Relationship between Students’ Scores on Plain Questions and Worded Problems in Mathematics

Abstract

It appears that students find it easier to solve problems on plain questions than worded problems in mathematics. This led the researcher to study the relationship between students’ scores on plain questions and their scores on worded problems. The study was correlational. A sample of 122 final year senior secondary school students was drawn through judgemental sampling technique from public secondary schools in Bayelsa and Delta states, south-south Nigeria. The instrument had five plain questions and five worded problems adapted from the May/June West African Senior School Certificate Examination questions examined in 2009,2010 and 2011. Students responded to questions in algebraic operations, arithmetic, trigonometry and geometry. Using mean and the product moment correlation statistics to analyze the scores from the two set of questions, it was discovered that scores from plain questions had no significant relationship with scores from worded problems. However, students had higher mean score on plain questions. It was recommended that students should be drilled in solving word problems in mathematics.