Are you numerate? These are some questions designed to test everyday math skills - 20% of people got 4 or 5 right

[cakeorwine]

This came up in another thread. I am a bit sceptical about the quality of this test to assess numeracy and everyday maths skills from these 5 questions and to use this to say how good people are at maths, but there you go.

www.nationalnumeracy.org.uk/sites/default/files/documents/Our_year_in_numbers/national_numeracy_day_2019.pdf

The questions (you can use a calculator)

1. If a scarf costs £11.70 after a 10% reduction, what was the original price? (L1)
   • £12.50
   • £13.25
   • £13.99
   • £13.00
   • I don’t know

2. Mike’s lunch contains 640 calories of energy. What percentage is this of his target daily intake of 2000 calories? (L1)
   • 45%
   • 62%
   • 65%
   • 32%
   • I don’t know

3. Rail tickets increased by 2% in year 1, and 5% in year 2. What was the overall increase over the two years? (L2)
   • 7%
   • 7.1%
   • 10.0%
   • 10.7%
   • I don’t know

4. . These are three offers on the same ketchup. Which is the best value for money? (L2)
   • 275g for £1.05
   • 454g for £1.99
   • 650g for £2.20
   • 425g: buy two for £3.10
   • I don’t know

5. You buy a laptop that costs £899, including VAT at 20%. How much of the purchase price is VAT? (L2)
   • £179.80
   • £89.80
   • £125.00
   • None of these
   • I don’t know

Based on the results from a five-question multiple-choice test of people’s everyday maths skills, 56% of the population scored less than 3. The questions are everyday maths questions from the National Numeracy Challenge and are all roughly equivalent to those within a GCSE maths paper.

Based on results from a multiple-choice test of people’s everyday maths skills, 20% of the population scored 4 or 5, roughly equivalent to a GCSE pass (Grade 4 / C). This is in line with the last Government-commissioned Skills for Life survey.

So have a go and see where you fit in. Answers are at the bottom of the link

5/5 without a calculator. I gave up maths after O level

I note from the link that the over 55s is the group which scored most highly on this test.

What I'd also like to know is what the scores would be if you could get a rating of "knows how to do the maths, but got the arithmetic wrong'. Because it's been drummed in to us about how today's maths education is better - so I'd expect a big increase in younger people who know what to do, but don't necessarily get the accuracy sans calculator

5/5 with a calculator.

I can't think of anywhen in life you need reverse percentages

I got them all right. Doing a maths degree though

Like a few people I got the VAT question wrong, although when a pp explained it I could see my mistake (taking 899 as the 100%). So 4/5 for me.

Effectively when you add on VAT, you are adding 20% onto the ex VAT price

So it's 120% of the ex vat price.

Divide by 120 to get 1% of the ex VAT price
Multiply by 100 to get 100%

Because the price is £899 inc vat at 20%. So that means the £899 is made up of the net price (ie 100% of the cost without tax), plus 20% of the net price added on. So that means that the gross price is 120%

So that means there are 6x 20% groups in the total price. Divide the gross price by 6 and you get £14..... (don't need to carry on the sum because it's already d) none of the above. In full it's £148.83

Maths questions make me so anxious I can't think. Just reading these made me go hot and cold and get a hollow feeling in my stomach. I'm not thick, I've got a degree, and had to do a GCSE equivalency test in maths to be accepted on the course. Several maths teachers were so horrible in my secondary school, humiliating and confronting children who got the answers wrong, I think I have been traumatised.

Same here.

Worked the first two out in my head, half worked out the third and decided it was probably the right answer, correct guess for q4. Wrong guess for the last one. I’m giving myself 3.5… Got a C for O level maths many years ago. I think I’d have got more with a calculator!

Oh dear 3/5. Failed on the train tickets and VAT questions, but I always knew maths wasn’t my strong point. I’d like to think if I was more in the habit of using the maths side of my brain I’d have done better, but at least I’ve learned not be caught out by fake VAT discounts from this thread!

5/5 no calculator, but I do have a maths degree.

5/5

5/5 in my head. Would not have been able to do a couple of them but for helping my DC prepare for private school entry tests so I had to learn how to do it myself!

Im not surprised about the general population numeracy results having seen the number of shop assistants using a calculator to work out a 10% discount.

I've got an A in maths GCSE and I got 3/5 too. I think I've forgotten everything. 😔

I am NOT a maths teacher but:

• I knew the answer had to be 7.1% as the percentages were compounded. If I was working from scratch, I decimalised the percentages (so 0.05 and 0.02) and added 1 to both, then multiplied to get 1.071, then deducted 1 and x100 to get 7.1%
• I divided the prices by the grams to get the lowest gram per penny
• I divided by 1.2 (as VAT is a 20% tax on 100% of the price) to get the VAT free price then deducted the answer from £899. There’s an easier way to do this though if someone else would care to explain!

I use a lot of quick mental arithmetic in my job and went through school in the era of scientific calculators so my workings are a bit different to how things are taught today (I believe).

It's a bit sneaky to assume everyone knows how VAT works. I don't think this is a fair test.

I haven't done the questions yet, but I don't think I'm good at maths so at the outset I don't expect to get them all....we'll see.
For some reason I did A level maths! Found GCSE easy but really struggled to get a C in my A level. I'm not good at arithmetic and don't know my times tables by heart for example. Yes A level maths was a strange choice.
Anyway, let's see how I do.

Why is answer to question 3 about train fare - 7.1%?
Why isn't it 7%?
(I had to stop Maths at 14 because there were not enough teachers where I lived -but I am terrible at it anyway)

5/5 but I am a Nobel Laureate and built the ISS in my spare time.

It's compound interest rather than simple interest - think of it as having to pay interest on interest.

(I'm here all week with my boring knowledge.)

I work in a finance department and do that sort of calculation all the time.

I calculated the correct answers in my head, and I've never gone anywhere near a maths degree.

@tara66 because you have to compound the interest.

100 + 2% = 102
102 + 5% = 107.1

therefore increase is 7.1%

1/5 as I am dreadful at maths. I'd be lost without the calculator on my phone.

Because it's compound interest

Year 0 - price £100
increase by 2% - increase is 2 - new total is £ 102
Year 1 price £102
increase that by 5% - increase is 5.1 new total is £107.1

Compared to year 0, difference is 7.1

You don't really need to do the arithmetic for that one, as the rise has to be more that 7% (that's the non-compounded answer) but not by much, and there's only one plausible answer