{"id":2066,"date":"2021-05-19T06:01:21","date_gmt":"2021-05-19T06:01:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/oryxlearning.com\/company\/?p=2066"},"modified":"2021-05-19T06:01:29","modified_gmt":"2021-05-19T06:01:29","slug":"solving-word-problems-a-fear-or-a-challenge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/oryxlearning.com\/learn\/solving-word-problems-a-fear-or-a-challenge\/","title":{"rendered":"Solving Word problems- A fear or a challenge"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">The most common struggles for math students each year is solving word problems. Students are often perplexed by word problems since the problem does not appear as a ready-to-solve mathematical equation. If you understand the concept, you can solve even the most challenging word problems. Although complexity varies, solving word problems requires a systematic approach that includes defining the problem, collecting relevant data, constructing the equation, solving, and double-checking the work.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong><u><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Step 1: Read the problem\u00a0<\/span><\/u><\/strong><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">It seems so simple, but many students only read a small portion of the problem. Many students predict what the problem is asking and try to solve it before knowing all the facts. Some students find word problems daunting and give up before they even read the problem.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong><u><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Step 2: What is the question? What does the problem want to know?\u00a0<\/span><\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">It&#8217;s challenging to solve a question if you don&#8217;t understand what is being asked. The question usually is found at the end of a problem. For example:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Three friends go to a restaurant and spend $45 on food. The tax on food is 12%. The friends leave a combined $7 tip. How much will each person pay?<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">The problem wants to know &#8220;<\/span><strong><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">how much will each person pay?&#8221;<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><u><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Step 3: Look for key information.\u00a0<\/span><\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">What are the most important parts of information present in the problem?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong><u>Three friends<\/u><\/strong><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">\u00a0go to a restaurant and\u00a0<\/span><strong><u>spend $45<\/u><\/strong><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">\u00a0on food.\u00a0<\/span><strong><u>The tax on food is 12%<\/u><\/strong><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">. The friends leave a combined\u00a0<\/span><strong><u>$7 tip<\/u><\/strong><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">. How much will each person pay?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Highlighting or underlining these main pieces of information is very useful.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong><u><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Step 4: Interpret the mathematical operations.\u00a0<\/span><\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Look for hints on what each clue is asking as you analyze the various clues. For example, the word &#8220;each&#8221; implies that we will most likely need to divide. The term &#8220;combined&#8221; indicates that we are adding.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong><u><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Step 5: Organize the clues<\/span><\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">It is very important to write down and arrange the clues to the problem.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">The clues in our example can be organized as follows:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">($45 for food + 12% tax + $7 tip) \u00f7 3 friends = cost for each friend<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong><u><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Step 6: Solve the problem\u00a0<\/span><\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Once you organize the information, you see that you really only need to find the tax of 12% on the $45 meal. You then find that 12% of $45 is $5.40. After you find the amount of tax, you can now easily solve the problem.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">($45 food) + (12% tax) + ($7 tip) = $45 + $5.40 + $7<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">In this problem, the cost of food, tax, and tip equals $57.40. After you divide $57.40 by 3 (number of friends), you get $19.133\u2026 which is about $19.13 after rounding.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong><u><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Step 7: Check your answer.<\/span><\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Of course, the final step is to double-check your work to see if the answer matches the question asked. We can verify our work mathematically by performing the inverse of the operation we used. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">As difficult as word problems can be for kids, following these easy seven steps can help them better understand how to solve word problems and see beyond the complicated words.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/oryxlearning.com\">Oryx Learning<\/a> has engaging <a href=\"https:\/\/oryxlearning.com\/topics\/maths\/word-problems\">math word problems<\/a> on all important topics from Grade 1 to 8. <a href=\"https:\/\/oryxlearning.com\/topics\/maths\/word-problems\">Try them now for free<\/a> and share with your peers and students.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The most common struggles for math students each year is solving word problems. Students are often perplexed by word problems since the problem does not appear as a ready-to-solve mathematical equation. If you understand the concept, you can solve even the most challenging word problems. Although complexity varies, solving word problems requires a systematic approach [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2022,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[294,2,267],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v17.0 (Yoast SEO v17.6) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Solving Word problems- A fear or a challenge | Oryx Learning<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/oryxlearning.com\/learn\/solving-word-problems-a-fear-or-a-challenge\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Solving Word problems- A fear or a challenge\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The most common struggles for math students each year is solving word problems. Students are often perplexed by word problems since the problem does not appear as a ready-to-solve mathematical equation. If you understand the concept, you can solve even the most challenging word problems. 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