FORMER FOURTH-GRADERS rejoice. Be glad you don’t have to prove how many stupid cookies Dan baked before someone ripped them off, or how many times the damn coin came up tails for Leon. We figured it out, but don’t ask how long it took. These are some of the supposedly elementary riddles that fourth-graders were asked to solve in the Washington Assessment of Student Learning Test, the statewide basic skills test that has won Washington plaudits as a leader in assessment testing and what US Education Secretary Richard Riley calls “the war on ignorance.”
The test includes sections on math, reading, writing, and “listening.” The last three require extended written responses; eight pages of the writing test are devoted to having students “write an essay describing the perfect planet.” But the math questions are easier to excerpt, and Marc Frazer of the state Commission on Student Learning supplied us with a few fourth-grade examples (the real tests aren’t to leave the classroom). All we can say is: If this is fourth grade, what are the fifth-grade tests like?!
Many of the actual kiddie puzzlers demand essay answers or have more than one correct answer. And some are just plain tricky for pupils of any age. For instance: Keisha says that five out of every 20 students choose tacos as their favorite school lunch. Dennis takes a survey to see if Keisha is correct. He asks his classmates, “If your family goes out to dinner, what would you choose to eat?” The results: tacos, eight; hot dogs, five; hamburgers, four; pizza, three. Answer? Eight, not five, out of 20 opt for tacos. Keisha is wrong, according to the testers.
But wait—not necessarily; the food kids choose to eat at a family restaurant wouldn’t necessarily be the food they’d eat at school lunch. So duh.
HERE ARE A FEW MORE math puzzlers. As a so-called adult, you should ace them easily. If not, almost any 9-year-old can help:
1. Kaitlin’s dad bought 6 gallons of white paint for the house. He also bought 3 gallons of yellow paint for the garage. Each can of paint costs $14.98. About how much did Kaitlin’s dad have to pay for the paint? A. $80; B. $100; C. $140.
2. Kim needs to cut about 1 yard of string. He does not have a yardstick in his classroom. Which of the following could he use to estimate one yard? A. the width of his classroom door; B. the height of his classroom door; C. the width of his classroom chair.
3. Tim and Dana are asked to mow Mr. Kumar’s lawn. The first day, Dana mows half of the lawn by herself. The next day, Tim and Dana finish the other half. This time, Tim mows twice as much as Dana. Mr. Kumar pays Tim and Dana $30. Explain how Tim and Dana should divide the money fairly.
4. Dan baked some cookies. Sam took half of the cookies. Then Sue took half of the remaining cookies. Later, Lisa took half of the cookies that were left. When Dan came home, he saw only three cookies. How many cookies did Dan bake?
5. Leon tossed a coin in the air 20 times to see how it would land. He got heads 12 times. What is the probability of Leon getting tails on the next toss? A. 12 out of 20; B. eight out of 20; C. one out of two.
6. Which of the following is closest to the distance around the middle of an unsharpened pencil: A. 25 millimeters; B. 25 centimeters; C. 25 meters.
7. A refreshment stand buys hot dogs in packages of 10. Hot dog buns come in packages of 12. What is the least number of hot dogs and buns that must be bought to have an equal number of each? A. 120 dogs and 120 buns; B. 60 each; C. 30 each.
8. A bus has 11 people on it. It stops, two get off. It stops, one gets on. It stops, three get off. It stops, one gets on. It stops, two get off and one gets on. It stops, one gets off. Now, how many… times did the bus stop?
Answers: (1) C. (2) A. (3) Tim mowed one-third, Dana mowed two-thirds; Tim gets $10, Dana gets $20. (4) Two dozen. (5) C. (6) A. (7) B. (8) Ha ha, six. We made that one up, but it’s fun to tell at the bar, where smarty-pants fourth-graders aren’t allowed.
