On 05/06/15 16:39, Tim Streater wrote:
In article , Brian-Gaff
wrote:

It does not seem a very useful form of the problem. OK I know its
trying to get people to not think in a regimented way and find the
missing bits of the puzzle from what is given, but my main annoyance
at most exams, which I always did badly at, was the meaningless
unuseful problems they put in them.
Real world problems should be used in my view, as that is the
situation these people are going to use their talents in, not some
ambiguously worded meaningless problem.

Wrong.

The essence of dealing with the real world is that many problems at the
outset make no sense. You have to apply thought to determine what the
problem is first, before you can solve it. All this rubbish about
calling her Hannah and making it a concrete problem "from the real
world" removes half the point of education in the first place.

Agreed. Wrapping 'real world' stories around these problems confuses
people who tend to see the story and not the problem. The essential
skill that needs to be learnt is to see through the sugary wrapping and
abstract the essence of the problem.