Khan/khan-exercises — Issue #14182: Arithmetic word problems 1 - This is what's wrong with arithmetic word problems
Author: KhanBugz
Created: 2012-02-19 13:15:17+00:00
State: open
Labels: chrome, snowleo, wrong-or-unclear

Reporter: marcel.buchholz@gmail.com

The answer to this question - at least the one the system is expecting - is obviously 24-21=3.

But if you care to read the question carefully, the correct answer would be: No idea.

If you imagine the implied real world situation, it could very well be that 20 of the original people LEFT the train at the station AND 17 NEW got on.

It's questions like this one that lead to students just scanning word problems instead of really understanding them.

In some studies, over 50% of students solved the question

"A farmer has 20 pigs and 13 sheep, how old is the farmer?"

like this: 20 pigs + 13 sheep = 33 years.

[arithmetic_word_problems_1.html?seed=87&problem=take-away-change](http://sandcastle.khanacademy.org/media/castles/Khan:master/exercises/arithmetic_word_problems_1.html?seed=87&problem=take-away-change&debug)

[Answer timeline](http://sandcastle.khanacademy.org/media/castles/Khan:master/exercises/arithmetic_word_problems_1.html?seed=87&problem=take-away-change&debug&activity=%5B%5D)

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