What are Word Problems?
Word problems are sometimes called practical problems or logical deduction questions.
These types of questions assess your ability to understand whether or not you have enough information in order to solve a problem.
Calculations for Word Problems
You normally will not be asked to perform calculations on word problems.
These types of problems usually ask you to interpret the data provided. Alternatively, the question might ask whether there is sufficient information in order to reach a certain conclusion.
Types of Word Problems
You may see these types of word problems on your standardized exam.
Please click on the links in each of the sections below to see the free exercises.
What Information Can Be Determined from the Data Provided?
These types of problems will give you a narrative paragraph or list of information.
The information will usually be provided for the total data set, as well as for subsets of the data.
You then have to decide which fact can be determined from the information provided.
In order to interpret test scores, you will need to understand the concepts of raw score, mean, mode, standard deviation, percentile, and stanine.
Questions on Logical Connectives
Logical connectives are words such as: if, then, but, all, most, some, none, each, and every.
For example: Baseball practice is held every Saturday, but not if it is raining.
For questions on logical connectives, you will again see statements in a narrative paragraph or in list form.
You then have to make a small logical deduction from the information provided in order to answer the question.
These types of problems will not ask you to calculate the weight of an item.
Rather, they will ask you to identify the suitable unit of measurement for a particular item.
Be sure that you are well-versed with US units of measurement for your examination.
These questions ask you to evaluate the data and determine which piece of missing information is needed in order to solve the problem.
Students sometimes find these types of logical deduction questions to be the most difficult.
Please click on the link above to see step-by-step instructions on how to answer “missing information” questions.