What's the best way to "attack" (or solve) word problems step-by-step?

Question

I'm doing this for a school project. I'm not really good at word problems but then my teacher assigned this to me because all the other topics were already taken.

Any help would be appreciated.

Answer 1

Maybe the best way is to break it down, step-by-step, into an algebraic formula as you go through the problem. Each time a magnitude or action is said, put down the math equivalent for it.

for example: "Lisa Lilly was the best runner in the eighth grade. One day she ran 100m in 40 seconds, 200m in 1 minute and 10 seconds, and 200m over low hurdles in one and a half minutes. How many more seconds did it take her to run the 200m over low hurdles then it did to run the 200m dash?"

Ok. 100m in 40 seconds; that's 200m in 80 seconds. Then, 200m in 1 minute, 10 seconds (or, 70 sec). And the low hurdles one and a half minutes (or, 90 sec.) A simple problem, but I hope that helps to illustrate what I mean.

Answer 2

THe way I taught my kids that had trouble with this was to
1 read the entire problem
2 read the sentence that ends in a question mark twice... so

If the ratio of boys to girls in the class is 5 to 3, and there are 27 girls, how many boys are in the class?
How many boys are in the class
How many boys are in the class

5 boys x
______ _____


3 girsl 27 girls


Ihope this helps

Answer 3

First of all, write down what they are asking in an equation form. They will usually put in useless information, so just look for what you need to answer the question. Once you have written out the numbers in the equation, solve it like any other problem.