It is extremely important to read a word problem in its entirety. Trying to solve a problem without completely reading it can lead to incorrect presumptions regarding what the problem is asking. Read word problems at least twice to ensure you have understood what information you have and what information you do not have. Choose variables to represent unknown information.
Determining what a word problem is asking for is of crucial importance when trying to answer correctly. If a student misunderstands what the problem is asking for, he stands little chance of getting it right. Consider the following word problem as an example: "Edison High School has 1,200 enrolled students. One-third of the students are involved in sports. This amount is one-half the number of students enrolled in a nearby high school. How many students go to the neighboring high school?" In this particular word problem, a couple of steps need to be taken to arrive at final answer. The number 400 (one-third of 1,200) may initially seem to be the answer to some, but it is actually just a number needed to solve the problem. The problem is asking how many students go to the neighboring high school. Because 400 is one-half of the number of students enrolled in the nearby high school, the answer is 800.
Looking for key words can help make solving word problems much easier. Certain words used in word problem paragraphs can tip the reader off as to what mathematical operations she should use. Words like "increased by," "more than," "combined," "total of," "sum" and "added to" usually indicate the use of addition. On the other hand, words like "decreased by," "difference of/between," "less than" and "fewer than" typically indicate the use of subtraction. Multiplication is indicated by words such as "of," "times," "product of" and "multiplied by." Inversely, division is indicated by the following words: "per," "out of," "ratio of," "quotient of" and "percent" (divide by 100).
Computation is the last step in the process of solving word problems. Once the words of the problem have been turned into a mathematical equation, you must solve the equation to find the unknown variable. In the above example, the unknown variable, x, stands for the number of students at the neighboring high school. Therefore, the computation would appear as follows:
1/3(1200) = students involved in sports at Edison High School = 400.
1/2(x) = 400
x=800
800 students are enrolled in the neighboring high school.