
Solving A Wordy Maths Problem In An Easy Way
When someone hears the word mathematics, it brings a lot of complex equations in one’s mind. Mathematical questions are somehow very difficult, and when one finds it difficult to understand the demand of the question, there comes the problem.
Do you think mathematics is a difficult subject to understand?
The answer to this question is yes because mathematics consists of a wide range of concepts, equations, formulas, and figures. We get stuck at the calculations aspect and we start to think about how to solve maths problems.
Dealing with maths problems is not easy, especially for those who are newly learning the basics of maths. They need to translate the english sentence and words into mathematics and this leads to frustrating them.
In this blog, we will be talking about how to solve maths word problems in an easy way. The step by step guide to solving maths word problems .
Reasons Why Maths Is Important
The importance of maths is extremely underrating. Most people believe that it is something too difficult to understand or they think it is not require. The reasons or the benefits are listed below;
- Maths improves your memory
- Maths is an art
- Maths will help you in your career
- Maths gives you analytical skills
- Maths makes things easier
- Maths has practical uses
- Maths improves how our brains works
- Maths helps us to understand numbers better
- Maths is a necessity in our everyday lives
Top Tips For Solving Maths Word Problems
As your maths skills advance, you will begin to face a lot of word maths problems. Mostly, these problems contain additional information that is not needed in order to solve the problem. These problems test your maths skills, and your logic as well as attention and your reading comprehension. Attempting these questions involves the same way you will follow to solve the problem. Here are the tips to solve maths word problems;
- Understanding the problem
Understanding the problem has the following steps to solve maths word problems.
- Be organised.
Maths problems can be confusing, so I need to face them with an organised work space and mind. Write your own numbers and words clearly.
It might be helpful to you to box out a work space where you will do your calculations. Then, write any information or conclusions in a different box where you have to keep them organised. Using bubble maps and tables can be helpful in solving maths word problems.
- Reading the entire problem
Don’t think that, you know what the problem is asking from you. Wordy maths problems can be very confusing, and if you don’t read all of the information given in the question, you can easily be tricked.
- Read slowly
Sometimes, the information given in the question may be relevant or not relevant so by reading the problem will let you know what the problem is demanding. Stop after you read each piece of information to fully understand what you have read and try to analyse it.
- Finding the question
Locate what the problem is demanding from you after reading the problem carefully. Underline the question so that you can easily refer back to it when working through the question.
- Cross out unnecessary information
This will make the steps and the information that you need to solve the problem easier for you. For problems that are very difficult, you are entitled to come across information that is not require for answering the question required. You have to re-read the problem and understand what the question is asking.
- Underline the important information
For you to solve what is expects from you, you have to underline the important part of the sentence in order to make the problem very easy to solve. You can also reframe or rewrite the problem to make it more easier and understandable.
- Drawing a picture
Visualisation of what is happening in the problem is one best way that leads to maths problem solving. Draw a diagram or picture that shows the unknown information. This will help us with which information is not known, and the step to be taking to find the information.
- Clearly label your diagrams and graphs
You have to check the graph against the word problem to understand how each piece of information is represented in the graph. If diagrams and graphs are includes with the problem, they will already be labeled. Make sure you understand every piece of information in the problem.
- Solving The Problem
Talking about solving the problem is another tip to follow to solve maths word problems. Here are some steps to follow in solving the problem;
3. Look for key phrase and keywords
Specifically, keywords can give you some tips about which pattern to use to solve the problem. Selecting the key phrase and keywords in the problem given will help you translate the written words into maths.
4. Assign variables to unknown information
A variable can be any symbol or letter to help identify information. When a problem is asking for an equation, you might have multiple unknown problems and therefore multiple variables in it. Identifying these will help you to solve the problem easily.
5. Checking your work
You should put back the values of the variables into the equation to check that your answer is correct or not. If your answer is not correct, you have to follow all the steps again to check where you were wrong.
Conclusion
I hope in this blog, you have been able to learn how to maths word problems efficiently, how to analyse your problem and solve them step by step as it has been states above. It will be good if you patiently do your calculations and not be frustrate. Try to do a lot of practice and play with the words and terms.
Here, we have provided in the above tips on how to solve word maths problems without any confusion. You just need to think about the question given and which formula you need to use to solve a particular question.