Abacus Vs Logical reasoning Analysis carried out by defence academy coimbatore

Observation on the test carried out on the class VI aspirants for Sainik School Admission

All the students were able to do the test on simple basic Addition, subtraction, multiplication and Division test 20 Questions in 10 minutes. Most of the students scored between 90 to 100 percent.

When the same candidates were administered the questions that required Logical reasoning all of them failed to score even a single mark. No of questions given were 5. None of them got it correct.  The candidate who was trained in Abacus scored 20/20 and did the sum in 3 minutes. Those who did not attend took between 7 to 9 minutes to do the same.

Results:

No	Name	Age	Set 1- Marks	Time Taken	Set -02 Marks
1	Jeffri	10	20	3 minutes	0
2	Mohit	10	18	10 minutes	0
3	Gokul	10	18	9 mins	0
4	Suresh	10	18	7 mins	--
5	Harshwardhan	10	18	7 mins	0

Even though the boy was able to do well in simple straight questions, he too failed to score even one mark in the word problems. This proves that Abacus got nothing to do with reasoning and logic.

The questions given to these candidates were as follows:-

1.     If a man works for 7 hours a day of 6 days in a week. How many hours of work did he do in the month of January 2015?

2.     A man can run every 2.5km at the speed of 10 kmph. How much time will he take to run 7.5 kms?

3.     48 eggs were bought for Rs. 144. If 4 eggs were broken, what will be the cost price of the remaining 44 eggs?

4.     What would be the area of a circle whose diameter is 14 m?

5.     Find the reminder of 1975 divided by 12?

Observation:

The candidates were not able to comprehend that January has 5 weeks. They assumed only 4 full weeks. They left out the three extra days of work done by the worker.

Q.2. The candidates failed to note that the speed was 10 km per hour and multiplied the time taken as 1 hour per every 2.5 km covered

Q.3. In this question, they failed to note that the cost price does not change even if 4 eggs were broken   

Q.4. They did not read the question carefully that what was given is diameter and not radius.

Q.5. Here they were required to find out the Reminder and not the quotient. Hence they all got the answer wrong.

Final word: The candidates seemed to be in great hurry and did not bother to understand the question and thereby made mistakes in calculation: It is suggested that the candidates must go step by step to solve the problem.  Given, what to find, formula, working.  Must Split the questions and understand.

There is nothing wrong in learning abcus, but that will not help much in maths, if the candidate lacks logic

    Suggested method of working the above word problems:

Q.No	Step	Calculations
1	1.    What is given:	Man works 7 Hours / day per 6 days a week
	2.    To find	No of hours he worked in jan 2015
	3.    Method	Logical Reasoning: Jan has 31 days or 5 weeks As per problem 6 days a week Hence 6 x 4= 24 days + 3 days of 5th week Ie. 27 days at 7 hours per day , ie. 27 x7 = 189 hours

Q.No	Step	Calculations
2	1.    Given	Distance covered in 1 hour is 10 kms
	2.    To find	Time taken to cover 7.5 km
	3.    Working	Unitary method 60 mins 10 km 30 min   5 km 15 min  2.5 km Hence 7.5 km in 45 mins ( simple logic)

           

Q.No	Step	Calculations
3	1 Given	Bought 48 eggs for Rs. 144, 4 eggs broken 44 remains
	2 To find	Cost price of the 44 eggs
	3.Working	Simple Logic The Cost price remains the same Answer Rs. 144 only ( No change in CP)

Q.No	Step	Calculations
4	1 Given	Diameter of a circle is 14 m
	2 To find	Area of the Circle
	3.Formula	Area= pie x r x r
		Radius = half of Dia = 14/ 2 = 7 m 22/ 7 x   7 x 7 = 22 x 7 = 154 sq m

Q.No	Step	Calculations
5	1 Given	1975 ÷ 12
	2. Find the reminder
	3.Working	1975 / 12 = 164, Reminder is 7

When the question is sub divided into the steps as mentioned above we can easily solve the problem. Understanding the problem is essential.

The first and second questions need higher order of thinking and arriving at a logical conclusion.

The questions have to be understood. 48 eggs cost Rs. 144, 4 were broken it did not ask what is the cost price of each egg. Even then the purchase price does not change. Purchase price is the same. The profit will get reduced because of the broken eggs.