5th-grade student’s exam question has left adults stumped - ITT: Kiwis MATI because they can't Math

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One sibling has been left scratching their head at their younger brother’s Year 5 math exam.

The question, shared to Reddit, asks students to figure out how many pages are in a book.

“Klein read 30 pages of a book on Monday and one eighth of the book on Tuesday,” the question read.

“He completed the remaining quarter of the book on Wednesday. How many pages are there in the book?”

Some social media users were immediately stumped by the question.
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One person commented: “And now we can all see why “Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?” worked as a game show.”

“Today I learned I would fail fifth grade math,” another said on the thread.

One passionate person said: “I always think to my self; ‘Ugh. People should really be tested with basic skills before they’re allowed to go out into society.”

“And then I see this and realize I shouldn’t go out into society LOL!”

Not everyone agreed the question difficult.

“Not to be rude, but what is interesting about this,” one said.

“It looks just like any other math problem that I’ve done in 5th grade.”

Someone with a PhD in engineering, with a focus on applied mathematics, said it wasn’t difficult to work out but it came with the assumption that Klein started the book on Monday.

Once you have that, you divide 30 pages by five to see how much one eighth is worth, with the answer being six.

Math lovers then just do the simple multiplication of eight times six, with the answer being 48, and the equation is solved.

Really hate how math illiterate our society is. This problem is a basic equation

30+x/8+×/4=x

where x is the #of pages read, and the 3 counts they give you have to add up to x.

we multiply by 8 to make our lives easier

240+x+2x=8x

then we bring the xs to one side
240 = 8x-x-2x
add the xs
240= 5x
then divide by 5
48=x

I hate people who suck at math
 
I am more confused on how this is a 5th grade question? I didn't start learning this kind of algebra until 7th grade.
I thought myself basic algebra in 4th grade since my school's curriculum wad slow as fuck. While American education varies, my school as far as I remember
5th pre-algrebra
6th pre-algebra
7th Algebra
8th Geometry
9th Algebra 2
10th math analysis/precalc/trigonometry
11th Calculus AB
12th Calculus BC

I was good at math so I only spent a year in each class. But I started learning the basics of Algebra in 5th grade. I believe it was doing good here that placed me in the accelerated math class once I went to muddle school
Wouldn't it help better if we KNEW how many pages the book had?
In algebra you usually have an unknown you're trying to solve for, the point being you want to solve for the total number of pages read.
 
The math solution would be better explained if you wrote it out better.

Wouldn't it help better if we KNEW how many pages the book had?
The problem is really just told terribly. I still think its far too advanced for a 5th grader, and the only reason I know the solution now is because I studied for a grad school entrance test where these sort of questions come up so much that the way to get the solution is ingrained into my mind even all these years later.
 
If you're an adult and can't solve this in your head I don't trust you to operate heavy machinery or handle money.
Where is the 5 coming from?
On Tuesday Klein read 1/8 and on Wednesday he read 1/4, which we will change to 2/8 so that we can properly add it to the 1/8 he already read. This leaves us with 3/8 read on Monday and Tuesday, meaning the 30 pages read Monday accounted for 5/8 of the book. Simply divide by 5 and we can find that 1/8 of the book is 6 pages, meaning 8/8 of the book is 48 pages. Simple.
 
The math solution would be better explained if you wrote it out better.

Wouldn't it help better if we KNEW how many pages the book had?
The point of the question isn’t to make the answer obvious, it’s to see if you can join different ratios/measurements together to reason out the correct answer. It’s not a particularly easy question, but essentially everyone with a >100 IQ should be able to get there eventually.

I think everyone should be asked this exact question before they can vote
 
I did it a different but similar way:
We know that 1 - 3/8 (3/8 =1/4+1/8 ) = 5/8 => 30 = 5x/8 (ratio of the unknown value to the known one)=> 6 = x/8 => x = 48. I really don't see the problem with this question. Sure it can be worded a bit better, but it is not so obfuscated in meaning that you can't solve it. I think they clearly meant that he read 30 pages on Monday, then read another 1/8th of the book on Tuesday amd completed the last 1/4th on Wednesday. I don't know. I can understand this being a bit challenging for a 5th grader but it wasn't that complicated if you read it properly. What surprises me is that a lot of adults can't do this shit. That's fucking dire. It explains a lot but it's not a good thing adults struggle to parse this question.
 
I did it the long way because I can't remember how to do this stuff.

Monday's read must be equivalent to 5/8, which is 0.625. Therefore 100 divided by 62.5 = 1.6. Times that by 30 and you get 48.

Also, OP's explanation looks like Hasan Piker wrote it.
 
I am more confused on how this is a 5th grade question? I didn't start learning this kind of algebra until 7th grade.
Back in my day, fuck if I know what troon thing they're doing now, students got divided into normies vs idiots in 1st grade, and normies vs nerds in 4th grade. Perhaps this 5th grader is a nerd?

Where is the 5 coming from?
Tuesday, 1/8 of the book was read.
Wednesday, 2/8 of the book was read.
1/8 + 2/8 = 3/8 of the book, meaning the 30 pages from Monday must be the remaining 5/8.
 
I did it the long way because I can't remember how to do this stuff.

Monday's read must be equivalent to 5/8, which is 0.625. Therefore 100 divided by 62.5 = 1.6. Times that by 30 and you get 48.

Also, OP's explanation looks like Hasan Piker wrote it.
I came to the same conclusion with a similar method.

I got 5/8 = 30 pages
Divide 30 by 5 to get 6 pages aka 1/8th the book
Multiply 6 by 8 to get 8/8 (the entire book) which is 48.

I don't consider myself great at math so it's concerning so many people are having trouble with this.
 
30+x/8+×/4=x

where x is the #of pages read, and the 3 counts they give you have to add up to x.

we multiply by 8 to make our lives easier

240+x+2x=8x

then we bring the xs to one side
240 = 8x-x-2x
add the xs
240= 5x
then divide by 5
48=x
If you're old like me and didn't have algebra in 5th grade.

So Monday = 30 Pages / Tuesday = 1/8th / Wednesday = 1/4

So 30 + 1/8 + 1/4 = Total Pages

Let's get the Lowest Common Denominator for the fractions to simplify them. Since they're both multiples of 4, the LCD is 8

So 30 + 1/8 + 2/8 = Total Pages

Since two of the fractions have the same denominator, we add them together to simply

So 30 + 3/8 = Total Pages

So the Total Pages minus 3/8 is 5/8.

So 30 = 5/8

Divide 30 by 5 to figure out what 1/8 is to get 6; then multiply 6 by 8 for 48.

"When in doubt, write it out." - A Math Teacher I had
 
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