How to Guess and Check Your Answer for Math
Guess and check is a method to solve math problems. This strategy works well to solve math story problems. Guess and check helps you explore the interconnectedness and relationships between the numbers in any problem. Guessing is an effective way to solve problems, if you make reasonable guesses and learn from each previous guess. By making a table to record your guesses and dissecting your math story, you can use this method with success.
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Instructions
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Make a table with six columns. Do not make the rows; they are for your guesses. Label the columns "Guess," "Know the Least About," "Know the Most About," "All Together," "Result" and "Too High or Too Low." This table is where you place all of your guesses and the work to solve the problem after you have made the guess.
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Read your math problem carefully and fill in your table. Here is an example problem: Claire and Joe picked oranges. Claire picked twice as many as Joe. They picked 87 oranges all together. How many did Joe pick?
Determine which items you know the least and most about. You know more about Claire; she picked twice as many as Joe.
Fill in the table by putting a variable -- "J" -- in the second column to represent Joe. Write a "C" for Claire in the column you know the most about. Write "2J" in the second column to represent how Claire's pick is two times Joe's.
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Make a guess of how many Joe picked. Start with any number; for example, 10. Place your guess in the first column labeled "Guess." In the "All Together" column, write the equation replacing the variable with your guess. In this example, 10 + (2 x 10). Ten is Joe's pick, and 2 x 10 is Claire's pick. Place the answer to this equation, which is 30, in the "Result" column. This answer is too low. Make a note in the last column that the answer is too low.
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Guess again with the knowledge that your first guess was too low. Narrow in on the exact answer by using the too high or too low column to make the next guess. The final guess and answer in this problem is Joe picked 29 oranges. The final equation in this problem is 29 + (2 x 29) = 87.
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Reread the problem. Make sure you have read the problem correctly and have found the answer for the question being asked in the math problem. Place your answer in the problem as you read. If everything makes sense and your answer is reasonable and valid, you have solved the problem.
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Tips & Warnings
Filling out the second and third column in the guess and check table is the most difficult. Draw pictures, use manipulatives and reread the problem to determine what you know the most and least about.
References
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