Lately, there’s been this loud commotion spilled over to the forum section of the TODAY newspapers. Naturally, I avoid the straits times but this time, I managed to spot an article on the ‘difficulty’ of the PSLE mathematics paper.
I have to admit, I’m rusty with model diagrams and mental/finger arithmetic, but still, these questions are extremely manageable within 10 minutes, even with the methods employed by students in the primary level.
The problem I see is that those crying students have difficulty thinking on their feet or to reinterpret slightly (only slightly) unorthodox questions. Formula doesn’t always work. Brute-force is not possible without a calculator, so what do you do? Think, obviously!
The first question is certainly a no-brainer. Simple model question which shouldn’t need more explanation than a line: 3 units = 156 – 72, leading to the final answer, 44 kg.
The second question is still a simple model question, just differently worded. It shouldn’t even need a line but for the sake of solving this, 7 units – 6 units = 112 chairs. 14 units = 112 ⨉ 14 = 1568 chairs.
The third question is equally simple. It just required thinking! I solved it by finding the initial volume of tank A. Since the breadths of the tanks are identical, why not just push them together and assume them to be one tank? So, the height can be derived by dividing the volume by the area [(50 cm + 70 cm) ⨉ 40 cm]. Cancel things off and you get easy to manage small numbers, with 25 cm as the height.
And, I have no comments for the retired teacher.
Still, to the students who ended up crying, please learn to take failures in stride.
22 October, 2007 at 11:04 pm |
lol, these are 12 year olds mind you, the SAT math components are so much easier, and yet they are taken by grade 12/13s?
it’s not a fair comparison either, ST that is, to cite a 60 year old ex-teacher in contrast to students, the syllabus now has certainly evolved a lot compared to last time.
and i’m inclined to believe the second question is somewhat flawed, plus i don’t quite understand your solution, you seem to have left the part of “the rest of the chairs are stacked up” out
23 October, 2007 at 2:26 am |
That ex-teacher CMI… i was in the school library today with some other friends, we all could do all three questions under 2 mins (with a GC though lol)
23 October, 2007 at 9:38 am |
The stacked up chairs don’t quite matter. It just shows that 1/14 of the chairs are accounted for but not used in the question.
SAT I maths is a joke; not an appropriate comparison.
23 October, 2007 at 9:47 am |
Hehe, shouldn’t have used the GDC mah, making it more ‘realistic’.
23 October, 2007 at 6:44 pm |
math problems are never a good gauge of intelligence … there’s always this factor called experience :/
23 October, 2007 at 9:34 pm |
More like rote memory.
23 October, 2007 at 11:17 pm |
If we did not use our GC it would add another minute or two for the mental calculations…
But then since the retired teacher said he/she used a calculator and took 19 mins, im guessing we are all over-qualified to teach P6 maths…
24 October, 2007 at 4:47 am |
Well. I totally agree with you. I couldn’t stop laughing when i read that the retired teacher took 19 minutes with a calculator. I took about 5 minutes with pen and paper.
Totally easy and predictable. (Sounds familiar right, “Its SOOOO predictable”)
But I couldn’t help but notice a flaw in the chair question. If you go and check the answer, you will realize that the 6/14 of chairs in rows of 13, there are 672 chairs in rows of 13. This number is not divisible by 13. Of course I’m assuming that they are complete rows.
24 October, 2007 at 4:51 am |
Oh. Happy Belated Mole Day to you.
24 October, 2007 at 5:06 pm |
Yeah, you’re right. It could have been a trickier question.
So now, we can only doubt the source. 