Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Maths Test

There is a link to a shortened version of the Maths test given to 155 Primary School Teachers by the Dispatch Programme here The questions are all reasonably straightforward and are similar to old 11+ ones.

Have a go; you can use pen and paper but not a calculator. The 15 minutes allowed is plenty so take your time, read the questions carefully and watch you don't hit the wrong key by mistake like I did.

It's actually just 14 of the 27 questions they were given, but if the following statistics are correct and you have young children, then it's probably time to panic.

Only 20% could convert a temperature in Centigrade to Fahrenheit, despite being given the formula that links them.

Less than 40% could work out what 2.1% of 400 was

One in three could correctly divide 1.4 by 0.1

If it is true that the kids are getting steadily better at Maths each year as the Government claims, then maybe they need to start helping their teachers a bit.

ps A recently qualified Primary school teacher has just emailed me to say that the average score on the test at her school was 226%

23 comments:

The TEFL Tradesman said...

Six correct from 14 (almost 50%!). Not bad for a guy who failed CSE maths 35 years ago!

Anonymous said...

I'll be a smart-alec & post that I got 100%...and I'm pretty sure I would have scored the same aged 11...

RapidBlue said...

100% but I use this sort of stuff everyday.

I'm sure I would have walked all over this test when I was at school.

But as everything is dumbed down now - no wonder they struggle.

Boy on a bike said...

Well I got 12/14 in 6.5 minutes, and that included one egregious stuff up which I blame on being knackered. I managed to convert 19/16 to 1 5/16ths! Idiot.

Pretty basic stuff really.

Eunoia said...

From out German equivalent of A level physics :

"Given a ball of string, prove that the moon is not made of green cheese" :-)

Yes, it is possible.
Hint: Shiehallion

Anonymous said...

13/14 in 9 minutes. Must also be a test of one's ability to type accurately!

Clearly poor at maths. said...

I don't know how anyone could say this was basic. I scored 6 out of 14 (ran out of time with 3 questions to go).
I didn't understand the temperature equation at all.
I also failed to read one question correctly and entered the fraction rather than the percentage (although my answer was 'right').
Does this mean I'm thick? Maybe.

However I'm guessing that a majoriy of the population would score lower than the primary teachers.

I teach music.

Scott said...

100%, it's nice to know I can do basic arithmetic, considering I'm applying to do a maths degree.

Steve said...

100% here too, and I was sitting on the toilet without a pencil handy. No, I couldn't work it out with a pencil. Did she really say 226%, or was that a typo?

Ole Phat Stu said...

Please see this relevant FAIL :-

http://failblog.org/2010/02/24/its-all-about-bonus-points/

Apart from the split infinitive, their quiz demands over 100% to pass!

Poker Phil said...

Er boy on bike its actually 1 3/16ths and you said it was basic lol

12/14 for me

Considering i will start my secondary PGCE next academic year maybe I should work on those 2 that I dropped.

TonyF said...

12 out of 14 for me too. I had a block converting Centigrade to Fahrenheit. Still and all, I don't use Fahrenheit. The other I got wrong, I misunderstood the question. Honest.

AKM said...

14/14 for me without pen & paper (I just typed my working into the box provided then replaced it all with the correct answer when ready). I would've struggled with the temperature conversions if they hadn't provided the formula though.

Boy on a bike said...

Poker Phil - that's what I meant. I calculated it at 19/16, and then converted 19/16 to 1 5/16 instead of 1 3/16. That's why I went "duh!" It's annoying when you get the tricky bit right and fail on the easy bit!

Anonymous said...

226%.... impossible.

I got two wrong but the rest right, but I had 7 minutes left so multiply by 9/5 and add 32...... hey, guess what!

I got 226% too.... as long as you calculate it in fahrenheit.....

Poker Phil said...

Boy on a bike I apologise. I misread your comment and I was wrong and offer my apology.

Pogo said...

14/14 in rather less than 5 minutes without having to resort to paper and pencil. I'm sure that I would have done exactly the same at the age of 11. I'm 60 now, but they used to make us do mental arithmetic in "the old days".

Anonymous said...

100% after slightly over a bottle of wine at lunch.
Jobrag

Dr Rick said...

One of the few semi-worthwhile changes in recent years has been that new teachers have to pass very basic, computer-administered tests in maths, English, and being able to work a computer a bit. Rightly so.

I got all of them right without scratch paper in 3:24 without hurrying, but then I'm a maths teacher so I damned well should.

phatboy said...

I got 3 out of 14 on that test... amazingly the ones I got right were the ones you mentioned in your blog!

I cannot do fractions. I don't understand what they are or what I am supposed to do with them in a sum.

I recall when I was at school the "teaching" was to take a book (SMP I think they were called) and sit and work through it.

My maths teacher in the first year of secondary spoke almost no English - he was a very nice Vietnamese man. Then we had a teacher who was far more interested in tennis than teaching maths. Every year we'd have to endure Wimbledon during the championship. It left me hating both tennis and maths. Finally, we had a newly qualified teacher who was quite good looking, very skinny and totally unable to convey any sort of meaning to the sums I was failing to learn to solve!

I feel like I have a number blindness as I can do sums - in fact at uni I did "classical and alternate logic systems" as a module and got the second highest score in the class, importantly although the sums were heavy there were virtually no numbers - but whenever I see a number I'm at a total loss.

Lilyofthefield said...

Oh NOOOOOOOOOO! 10/14 in 8 minutes! I'm crap! I couldn't remember how to do fracions at all, though I would have known when I did my O-level.

Anonymous said...

Shame on me! I got 2 wrong, because I didn't read the question thoroughly - the distance one I gave in hours, when the question was after minutes, and one of the patio ones I didn't read that a percentage was required. Still, I calculated all answers "correctly" - do I get points for my workings?
Disclaimer - 45 year old programmer, 3rd class degree (manchester in 1984 was just *too* enjoyable!).

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Very nice, it's good to know I can do basic arithmetic, considering I'm applying to do a maths degree.
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