Any tips of solving the word problems?

Question

I always have trouble solving word problems. It's not as though I'm terrible in English, but I just happen to do not so well since I'm overwhelmed and panicking during the test.

Could you give me an advice in solving word problems? How do you know what they are asking, which information given you use, etc.

Answer 1

Word problems have got to be some of the toughest things in math simply because you have to decide what info is important and what is worthless. I find them easiest to solve when you take away all the unnecessary information. Take an easy example like this:

Jack had 3 apples and Tina had 5. Jonathan had 2 apples and 4 oranges. They combined their apples together. How many apples did they have?

Start by clearing away all the unnecessary info--you don't need to know the names of the people in this problem, so you can eliminate those completely. No more Jack, Tina, or Jonathan--just the numbers of apples each one had. You also don't need to know about the 4 oranges, because the question asks about apples.

Now that the problem's been cleared up a bit, see if it makes more sense

3 apples, 5 apples, 2 apples. How many are there together?

The problem is asking for a total, so you obviously add all of the apples together to get 10 apples total.

An easy example, I know, but I hope it helps at least a little bit. A few tips on how to solve word problems:

--Typically, you can eliminate names as unnecessary information; unless the problem specifically asks how much a certain person has or something like that, then you don't need to tkonw names.
--Try to find out what the question is asking. Sometimes it'll be the last sentence, sometimes they'll stick it in the middle of the question. Look for words like "total" or "difference" to determine what the problem is looking for ("total" would mean add, "difference" would mean subtract, etc.)
--Find similarities between information; don't use the number of oranges if the problem specifically asks about apples. Don't count cows if the problem asks for a total of sheep. You can usually (not always, especially not on trickier problems) eliminate information that isn't related to the rest of the givens.
--Draw it out. It sounds kind of dumb, but give it a shot some time. It might help if you can visualize what the problem says instead of trying to just solve it using pure mental knowledge.

Hope the tips help, and good luck!

Answer 2

I'm not so good at tip-giving, but I'll try to give a bit..

Some teachers say always read the problem VERY carefully. You never know what you might miss.

When you find What the question is asking, find How to do it, and find What you need to do it. And make SURE that you have the right information. I've missed questions before because of that.

Then, solve the problem, doing equations with careful awareness, because you can always make a careless mistake when you don't intend to.

Also, I think sometimes teachers say not to get panicked because panic and rushing through work definitely CAN help you get careless.

I don't know whether you already knew all of this, but if you did, sorry for telling you what you already know. This is just a general word problem process.

Answer 3

I hope this helps:
1. Break up the problem into sentences when u read them, dont try to take in the entire question in one go. pause and understand when u find it difficult.
2. make a note of what is given, what is missing and the formulae u can think of. doin this will eliminate the unnecessary words and get u straight to the question.
3. if u find it difficult still, or cant really take what is given, then try finding an example to that problem.
like:
if three bells toll at 7 minutes, 3 minutes and 9 minutes each, when will they toll together if they start together?
the problem seems tough at first shot. but try generating an example,
say the intervals are 2 and 4 minutes, then when will they strike together? at the 4th minute? how did we get this? the Least common multiple..
same way, for the original problem, its goin to be LCM of 7,3,9
so thats at the 63rd minute.
Given data: 3,7,9
needed: LCM
solving: 3->3 7-.7 9->3*3
so thats: 7 * 3*3 = 63!
hope this helps.. good luck!

Answer 4

Typical word problems in Algebra 1 consist of 1 or 2 sentences which give you information, one of which is the basic equation, and 1 sentence which asks the question. The key (which I didn't GET until I had to teach it to 8th graders) is just to translate the sentence with the equation AS LITERALLY AS POSSIBLE into algebra.

Example:

Joe is 5 years younger than Mary. The sum of their ages is 30. How old is Mary?

You can use either of the 1st 2 sentences as your equation, 2nd is easier:

J + M = 30

So use the 1st sentence to replace J with M-5, and get

M-5 + M = 30
2M - 5 = 30
2M = 35
M = 17 1/2.

Most word problems don't waste time giving you information you don't need.

Answer 5

Often the last sentence is what is being asked. How many miles did John run? What was Elmo's rate? etc

I always use a chart to input given values, I asign variables for the unknown values and this is what everyone is doing, with or without a chart

Answer 6

read each statisitical (numbers and altercations) phrase
and list them one by one. Then read what they are looking for. Use the information given to you by the phrases.