About this event
Medical Math is a solo written test for the Secondary and Postsecondary/Collegiate divisions and the only Health Science test with a 90-minute limit. Instead of picking from choices, competitors work each problem and grid the final number onto the answer sheet (only a slash and a decimal point are allowed besides digits). HOSA supplies a basic handheld calculator; personal calculators and conversion charts are not allowed, so the metric, household and temperature equivalents on the guideline's reference page must be memorized. At least half of the problems involve conversions, and standard medical abbreviations from DHO: Health Science appear in the wording. The test plan is 5 percent math essentials, 30 percent measurement and conversion, 35 percent drug dosages and IV solutions, and 30 percent dilutions, solutions and concentrations. Rounding rules matter: round only the final answer, round to the nearest whole number unless told otherwise, round pediatric doses down, and use leading zeros but never trailing zeros. New this year, the tiebreaker is an essay question, Pharmacy Calculations: An Introduction for Pharmacy Technicians joined the references and Math for Health Care Professionals was retired.
Test day
What to expect
90 minutes, 50 questions
You have 90 minutes for 50 questions written from the event's published test plan. Official format: 50-problem test, 90 minutes, gridded numeric answers, plus an essay tiebreaker.
Written from the test plan
Questions follow the event's published test plan, section by section, and are written from the listed reference texts. Practice questions here are drawn in the same proportions.
How you advance
How many advance from regionals to states and on to the International Leadership Conference (ILC) depends on your association's rules. Study the official test plan: it lists each section and its share of the test.
What's on the test
Study resources
Bookmark to saveCurated by ChapterPrep. Free unless noted. External links open in a new tab.