Edutest arithmetical reasoning questions

It's a short story with numbers in it, and your child decides which sums to do and in what order. Arithmetical reasoning is one of the kinds of question Edutest names in Numerical Reasoning.

The stories are everyday ones: change from a purchase, a book read over several weeks, stickers handed over. In our questions the sums are light; the trap is starting without a plan, and each wrong option answers a slightly different story.

Find what's being asked, list what's known, then plan the steps in words before calculating. A plan said out loud shows its gaps before any time goes on sums, which is cheaper than finding them at the end.

Our word problems fall into the kinds below, and each has one step that decides it. If your child can name the kind, that step is the place to slow down.

Let the story decide. If seats are numbered in rows, a seat past the last full row is in the next row, so the answer rounds up. If plates are made from leftover clay, the bit left over can't make a plate, so the answer rounds down.

Ask your child to say what the remainder is before deciding: "two seats into a new row", "some clay too small for a plate". Said that way, the right direction is easy to see.

We wrote these in the style of the Edutest test: change from a purchase, a seat number, a reading plan and a before-and-after puzzle. Each one shows the answer and the working. Read them with your child and talk through why the right option is right.

For each one, ask your child to say the plan in words, then compare it with the steps in the working. Put the answer back in the story and check that every sentence comes out true.

It solves stories that give the end and ask for the start. Your child undoes each step in reverse order: the change came last, so add it back first.

Before-and-after puzzles have a neat trick. When one child gives another some stickers, the gap between them shrinks by twice the gift, because one loses it and the other gains it. If one now has twice the other, the new gap equals the smaller amount.

Each trap below matches a wrong option in the examples. Find it together and name the slip, then use its check on the next few word problems.

• Forgetting the change. Taking the notebooks from the note, without the change, gives a pen that costs too much.
• Rounding a remainder the wrong way. A seat number that spills past a full row is in the next one.
• Stopping a day early. When a running total gets close to the end, check whether anything is still left.
• Answering for the wrong moment. If the question asks how many Omar had at first, the number after the gift is a trap.
• Missing a unit change. Kilograms and grams in the same question need one unit before any sum.

Longer than a series, because there's more to read. Edutest says many students will not finish every question, so your child should leave a long word problem that won't come together and return after the quicker questions. With no marks lost for wrong or blank answers, a guess goes in first.

All the working happens without a calculator. That's another reason to plan: a clear plan means fewer, simpler sums.

Turn daily life into questions. "If we read 12 pages a night, when will we finish?" or "What change will we get if we buy three of these?"

Ask your child to say the plan before the answer, then swap roles: your child writes you a two-step problem with a tempting wrong answer.

In the app, the arithmetical reasoning lesson has an Interactive version and Notes. There are also drills by section and topic; a free account drills the free test's questions, and a paid plan opens the rest.

Four questions show the method; the Numerical Reasoning section of Practice test 1 shows whether your child can use it against the clock. Afterwards, results by skill show whether word problems are costing marks. They sit with the other kinds on the Numerical Reasoning sample questions page, and when a rough answer is enough, see estimation.