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This might sound like a stupid question,but how do you work out word problems in maths?.i keep losing marks in those type of questions

Reply 1

rayquaza17

Original post by EssiE34

This might sound like a stupid question,but how do you work out word problems in maths?.i keep losing marks in those type of questions

Could you post an example of one of these? :smile:

Reply 2

Notnek

Original post by EssiE34

This might sound like a stupid question,but how do you work out word problems in maths?.i keep losing marks in those type of questions

Are there any types that you find hard? Maybe post a question?

A good technique is to treat a word problem like a comprehension and read through it carefully before doing any maths. Underlining key words can help with this.

It's important to make sure you understand all of the information and think about what you could do with this information. It's always tempting to start doing the maths before reading the question properly but this leads to mistakes.

For 'real life' problems, students often have success when they imagine themselves in the situation and think about how they would solve the problem. Moving the problem from an exam hall to a day-to-day activity can really help.

Reply 3

Kvothe the Arcane

Original post by EssiE34

This might sound like a stupid question,but how do you work out word problems in maths?.i keep losing marks in those type of questions

I tend to write down the values in the question. So if it says starts from rest in a mechanics problem, I'll write at t=0, u=0 or something similar. And from the information given to me, I can usually figure out how to use the values to solve the question.

And then I glance at the end to determine what form they're asking it in as this can be deceptive.

Reply 4

EssiE34

Original post by rayquaza17

Could you post an example of one of these? :smile:

Redlands school sent x students to a revision day
St samuel's school sent twice as many students as Redlands school
Francis longs school sent 7 fewer students than reslands school

Each student paid £15 for a revision day
The students paid a total of £1155

Work out how many students were sent by each school to the revision day.

Its a bit long but yeah,i didnt know how to solve this

Reply 5

maggiehodgson

Original post by EssiE34

What you could do would be replace x by a number of your choice, say 13. Then decide what you would do

redlands sent 13
Samuels sent 26 (13 times 2)
francis sent 6 (13 - 7)

all together that is 13 + 13times2 + 13-7

but it wasn't 13 it was x so replace 13 by x

i.e. x + 2x + x-7 = 4x-7

Total payment = 15(4x-7) etc

Does that help at all?

Reply 6

EssiE34

Original post by maggiehodgson

That gives u 60x-105
Do you divide by £1155?
60x-105=1155
60x=1260
X=21
So redland sent 21 students
Samuels sent 42 students
Francis sent 14 students
Is that correct?

(edited 8 years ago)

Reply 7

Zacken

Original post by EssiE34

That gives u 60x-105
Do you divide by £1155?
60x-105=1155
60x=1260
X=21
So redland sent 21 students
Samuels sent 42 students
Francis sent 14 students
Is that correct?

Looks fine, yeah.