Are you smarter than a 14-year-old?
MailOnline has dug out a recent maths SATs exam paper sat by Year Nine pupils across the UK.
The teenagers take the testsm which are monitored by teachers to track their progress before they head on to study their GCSEs in Year 10.
After Rishi Sunak’s pledge to make maths compulsory for every pupil up to the age of 18, adults shared numerical puzzles online this week to test themselves – Sky News presenter Anna Botting even asked for help with her 10-year-old daughter’s maths homework.
So, MailOnline asks… can you solve these Year Nine maths exam questions – and remember calculators are not allowed (Answers at the bottom of the page)
MailOnline is challenging you to try and solve the same problems posed to 14-year-olds preparing for Year Nine SATs maths exams
The Prime Minister set out his new plan last week for every pupil in England to study some form of maths until they’re 18, to combat high rates of innumeracy in the UK.
Young people will be required to take ‘some form’ of maths delivered either through new courses or existing qualifications such as A-levels, T-levels and Core Maths.
While many have criticised this agenda, including actor Simon Pegg, some scientific studies do support it.
For example, a 2021 study from the University of Oxford found that quitting mathematical studies at the age of 16 may have an adverse effect on brain development.
Another study suggested that those who took maths at A-level had a salary 11 per cent higher than those who did not by age 33.
Mr Sunak promised to equip children for the ‘jobs of the future’ by ensuring they had good maths skills when they leave school.
For most the drive is likely to involve practical skills rather than algebra.
Around eight million adults in England only have the numeracy skills expected of primary school children, according to Government figures.
Only around half of 16 to 19 year-olds study maths in some form at the moment.
And 60 per cent of disadvantaged pupils do not have basic maths skills at age 16.
The UK remains one of the only countries that does not require children to study some form of maths up to the age of 18.
Several countries in the OECD economic forum – including Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Finland, Japan, Norway and the US – all insist that pupils maintain the subject.
Young people will be required to take ‘some form’ of maths delivered either through new courses or existing qualifications such as A-levels, T-levels and Core Maths
But union leaders have warned that teachers are now more likely to strike due to backlash against the PM’s maths promise.
Kevin Courtney, who oversees more than 300,000 educators as joint general secretary of the National Education Union (NEU), accused Sunak of a ‘baffling failure’ to notice the obstacles facing the industry.
‘Sunak’s plan is disappointing not only in its lack of realism but its lack of vision’, Mr Courtney said.
‘It overlooks the increasingly detailed and urgent discussions about curriculum reform that have been taking place across the education sector and even within his own party.
‘Most people who voted will have voted. But I think there will be a few people who will look at this and think ‘is that all they’ve got to say about education?’
‘It doesn’t sound like they’re taking the problem of the teacher recruitment crisis seriously because they’ve missed their maths teacher recruitment targets every year for the last 11 years.’
Teachers, who are currently balloting, say the plan fails to tackle the recruitment crisis currently gripping the sector.
More than 500,000 teachers across three unions are considering possible strike action in England and Wales, with deadlines for votes from January 9.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak declared this week his new plan for every pupil in England will study some form of maths until they’re 18. He is pictured during a visit to Harris Academy at Battersea in south-west London today
Unions have urged staff to vote as soon as possible amid fears that postal chaos may delay the return of ballots.
Meantime, opposition parties have dismissed the initiative as ’empty’ – while Tories urged Mr Sunak to focus on tackling illegal immigration instead.
Shadow education secretary Bridget Phillipson said the Prime Minister ‘needs to show his working’, as ‘he cannot deliver this reheated, empty pledge without more maths teachers’.
She added: ‘Yet the Government has missed their target for new maths teachers year after year, with existing teachers leaving in their droves.’
A Labour source said: ‘In their desperation to ensure Sunak’s speech doesn’t happen after Keir’s, No 10 have revealed they have nothing to offer the country except… double maths.
‘As the health service falls to pieces after 12 years of Tory rule, criminals terrorise the streets, and working people worry how their wages will last the month, the country is entitled to ask: is this it?’
Former Cabinet minister John Redwood tweeted: ‘As the Prime Minister turns his attention to maths teaching he should not forget his choice as most pressing priority was to stop illegal migration.
‘Parliament needs to legislate urgently on small boats and public services.’
Nigel Farage also waded in, saying: ‘So Rishi Sunak’s big idea to save the nation is maths until the age of 18! How will quadratic equations help to solve broken Britain?’
WHAT ARE THE ANSWERS?
- Girls with blue eyes; girls in total; pupils in total
- 30g; 1 litre; 200cm
- 30; 4; 2; 20
- A whole number between 640 and 750
- Any three correct numbers: e.g. 10 x 10 – 20 for part 1; 100 x 10 – 200 for part 2
- 6 hours; Hong Kong and San Juan, Dhaka and Chicago or Dubai and Los Angeles
- Die A: 1/6; Die B: You can’t be sure or you would need to experiment; Die C: 1/6
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Read more at DailyMail.co.uk