Poorly designed Math questions misconstrued as tricky

[corneyAmber]

I am always happy to solve challenging Math questons as I enjoy Math alot throughout my academic years. :love:


However, in recent years as I get more involved in my child's syllabus, I find that teachers are probably so pressured to set challenging questions that under pressure, some questions became absurd instead of challenging.

I am starting this post to collect the examples in the hope that Math teachers reading this thread will refrain from setting such questions. Or it is an issue of ensuring better vetting/proof-reading by another teacher before releasing the questions as exam questions. As it is, the children are already stressed by the challenging questions so they don't need to be baffled by such questions.

Some of the questions are coming from those top schools papers and may have been tampered with markings that are not original. Should I have mistaken any question to be poorly designed, I hereby apologise first, WYSIWYG.....

Maybe I am the one who is wrong....if so, I also want to find out why I am wrong, I humbly learn.

[corneyAmber]

Example 1:


http://i724.photobucket.com/albums/ww246/ks2me/P1020339-1.jpg\">

Can you solve this?

What is wrong?

[corneyAmber]

Example 2:


http://i724.photobucket.com/albums/ww246/ks2me/P1020340-1.jpg\">

Can you solve this?

What is wrong?

[mrswongtuition]

ksi:

Example 1:


http://i724.photobucket.com/albums/ww246/ks2me/P1020339-1.jpg\">

Can you solve this?

What is wrong?

What is wrong with this question?
The drawing was not clear. The vendor who photocopied this paper did not erase the lines which are drawn in by the child who did the paper.
They did erase some lines and did not draw it back too.

[mrswongtuition]

ksi:

Example 2:


http://i724.photobucket.com/albums/ww246/ks2me/P1020340-1.jpg\">

Can you solve this?

What is wrong?

I think it's perfectly fine.
Pictures are not drawn to scale simply means that the children should not use their visual abilities to judge which 'route' is nearer. They should calculate both routes (either visit elephant first or deer first), then make a decision on which route is shorter (the shortest distance).

You will encounter more of this 'Not Drawn To Scale' thing in upper primary (angles and geometry).

[corneyAmber]

Thanks mrswong for your feedback but \"Not drawn to scale\" is one thing, this is an IMPOSSIBLE diagram. It is not about visual, it is about illogical. It is hard for me to accept illogical things in Math question.


I can accept in geometry questions that some triangles look as if they are right angles but they are actually not. In this case, we should not use visual to act as protractor and make wrong assumption. This geometry example is a good example of one should not use visual.

However, in this diagram, it is not about visual, the principle is wrong!! :lol:

[joconde]

ksi:

Or it is an issue of ensuring better vetting/proof-reading by another teacher before releasing the questions as exam questions.

Once I spotted an error in my son's math test question. When I checked with the math teacher, she replied that she's aware of the error, and has informed the HOD. However, they left the question as it is simply because it was extracted (without any alteration) from an exam paper of exterior source.

I was totally bewildered and ask her : if teachers expect pupils to make corrections and learn from mistakes, shouldn't they set a good example themselves ??

[corneyAmber]

joconde:

ksi:

Or it is an issue of ensuring better vetting/proof-reading by another teacher before releasing the questions as exam questions.

Once I spotted an error in my son's math test question. When I checked with the math teacher, she replied that she's aware of the error, and has informed the HOD. However, they left the question as it is simply because it was extracted (without any alteration) from an exam paper of exterior source.

I was totally bewildered and ask her : if teachers expect pupils to make corrections and learn from mistakes, shouldn't they set a good example themselves ??

Thanks for sharing. I have vetted Math questions set by teachers for games and they are full of errors due to pressure. I do not expect teachers to be perfect as they are also human. In this case, my role as a vetter was so important otherwise the questions could not be solved and the game could not be played. So I am not expecting teachers to be saints but I hope they can proof-read and vet properly before releasing them to the children, follow a good ISO process for exams. It really saves everyone alot of headache at the end of the day.

[Brenda10]

Maths questions are never being so straight forward nowadays. We can see the hotter topics and help that rose in this forum most of the time are all maths related questions. FYI, we spend most of the time practicing the maths questions compare to other 3 subjects.

[corneyAmber]

mrswongtuition:

ksi:

Example 1:


http://i724.photobucket.com/albums/ww246/ks2me/P1020339-1.jpg\">

Can you solve this?

What is wrong?

What is wrong with this question?
The drawing was not clear. The vendor who photocopied this paper did not erase the lines which are drawn in by the child who did the paper.
They did erase some lines and did not draw it back too.

FYI, the pencil lines were drawn by my poor child who was trying to figure out what kind of outer space question was this??

The drawing was with a face with broken lines and curves. Can you solve it with the given 4 choices?