present a sequence of numbers and then ask you which numbers should come next in the sequence. To correctly solve this type of question, you have to be able to figure out how the numbers in the sequence are related, and then extend the pattern you’ve identified in order to come up with the correct answer.

Another type of question that appears on the HSPT Quantitative section is Number Manipulation. These questions present sequences of calculations that ask you to pick out the right answer. For instance, a Number Manipulation question might ask you “What number added to 15 gives you ¼ of 72?” or “What number is 35% of the difference between 153 and 113?” To be good at solving these problems requires you to be able to work many different types of calculations both forwards and backwards—converting a percent to a decimal and a decimal to a percent, for example. Practicing this problem type ahead of time can help you prepare yourself for problems that may look simple, but actually require a lot of problem-solving skills to correctly solve. Varsity Tutors’ free HSPT Quantitative Practice Tests allow you to do problems organized by concept, so if this problem type is a particular weak point for you, practicing lots of problems of this type and identifying any mistakes you make using the included full explanations is the best way to prepare for this part of the HSPT’s Quantitative section.

The HSPT Quantitative section also includes Geometric Comparison problems. These questions present you with three geometrically-determined values and ask you to compare them. For instance, an HSPT Geometric Comparison problem might go like this:

“Examine (a), (b), and (c) to find the best answer:

a) perimeter of a square with a side length of 3

b) circumference of a circle with a diameter of 3

c) perimeter of an equilateral triangle with a side length of 4”

Think you could handle this? If you can’t remember the exact characteristics that define an equilateral triangle or how to calculate the circumference of a circle, this problem becomes much more difficult than it needs to be. To evaluate your skills, you may want to begin your studies by taking an online Full-Length HSPT Quantitative Practice Test. These practice tests present questions on all of the concepts that might be covered on the real exam. The longer format also gives you the chance to check your pacing to ensure you’ll have enough time to complete the whole section on exam day. The results pages for the complete practice tests are just like those provided for the concept-specific practice tests, and include step-by-step explanations illustrating each answer and links to relevant formulas. Each all-inclusive HSPT practice test can help you to build your own study plan by identifying the topics on which you should spend more time. After you know which topics need the most attention, you can use any of Varsity Tutors’ Learning Tools to review. When you feel ready, you can take another Full-Length HSPT Quantitative Practice Test to track your progress.

Fortunately, you can review all of the relevant math concepts by practicing HSPT Quantitative Problems using Varsity Tutors’ free Practice Tests. By focusing some attention on each of these question types before test day, you can be confident that you’ll be able to handle whatever questions the HSPT Quantitative section throws at you!