Simple Arithmetic........

[ToraToraTora]

https://news.sky.com/story/never-mind-a-levels-can-you-pass-these-10-gcse-maths-questions-12779453
...how did you do? Be honest!

[Peter Pedant]

half the country cant do fractions apparently

[Peter Pedant]

oh and around here, when you are short changed in a shop - it really may be the clerk can't count

(" if it is one pence, it is OK otherwise guess" ( what the change is)

[sandyRoe]

I got 5 of them right. Years ago I passed GCSE maths with an A.
I guess I'm a classic case of use it or lose it.

[davebro]

I got full marks! But I don't remember most of the advanced maths I once learned.
In most shops the till tells you how much change to give but it's not really necessary when most transactions are (will be) cash-less.

[Old_Geezer]

Got bored with it half way through. All too easy, and when they start asking questions that aren't clear was was meant, it was time to crash out.

[Old_Geezer]

BTW I'm certain sky asks for cookie permission every time I go there. They don't seem to recall it's essential ones only. Perhaps they think not bothering folk every visit isn't essential.

[ToraToraTora]

they all seem pretty clear to me OG.

[calda49]

Got 8, and I remember the days of Pure Maths as it was called, also did Pure Maths with Mechanics at A level, (although I did not pass that !!)

[ToraToraTora]

They claim they are GCSE questions if so then they are very simple, no wonder there's a problem. These are just simple arithmetic almost no actual maths abilities are needed.

[Ken4155]

I got them all correct - though i must admit that i actually had to draw an 8 x 6 grid as my brain started to nap as i worked it out mentally :-)

[Ken4155]

Still, when i did my CSE Maths, they did encourage us to show our 'workings out' :-))

[Hymie]

Older people like to think that exams in their day were harder than those presented to the youth of today – but can you really get an ‘O’ level in maths answering this level of questions? If this is so, then maybe Sunak is right about teaching the subject until 18.

I took my ‘O’ level maths before calculators were common (or allowed in exams), and I can recall at least two of the questions in my ‘O’ level maths exam, one involved finding the equation to a straight line drawn on a graph, the other was to determine the volume of material forming a length of hollow pipe, truncated at an angle.
The above two questions strike me as being considerably harder that calculating 0.8 x 0.1.

[New Judge]

//Have you got the maths skills of a 16-year-old?//

If these really are to test the maths skills of a 16 year old, this country is in big trouble. For example, Question 5:

//Liam pays £20 for 24 chocolate bars. He sells each of them for £1. How much profit did he make?//

So you have to multiply 24 by one and deduct 20 from the answer. A five year old could do it.

Question 9: you have to multiply 3 by 5 by 4.

I’m with Tora. This is not maths. Most of it is early primary school arithmetic. Possibly questions 1 and 3 may take the level up to about year three or four of primary school – at a stretch.

//I took my ‘O’ level maths before calculators were common (or allowed in exams), and I can recall at least two of the questions in my ‘O’ level maths exam, one involved finding the equation to a straight line drawn on a graph, the other was to determine the volume of material forming a length of hollow pipe, truncated at an angle.//

Indeed, Hymie. For once we sing from the same hymn sheet. Here’s a Maths ‘O’ Level exam paper from 1968:

http://www.burtongrammar.co.uk/category/life-and-times/school-exams/1968-maths-o

Particularly, see the explanatory note at the top:

“If you are slightly confused by the lack of Calculus – there were two Joint Matriculation Syllabuses, ‘A’ and ‘B’. The latter, shown here, was for Secondary Modern schools that allowed GCE examination. Grammar Schools took Syllabus ‘A’ which also included differentiation, integration, curve-fitting and maxima/minima (dy/dx = 0).”

I don’t actually believe the the questions in the quiz are representative of today’s GCSE paper. But nor do I believe that today’s paper would go into anything like the range of topics in the 1968 paper (and bear in mind the example shown is NOT the Grammar School version).

[royfromaus]

I got 11 right.

[New Judge]

And I got five of them right - that's 68% or two-sevenths.

[jno]

10, which means that they're very simple; it's been 60 years or so since I took maths and the syllabus was all changed to new maths after that.

But the questions probably reflect the sort of skills people need from day to day.

[kuiperbelt]

This is more the standard akin to functional skills in maths.
Some of the questions are of benefit to everyday life and it's
sad that some adults have failed to get to grips with this.

It's probably fair to say that at least 50% of what we learn
in school is not relevant to the work place!! I remember reading
Hamlet in English lit. Never once had to call upon it in the
work place but what it did teach me or was certainly instrumental,
it shaped my mind and thought processes to be analytical and
to be critical in my own reasoning!!

For those who say I don't need to know about ionic bonding or
Pythagoras, fair enough. The fact remains O and A levels are
stepping stones we have to tread to fulfill our career ambitions.

[kuiperbelt]

roy>13.14

LOL

[jourdain2]

I got 6, which isn't bad because I was doing them in my head and I've never been taught how to do nos. of choices (which is a bit pointless, you make your choices). A lot of stuff like that is not relevant to ordinary life.

I'm not good at Maths. I'm not proud of that, it's just as it is. I am very good at other things, however. I scraped a pass at 'O' level (JMB) on the 2nd attempt in 1964. It gave me more than enough mathematical ability to cope with life. Areas, percentages, compound interest - even trig.! Most people need no more.

My elder granddaughter 'got her C' a couple of years ago, has waved maths a happy 'bye 'bye and is projected - A* in Eng. Lit.; A* in History and an A in Psychology in this year's A levels. She has enough Maths to handle her life. My grandson may well do more in the maths. area. People are different.

It would have been pure torture and a waste of time to make me take maths. further, I would have resented the time it took away from what I wanted to do. Granddaughter is the same. Her Mum took A level Chemistry, Maths and Further Maths. & read
Chemistry at Durham so g-daughter wasn't unaware of Maths. Her aunt is a Maths Teacher ( which came in handy when she was stuck).

I foresee useless hours wasted by bored and resentful teenagers if this goes through - and more disruption in class. If they haven't learn't decent Arithmetic by 16 yrs. then they're not going to in the next 2 years.

[DTCwordfan]

Did you know that there are three kinds of people in the world? Here they are: people who can count and people who can’t.