Problem Solving

We all want a simple life, where calculations are written out ready for us to solve. There are three questions, designed to break up a big question into small calculations:

What is the question asking you to do?

Sometimes it is easy to figure out what the question is asking, sometimes not. Read the question carefully to make sure your final answer is what is being asked for.

What information do we need?

Go through the question, picking out the parts that help us get to the answer. You may find highlighting relevant parts helpful or it may be useful to write out the key pieces of information.

What maths can we do?

If the question has a rectangle, ask yourself whether finding the area of the rectangle may be helpful. If the question states a fraction and an amount, it may give you marks for finding the fraction of the amount. Sadly, student are sometimes 'put off' these problem solving questions because they feel they cannot get to the answer. Most of the marks will be for the working out, not the answer.