> I don't need algebra for 2 of those. All of these are literally the sorts of things you'd find on homework assignments and final exams in a community college

> I don't need algebra for 2 of those. All of these are literally the sorts of things you'd find on homework assignments and final exams in a community college algebra course... You do need algebra, and don't realize how difficult this "trivial" algebra is for some students because you can do it without even realizing you're doing it. I mean, there will be some FOIL and quadratic equation examples as well. And a bunch of stuff in-between like identifying graphs of functions. But CC Algebra is super bimodal, so it's probably not the case that students are nailing these word problems and only failing with the other stuff.