breakfast rebate

[Gumby]

I can't believe you guys are even debating this.

350 it is.
full stop. period. finito. end of story.

(took me a minute but I only got 97%, so Wongo is better at maths than me )

[SPIRIT]

Now Gumby lets not bring the debate to are you always write and haveing the last say in the matter

[Gingermick]

We're not debating the answer. but the question gumbo

[SPIRIT]

as my 11yo will take up the battle when he get home

[Wongo]

My final high school maths 2 (maths C now i think) exam was more focused on integral calculus than oddly formatted algebra.

Yeah but no but. It doesn't mean you don't need to know you algebra well.

[Gumby]

Now Gumby lets not bring the debate to are you always write and haveing the last say in the matter

Why not? It's a fitting conclusion.

[SPIRIT]

sorry gumby my theard you cant have the last word
got to go and pick the chilins up

[Wood Borer]

Wongo I agree with you that the answer is 350.

You must read the question carefully. Perhaps the question is a bit difficult for all but the top students aged 11 however this is a maths competition. It is designed for the top competitors.

Students who are more into reading poetry or playing sport might all agree on the wrong answer big deal, they are still wrong. They can come up with all the excuses and all agree these excuses are valid but they are still wrong.

Didn’t everyone except Copernicus think the earth was flat once upon a time?

If you took a survey today, people would say the earth was almost spherical. Could the majority from either era prove their answers? I suggest not.

I suggest that the world might be a better place if ignorant people butted out of things they clearly don’t understand and or are incapable of understanding. If they want to participate in those decisions or activities then take steps to understand the matter at hand rather than criticise those who do understand the topic.

I guess I shouldn’t have drawn politics into this.

[Chesand]

I'm just glad they're not building my house

So am I

[Chesand]

man you are old its called VCE now

When I did it it was called Matric and I don't remember my mark.

[Burnsy]

I work in a low demographic school so we are not always up there when it comes to academics but here is what happened. 26 kids (top maths group in the 6/7 classes) 5 kids had the right dimentions within 4 minutes, only one managed to convert this to an area within the 6 minute time frame. Another four had it by ten minutes with a few more having the right dimentions by this time. That is where we stopped to discuss the process. Turns out three had got the 500 square cm answer, not because they misinterpreted the english to mean the length of the rectangle is longer than the width but because they got to "The length of the rectangle is 25 cm" and though too easy, I can do this and went off to solve the problem.

It is also interesting that the 5 kids that got the correct length and width within 4 minutes also thought they had finished as they had not continued reading on to actually find out what the question was, they just assumed they needed to find the length and width.

Note that none in the class read "the length of the rectangle is 25cm more than the width" as being "the length of the rectangle is 25cm which is longer than the width".

Kids loved doing it though

[rat52]

I once had to do a aptitude test in applying for a job and the interviewer gave me a sheet of 60 y/n questions to complete in 60 seconds with the instructions to not worry and just do the best I could.

Being of a perverse and backward nature I started over the page at No 60 which read "Put your name at the top of the page and ignore the rest of the questions".

I don't know what it proved but the interviewer said I was the only person he had ever had get it right.

[silentC]

Excellent!

So what's the next class? Let's see if we can cook up another experiment in child psychology

[Gingermick]

I suggest that the world might be a better place if ignorant people butted out of things they clearly don’t understand and or are incapable of understanding. If they want to participate in those decisions or activities then take steps to understand the matter at hand rather than criticise those who do understand the topic.

Your not a diplomat are you?

The length of the rectangle is 25 cm" and though too easy

I too read the length is 25 and thought, easy the answers 500. I'd lost many a mark at uni for not reading the question fully.
But blitzed my high school maths (like wongo) because we had to solve alpha-numeric equations and not read questions. Thats one of the reasons i still have communication problems.

[Wongo]

That is the “trick questions” I was talking about. I proves nothing whatsoever.

rat52, well done to you though.