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4 marks of the 15 in Part A, which runs for 30 minutes.
This is the biggest numeracy category, and the one you are most likely to be doing on a shift. A prescription, a stock strength on a bottle or a blister pack, and one question: how much do you give?
What this section asks about
Tablets and capsules where the prescribed dose is a multiple of the stock strength
Scored tablets, where half a tablet is a legitimate answer and a quarter usually is not
Oral liquids labelled as a dose in a volume, such as 125 mg in 5 mL
Prescriptions written in grams against stock labelled in milligrams
Where the marks go
4 marks of the 15 in Part A, which runs for 30 minutes.
Every numeracy question sits at the apply and analyse level: you are given a situation and asked to work something out, rather than to recall a fact.
Worked examples
The method, with the answer shown. Practise below once you have the shape of it.
Prescribed 1.5 g. The stock is 500 mg tablets. How many tablets?
Convert the prescription to match the stock.
1.5 g is 1,500 mg.
1,500 / 500
Answer: 3 tablets
Reading 1.5 g against 500 mg and answering one and a half. The units have to match before the numbers mean anything.
Prescribed 375 mg of a suspension labelled 125 mg in 5 mL. What volume?
The strength is 125 mg. The 5 mL is what it comes in.
375 / 125 x 5
Answer: 15 mL
Using the 5 mL as though it were the strength. In 125 mg in 5 mL, the strength is the milligrams.
Prescribed 62.5 micrograms. The stock is 125 microgram scored tablets. How many tablets?
62.5 / 125
Answer: Half a tablet
Half is a legitimate answer only because the tablet is scored. A quarter almost never is, so an answer of 0.25 usually means the working is wrong.
Where candidates lose marks
Forgetting the conversion. A dose of 1.5 g against 500 mg tablets is three tablets, not one.
Using the volume as though it were the strength. In 125 mg/5 mL the strength is 125 mg, and the 5 mL is what carries it.
Answering with a number of tablets that cannot be given. Only scored tablets can be halved.
Sample questions
From our bank, with the explanation as a student sees it. These particular questions are kept out of the mock papers, so reading them here does not use anything up.
Sample 1 of 2
A patient is prescribed paracetamol 1 g four times a day. The tablets available are 500 mg. How many tablets will they take in 24 hours?
Give your answer in tablets.
Answer:8
Why
Calculation: 1 g is two 500 mg tablets, and four doses of two is 8 tablets. That is 4 g in 24 hours, the maximum for an adult, so any further paracetamol in a combination product would take them over it.
BNF
Sample 2 of 2
Prescribed: 250 mg amoxicillin. Available: 125 mg/5 mL suspension. Volume?
Give your answer in mL.
Answer:10
Why
(250/125) x 5 = 10 mL.
BNF
Questions people ask
How many oral medication questions are in Part A?
It is the largest of the six numeracy categories in the published test specification, so expect more of these than of any other single type.
Are the drugs in the questions real?
The drugs and strengths are the ones you meet in UK practice, taken from the BNF. The scenarios are written for practice; they are not past exam questions.
Practise this section
Practice is filtered by section, so you can work on this one on its own. Every account gets 10 new questions a day without a card.