Third grade math

[Anonymous]

I swear I'm living an episode of "are you smarter than a fifth grader" here.

dd's math homework has this problem:

Jose buys two pencils for 11 cents each. Mary buys six pencils and gets two pencils for 11 cents. How much more did Mary pay for her pencils than Jose?

The answer, of course, is 11 cents. But I really had to think about it for a couple of seconds. And after I walked DD through why she got the answer wrong, I realized, you're basically answering three equations here and have to be sure you're answering the right question, which is -- what's the delta between Jose's outlay and Mary's outlay? So, I asked DD "how much did Jose spend total?" and she had to think about it. Then I asked "how much did Mary spend?" And, she got that wrong b/c she was tripped up by the "two pencils for 11 cents" aspect. Then it became "what's the difference between what Mary spent and what Jose spent?"

Now, I'm old now and I don't really remember 3rd grade, but this seems like rather sophisticated math. What am I in for in the coming grades? Is it time for me to go back to remedial math too? The good news is, this stuff is kind of fun.

[Anonymous]

That's the thing about word problems - students usually want to rush to plug in the numbers given into an equation and solve. This problem is good because it is making the student stop and really think about what information they have and what the question is asking.

[Anonymous]

Is this problem worded well? I wouldn't think so. It would be clearer to switch the order of the 2nd sentence, maybe? I had to read it a few times to understand the problem.

[Anonymous]

i have had the same issue with 3rd grade word problems. i don't think they are meant to be that tricky. i just think the wording is off, as if they are poorly translated from another language.

[Anonymous]

That question is poorly worded. It should say, "Mary buys 6 pencil and the price is 2 for 11 cents" or something along those lines.

[Anonymous]

could this have been translated from Japanese/Chinese?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:That question is poorly worded. It should say, "Mary buys 6 pencil and the price is 2 for 11 cents" or something along those lines.

I didn't understand the problem until I read this person's suggestion. That was a terribly worded question!

[Anonymous]

Really - this question is terrible. If I was a kid I'd write that it depends on what Mary paid for the other 4 pencils!

[Anonymous]

my 3rd grade son came home with a word problem that i swear required an x and y unknown--it brought back the joy of algebra to me. he had no idea what to do with it, but i sure had fun plugging in numbers and solving for x, and then y.

he is in AAP and the problem was from a list of challenging problems he gets occasionally--so not really expected to get it fully

but have seen his regular word problems. they are poorly written often but nicely challenging too