hello and welcome to problem-solving strategies one looking for clues and
keywords in this video you'll learn tricks for finding evidence or clues to
help you solve word problems
when you're given a word problem to solve it can sometimes be confusing how
you know what to do to find the answer you know that you'll need to do some
math calculation but how do you know which one is correct this is a common
problem but don't be afraid of word problems I'm going to show you some
tricks because every word problem gives us hints no matter what the problem is
it's true what are some common clues let's look at them sometimes a word
problem will ask you to add without using the word add how you know there
will be clues in the word problem that tell you you need to add those words are
some more in all altogether plus combined total more than increased these
words all mean the same as add and they are clues that you will need to add to
solve the problem let's look at an example where the word problem asks you
to add without using the word add okay here's a word problem there are seven
pencils on the desk John drops off two more pencils how many pencils are there
in all now how will we solve this problem let's look for clues or key
words we know that there are pencils on a desk and that John comes along and
drops off more pencils the question asks how many pencils are there in all do you
see the clue in the question yes you are right in all is a clue you remembered
from the wordless given before that in all is a clue to use addition in this
problem how many pencils in all or how many
pencils in total or how many pencils all together all of these mean the same
thing and they all asked us to add so 7 pencils plus 2 more pencils that John
dropped off equals 9 pencils we've solved this problem by
adding the answer is 9 pencils in all or 9 pencils in total or 9 pencils all
together sometimes a word problem will ask you to subtract or - without using
the word subtract or - how you know just like with addition there will be clues
in the word problem telling you that you need to subtract or - those words are
takeaway fewer than less than difference less
shared gave away decrease change left these words all mean the same as
subtract or - and they are clues that you will need to subtract in order to
solve the problem let's look at an example where the word problem asks you
to subtract without using those words at all here's a word problem there are nine
pencils on the desk Allison comes along and takes five
pencils how many pencils are left how will we solve this problem let's look
for clues or key words we know that there are nine pencils on a desk we also
know that Allison needed five of them so she took them the question asks how many
pencils are left what is the clue in this question yes you are right again
left is a clue you remember it from the word list given
before that left is a clue to use subtraction in this problem how many
pencils are left over this tells us we need to subtract nine pencils minus five
pencils that Alison took equals four pencils we've solved the problem by
using the clues the answer is four pencils left so far you've just learned
word cruise for two operations present in word problems addition and
subtraction in Part B of this video series we're going to go over additional
key words for other operations don't forget to practice your new skills with
our fun games and quizzes online and remember to always be clever