A taxi driver drove 30 miles on Monday, 50 miles on Tuesday, 60 miles on Wednesday, 70 miles on Thursday, and 90 miles on Friday. The average number of miles he drove per day was ___?___.

Most people, probably you as well, will rush in to solve this problem like they were taught in school – sum the number of miles and then divide it by 5 days, right ?

BIG MISTAKE !

And here’s the explanation :

If you use the obvious sum and divide method here you will be forced to write down the numbers on a piece of scrap paper, sum up the numbers and then divide the total by 5. This whole process will take about 20 seconds, because you will need to view the question, write down the numbers and then do the division calculation.

Some people will try to do all this off the top of their head, and with all the pressure and the stress, chances are you will make a mistake, get confused or lose time or worse…. let’s just say – good luck with that approach!

This is how you can solve this problem and save yourself 8-10 seconds:

When you take a look at the numbers, imagine that the numbers are set on an axis:

30__(40)__ 50__ 60__ 70__(80) __ 90

This series of numbers is symmetrical and finding the average of a symmetrical series takes …. 5 seconds

Let’s start by looking at the first and last numbers:

30 is at the same “distance” from 50 as 90 is from 70

Now let’s look at the inner numbers. 50 is at the same distance from 60 as 70 is.

The middle number in a 5-number symmetrical series is actually the average.

30__(40)__ 50__ 60__ 70__(80) __ 90

The answer is therefore, 60.

You may like to take a look at this explanation again. From our experience, when people are in the process of discovering this “symmetrical” trick, they sometimes figure out their own slightly different way to find the average in 10 seconds and that’s perfectly ok, as long as they are paying attention to the symmetrical form. All brains are wired slightly differently.

Now, on a Wonderlic test, there are about 4-5 questions, which require you to calculate an average. Generally, 50% of the questions that involve averages are based on symmetrical number series. Usually, you don’t even have to “play” with the order of the numbers, the test writers just want to see if you have a sharp eye and quickly understand the process. As this is a strong indication of good cognitive abilities in an individual. Or.. it can also be a sign that a person has learnt this trick in advance….

So from now on, on your Wonderlic test, when you will see a question that involves averages, you will look right away to see if it is symmetrical and if it is, then it will probably take you 10 seconds at the most to solve and you will likely be 100% accurate, instead of wasting 20-30 precious seconds and taking the risk of making mistakes.

So here you go – you learned a super easy tactic in just 3 minutes, and you will only need to spend 8 more minutes practicing this skill and this is how you save 30-40 seconds on your Wonderlic test, and collect other easy low-hanging fruits further on in your test.

This makes a HUGE difference!

In our Wonderlic test course you will learn and practice 20 tactics that are easy to remember and simple to implement. Tactics that will “shave” 5-10 seconds or more off the time it takes you to solve a problem. Furthermore, your level of accuracy will improve – as you will barely make mistakes.