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Solving Math Story Problems
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| “The value of a problem is not so much coming up with the answer as in the ideas and attempted ideas it forces on the would be solver” – I.N. Herstein |
| Math is Important in Practical Life! |
| As a child when we learn Math, we sometimes do so without realizing its practical applications. That’s why we are perfectly happy mastering basic skills such as addition or multiplication. Just as we get comfortable with these concepts, we are introduced to wordy math problems where we are expected to understand the English, create the mathematical problem, show the logic, solve the question, and express the answer in a form that’s related to the original problem! |
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And the first reaction usually is one of resistance! Why solve math story problems when we already know basic math? The reason is simply because math story problems enable us to understand the practical applications of math in our daily lives. Understanding and calculating store discounts, properly comparing prices of different items in stores, computing restaurant tips and splitting costs amongst friends all require a practical understanding of math – a skill that is built through story problems. |
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| Strategies for Solving Math Story Problems |
Based on their many years of experience teaching math to children of all ages, here are some suggested strategies by our online math tutors:
- Read the problem at least twice. Recognize what is given and what is the question you are asked to answer. Read it one more time to confirm your understanding.
- Draw a picture if that helps you in visualizing the problem. Mark the things you know and the things you need to find out.
- Think logically about the path to the answer. Usually, there are a few intermediate answers you need to find to reach the final answer.
- Establish relationships between what is given either directly or by using formulae.
- Solve for the intermediate steps that you need to take. Write in English sentences what you are doing. This is the most important step in solving story problems. It helps you in reviewing the question for mistakes and it helps your teacher to follow your reasoning.
- Always write down the units. Ignoring units can result in completely wrong answers even though the reasoning followed is correct.
- Check your answer for common sense. For instance, distance and speed can’t be negative, a father cannot be younger than his child, a younger brother cannot be older than his elder brother, volume or area cannot be negative, and so on.
- Review the steps one more time to look for any step that you may have missed.
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| Regular Practice Can Make Solving Story Problems Easy |
| All math story problems have some common patterns. The best way to become proficient is to practice them more often. Many students find story problems difficult and avoid them instead of practicing more. Other students although willing to practice, don’t know how to obtain access to such problems. |
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One of the best ways to practice math story problems is to sign up with a leading Online Tutoring company such as tutorNEXT. The firm’s expert tutors teach students everyday how to solve math story problems, and have also developed a number of supplementary worksheets and study materials for use during tutoring sessions and for practice afterwards.
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About Author : Anu Bhave is the founder and President at  - an online tutoring and homework help firm that provides very high-quality personalized, convenient, yet highly affordable supplementary education services to K-12 and college students.
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