11 Plus Exams Forum

I was wondering if someone could give some advice on when to use trial and error to answer in a wordy maths questions and when Algebra is more efficient?

Thanks!

I am sure that there will be professionals along in a while, but imho I would say trial and error is not the best way. Unless you mean using an "educated guess" first and working from there? If DC has a good knowledge of algebra then that would be the way to go I suspect. But I will leave the real advice to the experts...

Trial and improvement is usually the better approach e.g. in that triangle question posted recently. Algebraic equations aren't in KS2 so shouldn't be required.

The algebra from the national curriculum in year 6 is:
6A1 express missing number problems algebraically
6A2 use simple formulae
6A3 generate and describe linear number sequences
6A4 find pairs of numbers that satisfy an equation with two unknowns
6A5 enumerate possibilities of combinations of two variables

I teach children to 'bar model' rather than use algebra. It is a clear method that allows children to see visually without the need for complex algebraic equations.

Thanks for the feedback. I will just stick with the trial and error method for now then.