In today’s blog post, we will assess different types of math questions, as well as providing advice on answering them.
Multi-Step Mental Math Problems
Mental math questions can be a source of confusion and difficulty, especially when it comes to multi-step mental math problems. This is something that was definitely reinforced by the statistics that were drawn from the exam bodies in regard to math results. Read on for more information about this.
While questions change from year to year, the same type of questions feature in school math papers. This is why it is important to look at areas where children have struggled so that you can get your child to focus on these areas when practicing math questions.
A good example of this is in a 2016 paper, where a lot of children struggled with Question 4 on Paper 3 for their Math KS2 test. This was a mental math question, which required four steps. Viewed individually, the steps were very simple. However, the question perplexed many students last year, with a lot of children getting it incorrect.
The likely reason why so many failed to get the question right is that they did not take all of the four steps that were stated. The best way to ensure your child is prepared for questions like this is to present math questions in innovative and new ways so that they have experience in dealing with questions that may be presented in a daunting or different way.
Of course, you can’t show your child every single type of question, but by exposing them to a greater variety of question types, you encourage them to apply diverse strategies and skills. Puzzles can be a fun way to help with this, such as https://www.pennydellpuzzles.com/sudoku/subscriptions/ and other types of math puzzles.
What Sort Of Questions Can You Expect From An Arithmetic Test?
We are going to take a look at taking an arithmetic paper in further detail so that you know what to expect.
An arithmetic paper is designed to test your number and calculation skills. Some of the maths questions will test your use of calculation methods, others will require you to know some number facts, for example, multiplication tables. It is a good idea to practice with past math papers so that you can get familiar with the sort of questions you will be asked.
The questions will get more difficult as you turn the pages. Start questions include the likes of 869 + 200 and 56 divided by 8. More challenging questions may be something along the lines of 2/4 + 6/8 or 1971 divided by 27. You will notice that there are two marks available for multiplication and division questions. It is important to show your working out when doing these questions. If the final answer is incorrect, but you have followed the correct method, you will still get a point.
To conclude, math papers test a range of skills, so preparation is key.
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