Worded questions are a bit harder and according to our expert, they appear in the Defence Force exam in both general ability (under numerical reasoning) and also mathematics.

This section is split into three parts (each part has its own video):

• Part 1: How to Deal with Worded Questions
• Part 2: Rate-of-work Worded Questions
• Part 3: Finding the Unknown

Part 1: How to Deal with Worded Questions

Sometimes the hardest part in mathematics question is not the actual solving of the formula or calculation. It's figuring out what is the QUESTION and what needs to be CALCULATED in the first place is. These worded problems require you to:

• Translate from English to Math.
• Then work out the calculation.

Here are some key words and their symbols.

Plus Sign – sum, plus, added together, combined, increased by

Subtraction Sign – minus, less, difference, decreased by

Division Sign – over, divided by, quotient, out of

Multiplication Sign – product, multiplied by, twice (x2), thrice (x3)

Equals Sign – equals, the same as, totals, equivalent to

If there is an unknown number, you can denote it/represent it with x, y, z or any other thing you feel comfortable with even "?"

Often you have to change the worded question into a formula and then solve.

Other ways to get around it is to:

• Substitute in the 'answer' option numbers to your formulas e.g. easy and small numbers and then solve.

Let's go through some examples now:

During the Christmas peak season, a store sold 6 times as many kaftans as it sold gloves and 2 times as many hats as it sold gloves. What could be the total number of kaftans, gloves and hats that were sold?

Annie has a discount card at the mall. For every $25 cost she buys, she only pays $23. How much she needs to pay if she buys a cost of $300?

A $276 B $298 C $288 D $245 E None of these

Part 2: Rate-of-work Worded Questions

Rate of work questions are very common in your exam. The same rules apply in dealing with worded questions and for these questions, the main rule is that you want to reduce it down to a rate of 1 unit – why? Because… then you can calculate any ups or downs easily.

Example 1

If Steve can paint a fence in 30 hours and Elizabeth can paint the same fence in 15 hours, how long will it take for both of them to paint the fence together?

A 7.5 hours

B 10 hours

C 15 hours

D 25 hours

Example 2

If it takes 500 people 20 days to dig a 500-metre hole, how many people are required to dig the same hole in 5 days?

A 1,000

B 2,000

C 5,000

D 10,000

• This question is very similar to a real exam question.

Part 3: Finding the Unknown

Now that we've got into the hang of it, we're going to extend our knowledge of solving worded problems to deal with questions where they want you to find an unknown with 1 variable along with rate of work questions (rate of work questions featured HEAVILY in the exam our expert took!).

The process that you follow is the same as previous checkpoints, however, there's 1 more addition being:

• Illustrate the concept/images if you're unsure

While we don't have much in terms of theory, this checkpoint's learning is heavily dependent on the practice questions.

Example 1

A bag of clothes weighs 9 kilograms and another weighs 21 kilograms. How much weight must be removed from the second case and placed in the first so that they are both of equal weight.

A 5 kilograms

B 6 kilograms

C 7 kilograms

D 15 kilograms

Example 2

One box has 4.7 kilograms of chocolates. Another box has 2.5 kilograms of chocolates. How much weight must be removed from the first box and placed in the second so that they are both of equal weight.

A 0.9 kilograms

B 1.1 kilograms

C 2.2 kilograms

D 3.6 kilograms

Key Rules to remember:

• Translate from English to Formulas – what exactly is the question asking you to do.
• Highlight key figures.
• Illustrate the concept.
• Notate key elements.
• Evaluate and choose your correct answer.
• For ‘rate of work’ questions, bring everything down to 1 unit and work from there.

Remember that:
- Plus Sign – sum, plus, added together, combined, increased by
- Subtraction Sign – minus, less, difference, decreased by
- Division Sign – over, divided by, quotient, out of
- Multiplication Sign – product, multiplied by, twice (x2), thrice (x3)
- Equals Sign – equals, the same as, totals, equivalent to

Now it's time to do your assignment.

1. Download the assignment questions here.
2. Print it out or if you want to do it electronically, save it.
3. Complete the questions to it.
4. Then check the solutions on the video below. The answer key is also on the final page of your downloaded assignment questions.

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