Word problems with extra information, step by step
A real problem does not come with only the numbers you need.
The question
How many cupcakes does Marian have?
Kwame has baked 60 cupcakes, which is 6 times as many as Marian has. Kwame also keeps 9 cookies.
Kwame has baked 60 cupcakes, which is 6 times as many as Marian has. Kwame also keeps 9 cookies.
numbers:606
60 ÷ 6
asked:How many cupcakes does Marian have?
60 ÷ 6 =10
10 cupcakes
- Read it through once. Grabbing the numbers on the first read means choosing an operation before you know the story, and that choice is the only hard part of a word problem.
- Now the numbers: 60 and 6. Finding them is not the same as knowing what to do with them — that comes next, and it comes from the story rather than from the numbers.
- One amount split into equal parts. So this one is a division: 60 ÷ 6.
- 60 ÷ 6 = 10 cupcakes. And answer the question that was ASKED — "How many cupcakes does Marian have?" — in cupcakes, because the sum on its own is not yet an answer.
How it works.
- 01
Read it through once. Grabbing the numbers on the first read means choosing an operation before you know the story, and that choice is the only hard part of a word problem.
- 02
Now the numbers: 60 and 6. Finding them is not the same as knowing what to do with them — that comes next, and it comes from the story rather than from the numbers.
- 03
One amount split into equal parts. So this one is a division: 60 ÷ 6.
- 04
60 ÷ 6 = 10 cupcakes. And answer the question that was ASKED — "How many cupcakes does Marian have?" — in cupcakes, because the sum on its own is not yet an answer.