British maths

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MrTPenguin
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British maths

Post by MrTPenguin »

This month I have started a PGCE (= a teacher training programme at university) and have moved into an apartment in the city where it's taking place. This is why I stopped worming and probably won't be able to worm seriously again for many months... I've told several of you that I want to commentate on CWT matches, and this is still true!, but I'll have to see how things stand in November/December.

Anyway, at the interview for the PGCE, I had to do English and numeracy/maths tests, both of which were quite basic. I was expecting to get 12/12 for the numeracy test, but alas I only got 11/12. Here's the question I got "wrong":
Question 4.

Students are timetabled to attend a maximum of 25 hours per week in taught sessions. Of this, a maximum of 6 hours per week may be allocated to Functional and Key Skills. What is the minimum percentage of taught session time available for all other areas of study?
Tell me what you think the answer is.
Dario
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Re: British maths

Post by Dario »

(19/25)*100
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MrTPenguin
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Re: British maths

Post by MrTPenguin »

That's the officially correct answer, and if you delete the words "maximum" and "minimum" it makes perfect sense. But because of the use of those words, the literal truth is that the minimum percentage of taught session time available for all other areas of study is 0%. This is because, according to the exact wording, a student could have, say, 3 hours of Functional and Key Skills per week and nothing else.

What's happened is that the people who set the test mangled the wording.
Dario
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Re: British maths

Post by Dario »

Indeed the "maximum" and "minimum" were confusing, but for me the keyword is "available". The only way to decrease the available hours for other areas of study is to assign them. You could assign 3 hours to functional skills and 0 to other areas, but you'd still have 22 available hours for other areas.

So although I don't see why it would be 0% in the way you say I can think of another way of making it 0%: if you start with, let's say, 19 available hours for "other areas" and you assign 19 hours to "other areas", now you have 0 hours available for "other areas"; yes, you've assigned 19 hours to "other areas", but you have no hours available.
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MrTPenguin
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Re: British maths

Post by MrTPenguin »

Yeah that's a good point about "available", which I was reading as "allocatable to". If 6 hours are taken up by functional skills, then 19 are available for other things, which is the minimum (25 being the maximum). You just have to hope the student doesn't have a part-time day job!
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