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Totally agree on the importance of reasoning. Word problems though are often hated because they're so ambiguous in unintentional ways that don't really relate
by thraxil 11y ago
Totally agree on the importance of reasoning.
Word problems though are often hated because they're so ambiguous in unintentional ways that don't really relate to the problem. Eg, in the middle school example on the page, when it says "She makes $4.40" do they mean net or gross? In this case, it turns out that only one of those gives you an integer answer, so you can work out what they meant, but it's not uncommon to see problems where that's not the case and you're stuck making a 50/50 guess. With the current emphasis on test scores, that adds a lot of stress.
- bsder 11y ago> Word problems though are often hated because they're so ambiguous in unintentional ways that don't really relate to the problem. Statistical analysis helps this dramatically. I remember all of the SAT prep books I used to have. I could never score much better than just very good. Never understood what the problem was. Then I got actual SAT's from previous years. Perfect scores, no problem. The difference was that the SAT questions had been vetted by statistical analysis. Any question that was ambiguous was removed or reworded.