Calendar and Date Counting

Let's dive straight into one of the most predictable — and most rewarding — question types in OC Thinking Skills: figuring out the exact day of the week after jumping forward a given number of days.

This format appears in virtually every OC Thinking Skills test. Master the core technique and it becomes one of the quickest marks you can earn on the day.

The examiner wants to know whether you can work confidently with the 7-day cycle of the week — counting forward across multiple time gaps and converting a total number of days into complete weeks plus a leftover remainder.

The question names two or more people (or events) meeting at intervals. You're told the starting day of the week and the gap in days between each meeting, then asked to name the final day.

Count the total days (18 evenings), then separately count Wednesdays and Saturdays in the range for the extra afternoon shows. There are 3 of each, giving 6 extras — so 18 + 6 = 24 performances in total.

Counting performances across a date range with extra sessions on named days appears regularly in OC TS Calendar questions at easy-to-medium difficulty. Students who simply count "18 evenings" without adding the afternoon shows arrive at 18 — the most common wrong answer.

The examiner checks whether students can (1) correctly count the total number of days in the range (inclusive), (2) identify which days of the week have extra sessions by mapping dates to days, and (3) add the two totals cleanly.

A show or event runs from Day X to Day Y of the same month. Every day has one performance; certain named days of the week have a second performance. Students count the total performances.

Now let's tackle a considerably more demanding variant — one that combines counting working sessions across two calendar months, applying different pay rates to different day types, and correctly handling a single day that must be excluded.

Questions like this appear regularly in the harder half of OC Thinking Skills papers. They reward students who are systematic and patient enough to build a quick mental (or written) calendar before calculating.

The examiner is testing three things simultaneously: whether you can accurately count specific weekdays across a two-month stretch, apply different rates to different day types without mixing them up, and correctly process one exception — here, a birthday that removes exactly one session from the total.

The setup names a start and end date spanning two months, specifies two or three working days per week (often with different pay rates), and introduces exactly one exception — a public holiday, a birthday, or a cancellation — that silently removes one session from the count.