Short maths in the 11 Plus is one of those areas where you can score quick and easy points.  Miscalculations and reading the question incorrectly are areas in which one can easily end up with the incorrect answer.  So with short maths, make sure you understand the questions and have simple and clear steps to your calculation.

Let’s try this question here:

What time would it be if it were 325 minutes after 9:07 AM?

Here’s how I would solve it:

1) 325 minutes into hours and minutes.

325 minutes / 60 minutes = 5 hours and 25 minutes.  How did I come to that quickly?  Using the 6 times tables.  6 x 5 = 30 so 60 x 5 = 300 + 25 minutes = 325 minutes.

Try to break things down into smaller parts, it helps you to calculate quicker but and I find, that it helps to make a more accurate calculation.

2) Add 5 hours and 25 minutes to 9:07AM.

Why are we adding?  Because the question says 325 minutes after 9:07AM.

Instead of adding 5 hours and 25 minutes to 9:07AM.  I’m going to do it in a more simpler way.

9:00AM + 5 hours = 2PM.

2PM + 25 minutes = 2:25PM

2:25PM + 7 minutes = 2:32 PM

This is less fiddly and it also makes sense (I can see the logic clearly) because we’re doing it step-by-step.

So that’s your answer 2:32PM.  

The tip to take from this is with short maths questions in the 11 Plus test is try to break things down into easy calculations and easy to understand steps.  This will help you with speed along with accuracy.