I would suggest the nett approach. Sharon gave away 5 and ate 3 for a total draw down of 8 sweets. When she bought 48 sweets, Sharon replenished the 8 sweets that were initially taken out, and had 48-8= 40 sweets more than what she had at first. So 40 sweets were twice of what she had initially. Sharon started off with 20 sweets.

The question becomes challenging when we try to force the student to fit the method to the question. If a more direct approach is better understood, we really need not force the student to come up with a presentation that we deem to be standard. Just my two cents.

I really don't fancy working backwards or gostan bcoz my reverse gear always faulty...LOL.. ANYWAY...this should not be a P3Question.. Its should be between P4&P5

I believe teaching a basic algebra to kids when they start P3 is vital...just the basic with a single variable.. I did that to my kid when they start P3...using letters/figurines to represent no's... The above QN can easily be solved by a basic algebra method

My boy would like to share his working and solution.

I used the substitute method, which is as below. Jedi.

Meant to post this sticker on last comment but I couldn't. Jedi.

(a) 270 cubic cm (b) 17 cubes

I did count 40 sides but this is a 2m qn and having to visualize 40 sides means take child needs to take 2 mins and may cause confusion in the process...

got it. I had 9 at the bottom. let me revise my answer

Kheng Yan, Caleb's diagrams are very clear. You just need to find out the sum of the number of square faces from the top, side, and front views, and multiply that by two.

There are clues as to why the cubes are 3-cm cubes. The volume of the big cube is 729 cubic cm. As we know, 729 cm^3 = 9 cm x 9 cm x 9 cm. The cubes cannot be 1-cm or 2-cm cubes. 4-cm and 5-cm cubes are out of the question. So by elimination we can be pretty confident in considering the smaller cubes as 3-cm cubes.

the other thing is that a child will not consider that the bottom is being painted as well. Too hard. This is like a sec2 DnT question.

On top of that, the total area of the painted surfaces is 360 square cm. Factors of 360 are 1,2,3,4,5,6,8,9.......... And since we have eliminated 1,2,4 and 5, and the other factors don't fit the storyline, 3 remains the usual suspect.

Agreed, Caleb. This is a curve ball question for the visually challenged,

Ops, I meant challenged to visualize 3-D solids. Visually challenged is something else all together. My bad.

With 3 frens--- 4people shared AMong 3 frens-3 people shared

Thank you. So usually only these 2 words used? "With"and "among"? Are there any others?

I am not sure..let's the expert comments... If u find any question regarding this type of problem sums..u can post here and let the experts here give advice...

I am no expert, but Izam you have basically nailed it.

Share- must include the first person. Give- no need to include the first person. That's what my children are being taught :)

Usually the proper way to set the question should be "equally distribute 20 candies among my 4 friends". Then it is very clearly that you need to divide 20 by 4. However, if the question indicated "I shared 20 candies with my 4 friends" then you will need to divide by 5 (including the person that is sharing the candies). Sometimes, I wonder is the teacher testing a Mathematical concept or the student's command of English??

Yes sometimes I get confused then I check if will get whole number or not after dividing. But this does not work 100 percent of the time. I've never seen teacher use "distribute" before.

What if the question is just like the above 20 candies can be divided by 4 or by 5? Then the child will be in trouble..Haha..Yes, seldom see the word distribute but that would be a better way to present the question. Just found this question in My Pal P2 text book " 4 friends share 28 almonds equally among themselves." This is also a very clear way to present a Division question. 28 divide by 4.

Trouble is... the questions are always so mind boggling... that sometimes, I have to read my son's Maths questions at least twice to really understand what is required. 😖

For P3, please consider this method...

Thanks Adrian Ng this is very easy to understand too. :P

If the qn asks for Pattern 30 or 100, i don't think this method works? Just curious, is this a normal P3 question?

This is a common P3 question for some schools. For higher level, have a look at the following.

Thanks for the clarification Adrian Ng

Not only my child learned, I learned a lot too. Thanks

ok, thanks