ARITHMETIC QUESTIONS.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXV, Issue 31, 5 February 1913, Page 8

ARITHMETIC QUESTIONS.

The Napier Telegraph is exercised over ?the arithmetic questions recently given to sixth standard pupils in Hawke’s Bay. “Is it quite certain,” asks the Telegraph, “that examinations set to test the capacity of school children are conducted on the best lines? Ho the questions set them tend to suggest the capacity of the examiner to put ‘ticklers’ rather than a well-planned method of arriving at a general knowledge of the pupils’ mental powers ? As an example we may take three or four questions put to sixth standard pupils at the last exminations in Hawke’s Bay, a few days before Christmas. An educated adult might have to put on his considering cap in answering them, and it is easy for a young person, even if of good capacity, to find himself or herself up against a stone wall:— I buy teas at 3s and 4s per lb; I mix them as 4to 7; what do I gain per cent, if I sell the mixture at 4s 2d per lb? Divide £386 2s lid among 5 boys, 2 women, and 2 men so that each man has four times as much as a woman and each woman five times as much as a boy. The diagonal of a square field id 1210 yards long; how many acres does the field contain? An English mile is .2136 of a German mile; how long would it take to walk a German mile at the rate of four English miles per hour? It will be noted that In the first question it is not even stated whether the eleven pounds of mixture is made up of four pounds at three shillings and seven at four shillings, and this! has to be assumed because a gain is' spoken of. This may seem a small matter to examiners, as no doubt do the other questions, and in any case the power to answer questions involving the principles of the answers sought ought to be assumed in sixth standard pupils, but it must be admitted that there is an air of “trappiness” about the manner in which the questions are stated.” It is apparently a long time (com-, rnents an exchange upon the above) since the writer of the above was at school, otherwise he would be aware that the sums are perfectly straightforward examples, such as are to be found in any arithmetic. An average “educated adult” should solve the four questions in about ten minutes.