world's top ten primary school test questions

[buzzkoony]

the first question from japan, how to understand the question ? and the 882 picture. :?

[Coke Chan]

I did a readup on the Internet - it has something to do with this method in the youtube video, matching intersection points to the number.


[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_AJvshZmYPs][/youtube]

[swiftdad]

I have teacher friends in the UK. They have also thought that the Western curriculum for early maths tends to be more direct and 'verbiage'-based (wordy), while the Asian curriculum tends to train cognitive skills e.g. pattern matching, open-ended thinking at early stages and thus, it reflects the difference in the flavour and style of questions in that list of primary school maths questions posted.


In fact, UK is now trying to embed the Asian curriculum/textbooks, largely from China and Singapore, into their maths curriculum. So a reverse of influence, from the UK's influence of GCE on Singapore and now, Singapore 'kiasu' education back to them - irony!

Coke Chan:

world's top ten primary school test questions
https://mathsloth.com/blog/2017/08/worldtop10elementarymathsqns.html

i feel the USA and UK test questions should be doable by kids.. but the Hong Kong and China questions are a bit too tough for young children, supposedly for P1 admission :yikes:

[swiftdad]

Okay, lazy sat afternoon, so tried the 10 questions in the link with my DD twins at P3. Combined, we did 6 out of 10. The ones we could not solve were (qn 4) HK P1, (qn 7) the famous SG problem, (qn China P1 and (qn 10) Preschool (?).


Although my P3s solved (qn 6) China P1, I find it interesting as it requires some serious deduction:
AB + AB = BCC - What numbers do A, B, C represent ?

- First of all, child needs to assume A, B, C are single digits.
- Then, child must deduce the sum of 2 two-digit numbers < 200, suggesting that B = 1 or B = 0.
- If B is 0, then the answer is C = 0 and A = 0 (unlikely).
- So, B should be 1, which implies C = 2, which implies AB + AB = 122, which implies AB = 61 and thus A=6.
There's quite some deductive skill to be expected from China P1 students!

[Coke Chan]

thanks, swiftdad - your solution breakdown is good!


I haven't actually got down to try all the questions myself or with DD - just trying to see whether there are similar questions out there on the Internet. The qn 7 SG maths problem you mentioned has been tackled by some of the parents in this forum ( check out https://www.kiasuparents.com/kiasu/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=88956. But i think there is no conclusion answer yet.

I actually prefer the the open-ended Asian questions than the Us/uk questions, as they challenge some out-of-box thinking for the child in a way that it should not always require a formula to solve a maths problem. These questions encourages some observation, deducing and figuring out of the problem pattern before deciding on a solution. A formula is only a technique to achieve the solution.

[swiftdad]

i see.. unfortunately, since no answer to learn from !


agree - maths is only a tool for problem solving. if we focus only on using the 'hammer', then we may end up treating everything like 'nails'.

Coke Chan:

thanks, swiftdad - your solution breakdown is good!

I haven't actually got down to try all the questions myself or with DD - just trying to see whether there are similar questions out there on the Internet. The qn 7 SG maths problem you mentioned has been tackled by some of the parents in this forum ( check out https://www.kiasuparents.com/kiasu/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=88956. But i think there is no conclusion answer yet.

I actually prefer the the open-ended Asian questions than the Us/uk questions, as they challenge some out-of-box thinking for the child in a way that it should not always require a formula to solve a maths problem. These questions encourages some observation, deducing and figuring out of the problem pattern before deciding on a solution. A formula is only a technique to achieve the solution.

[Coke Chan]

my ans so far:

1. 21 x 42 = 882
2. (c) 60 - seems a lot easier than i tot.. wonder why it's in the list. any catch ?
3. 65 - not sure any catch
4. 55
5. (j) 14
6. A=6, B=1, C=2 (see swiftdad post)
7. dunno - https://www.kiasuparents.com/kiasu/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=88956
8. not yet solve
9. 87
10. not yet solve

[swiftdad]

btw, China qn 8 .. just discovered the answer (not by me), works by cycling the numbers incrementally..

1 + 2 + 6 + 1 = 10
8 + 1 + 2 + 8 + 1 = 20
5 + 1 + 8 + 5 + 1 + 8 = 28
7 + 5 + 4 + 7 + 5 + 4 + 7 = x ( x= 39 )
5 + 7 + y + 5 + 7 + y + 5 + 7 = 87 ( y = 25.5 )

Coke Chan:

my ans so far:
1. 21 x 42 = 882
2. (c) 60 - seems a lot easier than i tot.. wonder why it's in the list. any catch ?
3. 65 - not sure any catch
4. 55
5. (j) 14
6. A=6, B=1, C=2 (see swiftdad post)
7. dunno - https://www.kiasuparents.com/kiasu/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=88956
8. not yet solve
9. 87
10. not yet solve

[Coke Chan]

Thanks - brrilliant answer ! Let me update my ans.. 2 left... :scratchhead: :frustrated:


1. 21 x 42 = 882
2. (c) 60 - seems a lot easier than i tot.. wonder why it's in the list. any catch ?
3. 65 - not sure any catch
4. 55
5. (j) 14
6. A=6, B=1, C=2 (see swiftdad post)
7. :frustrated: NOT SOLVED https://www.kiasuparents.com/kiasu/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=88956
8. x=39, y= 25.5 (see above)
9. 87
10. :frustrated: NOT SOLVED