Tough questions for tough math kids
Think you’re good at maths? Results to the OECD’s ‘Programme for International Student Assessment’ (PISA) are out (December, 2013) and have been causing upset in Western democracies like the US and the UK, whose 15 year olds have scored badly by international standards.
The questions in PISA tests are segmented by difficulty, with level 6 questions being the hardest. Students answering level 6 questions must be able to, ‘conceptualise, generalise, and utilise information based on their investigations and modelling of complex problem situations,’ according to the OECD’s own website. In the U.K. and the U.S. only 3% and 2% of 15-year-old students respectively achieve level 6. How do you think you will get on? eFinancial Careers sourced some of the questions that only about 2% of students get right. Here is one example:
A TV reporter was shown this graph and said, “The graph shows that there has been a huge increase in the number of robberies from 1998 to 1999. Do you consider the reporter’s statement to be a reasonable interpretation of the graph? Give a an explanation to support your answer.”
(Click on the graph for some more PISA questions)