* Too much English? Just pull out the math!
Don't let all the English in a math problem scare you. You just need to pull out the information you need for the math. For sure you will need the numbers. And what you need to find out is usually the last part of the question.
For example, here is a math problem:
You don't even have to know what a parsec is, you just have to write it down in the answer as the unit of measurement. (Kessel Run starts with capitals, so you know it's a proper name, and therefore that's not the unit of measurement. The measurement must be parsec.)
(For those of you who just have to know, Han is Han Solo from the movie "Star Wars," and Chewbacca is his friend. The Millenium Falcon is the name of their ship. Kessel is an asteroid-like planet where Han and Chewbacca did a lot of smuggling. A hyperdrive is a type of engine [fiction, not real] that can take a ship through hyperspace in minutes. A parsec is a real unit of measurement used in astronomy [study of space] and equals 3.26 light years, or 30 800 000 000 000 kilometres.)
* Guess and check
Make a smart guess for the answer, then check back to see if the answer is right.
For example, here is a math question:
Find two numbers that have a difference of 3 and a sum of 11.
First guess two numbers that have a sum of 11. How about 8 and 3? 8 + 3 = 11.
BUT 8 - 3 does not equal 3. So the answer is not 8 and 3. That guess is no good.
Try again. How about 7 and 4? 7 + 4 = 11. So far so good. And 7 - 4 = 3. OK!!!
You guessed right! The answer is 7 and 4. Their sum is 11 and their difference is 3.
The trick to "guess and check" is to make smart guesses, so it doesn't take you too long to do. For example, guessing 12 and 9 for my two numbers is not a smart guess because I know right away that their sum is not 11.
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