💡 Learn it properly · 1 min read
Draw a picture
A quick sketch turns a confusing word problem into something you can see.
Pictures make problems simple
Word problems are hard to hold in your head. A quick sketch holds the information for you, so your brain can think about the maths.
It doesn't need to be neat. Boxes, lines and labels are enough.
What to draw
Distances and bearings: a sketch with North lines. Sets: a Venn diagram. Fractions and ratios: a bar split into parts. Heights and angles: a right-angled triangle.
Ada and Tunde share ₦60,000 in the ratio 2 : 3
- Draw a bar of 5 equal boxes: 2 for Ada, 3 for Tunde.
- One box = ₦60,000 ÷ 5 = ₦12,000.
- Ada gets 2 × 12,000 = ₦24,000 and Tunde gets 3 × 12,000 = ₦36,000.