The first calculation is not the answer: word problems
The Short Answer
A word problem hides a calculation inside a situation. The difficulty is almost never the arithmetic — it is that the first number your child can work out is usually not the answer, only something needed in order to find it. Read twice, underline what is actually being asked, count the steps before calculating any of them, then check you answered that question.
What is a word problem?
A calculation hidden inside a situation. Your child has to find the maths, do it, and then answer the question that was actually asked.
By Year 5 they can multiply and divide perfectly well, so that is not where the marks go. They go here:
The first calculation you can do is almost never the answer. It is the number you need in order to find the answer — and the paper is counting on you handing it in.
The routine
Four rungs, and most of the time goes on the first and third.
Read it twice and underline what it actually asks for. Circle the units.
Write the numbers down with labels. Not just 6 and 4 — 6 packs, 4 pens per pack.
Count the steps before you calculate any of them.
Check you answered the thing that was asked.
Step three is the one that does the work, and it is the one children skip because it does not feel like maths.
Can you show me a worked example?
Underline the units too
A good share of lost marks are answers that are numerically right and in the wrong form.
How much change? — answer in pounds or pence, whichever the question used.
How long does it take? — 4 hours 30 minutes, not 4.5, unless the question invited a decimal.
Circling the units when reading takes a second and catches all of it.
Where do pupils lose marks?
Stopping one step early, which is the whole design of the question.
Answering in the wrong units or form.
Starting to calculate on the first read, before knowing what is being asked.
Missing a small piece of the situation — the 30 minute stop, the three lost pens — because it arrived in words rather than as a number.
Try it yourself
Underline what is being asked before you calculate anything, and count the steps first.
- A box holds 6 packs of pens. Each pack has 4 pens. Three pens are lost. How many pens are left?
- In that question, how many steps are there?
- A shop sells pencils at 35p each. Ravi has £5. How many can he buy, and how much change?
- Why is the first number you can work out rarely the answer?
- A journey of 240 miles is driven at 60 miles an hour, with a 30 minute stop. How long does it take?
- 21. Two steps: 6 × 4 = 24 pens, then 24 − 3 = 21. A child who stops after the multiplication answers 24, which is a real number in the question and not the one asked for.
- Two. Counting them first is what stops you handing in the answer to step one.
- 14 pencils, 10p change. £5 is 500p; 500 ÷ 35 = 14 remainder 10. Note the remainder is the change, which is a division question and a money question at once.
- Because the question is built that way. The information you are given lets you calculate something immediately, and that something is the bridge to the answer. The paper is counting on you handing in the bridge.
- 4 hours 30 minutes. 240 ÷ 60 = 4 hours driving, plus the 30 minute stop. Two steps again, and the stop is easy to read past.
How much practice does this type need at home?
The exercise that helps most takes no pencil at all. Give your child a word problem and ask them to say the plan before doing any arithmetic: what will you work out first, and what will you do with it?
If they cannot say it, calculating will not rescue them. Three questions done that way teach more than ten done silently, because they force the step the paper is really testing.
Free: a Maths workbook
Questions across the Maths question types, with the method printed at the top and full answers at the back. One workbook for the whole strand, not a sheet per question type.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why does my child stop one step early?
Because the intermediate number is genuinely useful and genuinely appears in the question, so it feels like an answer. In the pens question, 24 is a real number of pens and it is not what was asked. The fix is counting the steps before calculating: a child who has written 'two steps' at the top will not hand in the answer to step one, because they can see there is another.
What should my child underline?
What the question actually asks for, and the units it wants. 'How many pens are left' — underline left. 'How much change' — underline change and circle the p or the £. A surprising number of lost marks are answers that are numerically correct and in the wrong form: 4.5 hours when the question wanted hours and minutes, or 500 when it wanted £5.
How much time should go on reading?
Most of it. The reading and the planning are where these questions are won, and the calculating is the quick part. Children feel that reading is not working, so they start writing numbers immediately — which is exactly how a two-step question becomes a one-step answer.
How do we practise this at home?
Make your child explain the plan before doing any arithmetic. 'What are you going to work out first, and what will you do with it?' If they cannot say it, the calculating will not rescue them. Doing that on three questions teaches more than doing ten questions silently, because it forces the step the paper is really testing.
Sources
- GL Assessment — 11+ familiarisation materials and question type descriptions Published 2025.
- Clever Clogs Academy — our own Year 4 and Year 5 lesson records, Winslow Published September 2025 to July 2026.
We are not affiliated with, endorsed by or connected to GL Assessment or Buckinghamshire Council. Test arrangements change; always check the council's own pages for the current year's dates.
We Teach This Method Every Week in Winslow
Groups of no more than six pupils with two qualified teachers, in person or online. Come and see a session before you decide.