Translating English to Mathematics
For many students, the most intimidating part of an exam is not the algebra itself, but the word problems. A word problem requires you to act as a translator, reading a real-world scenario written in English and converting it into a structured mathematical equation that can be solved.
Decoding the Vocabulary
The key to mastering word problems is recognizing specific keywords that directly correspond to mathematical operators:
- Addition (+): Sum, increased by, more than, combined, total.
- Subtraction (-): Difference, decreased by, less than, fewer, minus.
- Multiplication (×): Product, times, twice (×2), of (e.g., half "of" a number).
- Division (÷): Quotient, ratio, divided by, per, split evenly.
- Equals (=): Is, yields, results in, will be, was.
The General Strategy
When approaching any word problem, always follow these three steps: First, identify exactly what the question is asking you to find and assign it a variable (like \( x \)). Second, translate the relationships described in the text into an equation. Finally, use algebra to isolate the variable and solve. Always double-check if your final answer makes logical sense in the context of the real-world scenario.