If you earn $500, do not spend $600. Because you will be $100 in debt, and your life will spiral into oblivion.

That’s a Math, English, and life lesson all rolled into one!

“Mr Soon, you have $2 less than $10 in your bank account…” Huh?? I have simply never heard any bank teller or customer service officer speak like that, ever.

More often than not, we go, “You’re $2 short of $10.” or in clearer, simpler English, “You need to pay us $10, but you’ve given us $2 less.”

Nobody in their right mind will string “$2″, “less than”, and “$10″ into the same sentence without commas. Like you said, the sentence structure is too complicated for a 7-year-old.

If a grown adult who has aced his English exams and graduated with a communications major takes 4-5 seconds to comprehend that sort of sentence, what more can we expect from a young kid?

It’s just incredibly unreasonable and very unfair, especially for children who are not native English speakers. This is a math question and it should remain that way as much as possible.

And if you thought that was bad, try the questions where they talk about A giving away 2/3 of something, and giving away another 1/3 of the remainder. Graphically it’s very easy to explain such a concept, but many children with weak English skills simply cannot comprehend and visualize what is going on exactly.

How about “55 cents less 10 cents is ____ cents.”?