3 Problem Sums Skills Proven to Improve Maths Scores
Problem sums can be a major challenge for students. The first impression a student may get when seeing a problem sum is a feeling of overwhelm. Lengthy story-like question that includes fractions, percentage and ratio appears to confuse the student.
Actual Problem Sums from Red Swastika School
Ali had 4 times as many marbles as Jun Hao. After Ali gave 54 marbles to Jun Hao, they had the same number of marbles. How many marbles does each of them have now?
[Video Tutorial at bottom of page]
Problem Sum Skill #1 ANALYSE
To overcome the Problem Sums challenge, let's discuss the actual Problem Sums above. We encourage students to adopt the R.H.M.C. approach to each problem sum.
Read Twice.
Read the question once to get a general idea of what the question is about.
Reading it twice will allow the student to break down the questions into smaller bite size while reading and subsequently allow for the selecting of key words which brings us to the next step.
Highlight or Underline Key Words
Most words in a problem sums are just noises. Noises that may distract the student from the true signals or keywords that will determine the method used.
For the question on marbles, the following key words are highlighted :
Ali gave 54 marbles to Jun Hao
As you can observe, most of the question have not been highlighted as they are not critical information i.e. they will not affect the method used!!
We placed importance to the statement where an internal transfer took place.
Identifying the method used is crucial and can only come with the understanding of different problem sum types, keywords and their heuristics.
For the above PSLE Problem Sum, a Before and After Heuristic(Total is Same) can be applied.
Why Total is Same? It's because Ali merely gave to Jun Hao. He did not give to any other persons or sold his marbles which means their total marbles must remain the same in the entire question.
Method and Check steps discussed in the next skills.
Problem Sum Skill #2 WRITE STEPS
Before executing the steps, the student must know how to accurately identify the question type and strategy required.
6 common problem solving strategies are given here :
1) Guess & Check, Make a Supposition
2) Model Drawing
3) Listing and Drawing Tables
4) Before and After Concepts
5) Simplifying the Problem
6) Grouping
For the question above, we have identified it to be a Before & After question(Total is Same).
Method (Identify the right concept and write the steps)
Each step carries meaning and should be written with clear labels.
Ensure that all important numbers and details are taken into account.
Check the steps as you are writing.
Problem Sum Skill #3 TIME MANAGEMENT & CHECK
Check
Check the final answer by inserting the final answer into the question and examine if the numbers, ratio, percentage and/or fractions provided in the question matches. Checking helps your child to gain confidence in attempting the other questions.
Remember that checking of answers is a good working habit that needs to be instilled even for your child's daily work in other subjects.
Time each question and do not exceed the time allocated for each question. Many students who underperform for Maths fail to complete the paper. They spend too much time pondering on a small marks' question, leaving behind the questions with more weightage.