PRACTICE GUIDE ALL OPTIONS
All Options Arithmetic: what the test is, and how to train for it
The All Options arithmetic screen is 80 questions in 8 minutes - about 6 seconds each - answered by typing the number, with no calculator. There is no negative marking, so leaving an item blank gains you nothing over guessing.
Where it sits: First online round. The practice sitting on this page runs the same item count, the same clock and the same marking rule, with questions generated by Outcry rather than taken from All Options.
Outcry is not affiliated with All Options and has no access to their assessment content. This guide describes an assessment format that candidates report publicly; the questions here are generated by Outcry and are not All Options’s own.
What it screens
An Amsterdam equity derivatives market maker with a desk in Austin, Texas.
- ✓Two-digit multiplication and division without writing anything down
- ✓Fraction and decimal conversion at a glance
- ✓Percentage moves in both directions (a 20% drop needs +25% to recover)
- ✓Knowing when to skip: negative marking punishes guessing
Where it sits at All Options
This section does not arrive on its own. It opens the paper, and the sitting around it runs 13 minutes and 106 items in total, with Sequences on the same continuous clock. Candidates who prepare only for this round tend to be caught by the pacing of the rest.
There is no going back. You answer or skip, and the next item loads, which means the decision to leave an item is final at the moment you make it.
The format
These are the numbers the All Options sitting on this site runs on, matching the format candidates report.
| Questions | 80 |
|---|---|
| Time | 8 minutes |
| Per question | 6 seconds |
| Negative marking | No |
| Answer style | Typed numeric answer, no calculator |
| Where it sits | First online round |
What it tests, with a worked example
Every example below is generated by Outcry, drawn from the same question generators the timed drills run. None of them is All Options’s.
Two-digit multiplication
Products you are expected to reach by splitting rather than by long multiplication.
Example 1
35% of 500
Answer 175
Swap it: 35% of 500 = 500% of 35 = 175.
Example 2
62% of 400
Answer 248
Swap it: 62% of 400 = 400% of 62 = 248.
Example 3
12 × 4 − 15
Answer 33
12 × 4 = 48; 48 − 15 = 33.
Fast division
Exact quotients where the divisor is chosen to make a shortcut available.
Example 1
588 ÷ 7
Answer 84
7 × 84 = 588, so the quotient is 84.
Example 2
0.25 × 132
Answer 33
A quarter of 132: halve it twice, 66 then 33.
Example 3
432 ÷ 9
Answer 48
9 × 48 = 432, so the quotient is 48.
Mixed operations under a clock
Several steps in one item, where the order you take them decides whether it fits in the time.
Example 1
1/3 of 66 = ?
Answer 22
66 ÷ 3 = 22, times 1 = 22.
Example 2
450 ÷ 3 = ?
Answer 150
Chunk it: 3 × 150 = 450, leaving 0, which is 3 × 0. The quotient is 150.
Example 3
73.46 + 7.08 = ?
Answer 80.54
73.46 + 7.08 = 80.54.
Additive chains
Long sums and differences where grouping to round numbers beats working left to right.
Example 1
489 × 99 = ?
Answer 48411
× 99 is × 100 minus one: 48,900 - 489 = 48,411.
Example 2
35% of 240 = ?
Answer 84
1% of 240 is 2.4, so 35% is 84.
Example 3
7% of 220 = ?
Answer 15.4
1% of 220 is 2.2, so 7% is 15.4.
Squares and near-squares
Products a step either side of a square, where the difference-of-squares identity is faster than multiplying.
Example
A 58 × 99 B 42 × 56 C 85 × 46 D 53 × 81
Which of these products is the largest?
- C
- D
- A
- B
Answer A
A = 5,742, B = 2,352, C = 3,910, D = 4,293, so A is the largest. Rounding each pair to the nearest ten separates them without multiplying anything out exactly.
Order of operations under pressure
Items written to punish reading left to right instead of resolving the structure first.
Example 1
What is 12% of 100?
Answer 12
1% of 100 is 1, so 12% is 12.
Example 2
11 traders each shake hands once with every other. How many handshakes?
Answer 55
C(11,2) = 11 × 10/2 = 55.
Example 3
What is 40% of 1,000?
Answer 400
1% of 1,000 is 10, so 40% is 400.
What a good score looks like
On a paper of 80 questions with no penalty for a wrong answer, the only thing an unanswered question can do is cost you. Candidates most often report a pass mark around 70 per cent of the questions attempted correctly, with the strongest scores well above that. Nothing here is a published figure: firms move these by role, region and year, and most never state them at all.
How to train for it
- 01Add the clock and hold the accuracy. This is the step most people skip, and it is the one the screen measures.
- 02Sit a full timed screen end to end, so the pacing decisions happen under the same pressure as the real thing.
- 03Work the operation you avoid. Almost everyone has one - long division, or fractions, or subtraction with a borrow - and it is where the dropped marks cluster.
TRAIN IT HERE
The drills that match each section
Arithmetic Drill
2.5 timed minutes of exactly this question mix, with a ghost of your best past run to race.
Duck Duck Dash
Endless mental-math runner - one mistake ends the run, and the questions climb through ten difficulty tiers.
Sequence Sprint
Pattern recognition under the same per-question time pressure.
SIT THE FULL BATTERY
All the sections back to back on one clock, marked the way the real screen marks them, with a by-skill breakdown at the end. Included with any pass.
Also reported at All Options
Common questions
- Is the All Options arithmetic test multiple choice?
- Typed numeric answer, no calculator. You type the number, so there is nothing to eliminate your way to.
- How long is the All Options arithmetic test?
- 80 questions in 8 minutes, which is about 6 seconds each.
- Is there negative marking on the All Options arithmetic test?
- No. A wrong answer costs nothing beyond the mark you would have earned, so leaving an item blank is never better than guessing at it.
- How do I practise for it free?
- Every drill linked on this page is free to play, with no account, inside a daily run cap. Questions are generated fresh each run, so there is nothing to memorise between attempts. The full All Options Trading Assessment sitting puts the sections back to back on one clock.