Does anyone else find the Louise Staples maths papers hard!?

[Manana]

We're DIY tutoring for the Essex exam and have been working through the Bond books along with old CSSE papers. I've bought the first Louise Staples paper from the shop here and it seems really hard or strangely worded! Has anyone else used them?

eg

1. Tomato plant food comes in a 150cl bottle. The food needs to be diluted with water and uses 40ml per watering can. How many full watering cans can Christian make from the 150cl bottle? (How does cubic litres compare to ml?)

2. At Shark fin summer club, children can choose between swimming and drama. Kye is picked at random from all the children. From the chart below, what is the probability of him choosing drama (in the lowest possible form)


3.
Boy girl
Swimming 16 18
Drama 14 22

4. 1/2 x 2/3 x 3/5 x a = 4/5

5. In a test Kavan scored 12 more than Spencer. Spencer scored 15 more than Isobel. Altogether their scoresw came to 246. How much did Isobel score?

These seem harder than the CSSE ones!

[Lady Byron]

I've never used the book but on this question;
Tomato plant food comes in a 150cl bottle. The food needs to be diluted with water and uses 40ml per watering can. How many full watering cans can Christian make from the 150cl bottle? (How does cubic litres compare to ml?)

the cl refers to centilitre equal to 1/100 of a litre , i.e. 10ml so 150cl x 10 = 1500ml.
I agree they look tricky. Do you have an answer book so can you extrapolate from that?

[Okanagan]

4. 1/2 x 2/3 x 3/5 x a = 4/5
the 2s and 3s cancel out making it 1/5 x a = 4/5
a = 4

5. In a test Kavan scored 12 more than Spencer. Spencer scored 15 more than Isobel. Altogether their scores came to 246. How much did Isobel score?
Isobel's score will be (246 - 15 - (15+12)) / 3
i.e. 204 / 3 = 68
Meaning Spencer's is 83 and Kavan's is 95

[seriousmum]

We're DIY tutoring for the Essex exam and have been working through the Bond books along with old CSSE papers. I've bought the first Louise Staples paper from the shop here and it seems really hard or strangely worded! Has anyone else used them?

eg

1. Tomato plant food comes in a 150cl bottle. The food needs to be diluted with water and uses 40ml per watering can. How many full watering cans can Christian make from the 150cl bottle? (How does cubic litres compare to ml?)

2. At Shark fin summer club, children can choose between swimming and drama. Kye is picked at random from all the children. From the chart below, what is the probability of him choosing drama (in the lowest possible form)

do you have the answer sheet? - they give detailed explanations of how the answers have been arrived at.
3.
Boy girl
Swimming 16 18
Drama 14 22

4. 1/2 x 2/3 x 3/5 x a = 4/5

5. In a test Kavan scored 12 more than Spencer. Spencer scored 15 more than Isobel. Altogether their scoresw came to 246. How much did Isobel score?

These seem harder than the CSSE ones!

[seriousmum]

4. 1/2 x 2/3 x 3/5 x a = 4/5
the 2s and 3s cancel out making it 1/5 x a = 4/5
a = 4

5. In a test Kavan scored 12 more than Spencer. Spencer scored 15 more than Isobel. Altogether their scores came to 246. How much did Isobel score?
Isobel's score will be (246 - 15 - (15+12)) / 3
i.e. 204 / 3 = 68
Meaning Spencer's is 83 and Kavan's is 95

i'm a great lover of the letter "x" so another way could be:

Isobel = x
Spencer = x+15
Kavan = x+15+12
Total x+x+15+x+15+12=246
3x+42=246
3x=246-42
3x=204
x=68 (Isobel)
3x=