Anonymous wrote:My kid learn this in first grade as she spent every waking hour after school working through IXL through 4th grade.

That's a lot of screen time. Ixl is also multiple choice so there is no way to know if she truly understands the concept.

My kid learn this in first grade as she spent every waking hour after school working through IXL through 4th grade.

Anonymous wrote:They certainly should not need a calculator for that in fifth or middle school if allowed pencil and paper. Or were the calculator-suggesting posters kidding? Sometimes it's hard to tell.

Middle school math teacher here.

Waste of time to do this with pencil and paper. I do not care if they can hand multiply large numbers by this point. 162^2 is absolutely a calculator question at this point.

They certainly should not need a calculator for that in fifth or middle school if allowed pencil and paper. Or were the calculator-suggesting posters kidding? Sometimes it's hard to tell.

my 8 yo can do this without calculator.


OP, what is the point of this question?
Different kids have different abilities. Are you trying to keep up with the Joneses?

Anonymous wrote:There's no good reason to ask kids in 5th grade to square 162 (especially without a calculator). It's not a hard calculation of course but in 5th grade I'd rather see a smaller number being squared.

But otherwise it is a fine problem for 5th or 6th grade. Certainly not too hard.

I wouldn't expect it in 4th grade unless it was an accelerated class.

I sure hope calculators are allowed.

This problem requires order of operations, not just exponents. Students need to know to first square 162 and then multiply by 10 before adding the first 10.
So that is 6th grade, although in some places it may be presented in fifth with mastery of these concepts expected in 6th.

6th grade under the Common Core standards:

CCSS.Math.Content.6.EE.A.1
Write and evaluate numerical expressions involving whole-number exponents.

In the state of Virginia, that would be a sixth grade problem. Exponents first show up in the standards at grade 6:

http://www.doe.virginia.gov/testing/sol/standards_docs/mathematics/2009/stds_math6.pdf

There's no good reason to ask kids in 5th grade to square 162 (especially without a calculator). It's not a hard calculation of course but in 5th grade I'd rather see a smaller number being squared.

But otherwise it is a fine problem for 5th or 6th grade. Certainly not too hard.

I wouldn't expect it in 4th grade unless it was an accelerated class.

The major skills & concepts there are exponents and order of operations... 5th grade, towards the beginning of the year I think.

My DD is doing that type of question right now in 5th.

Exponents are the beginning of 5th.

I'll go 5th.

In what grade would this be taught:

10 + 162^2 x 10 =