Why Can't The English Teach Their Children How To Do Maths??

[anarchist_nomad]

Today's Guardian has an article about outrage over a high school maths problem. Seriously?

The question in question was described as "disastrously hard", "especially unfair", and "proving impossible even for the most able students". Really??

I was intrigued, so I had a look at the question. It read:

There are n sweets in a bag. Six of the sweets are orange. The rest of the sweets are yellow. Hannah takes a random sweet from the bag. She eats the sweet. Hannah then takes at random another sweet from the bag. She eats the sweet. The probability that Hannah eats two orange sweets is 1/3. Show that n²-n-90=0.

So... what's the big deal? It's a straightforward and easy question. I solved it in under two minutes. Could have taken half the time, but I set it up carefully, under the impression that it was difficult. Thought perhaps it was a trick question, but it's a rather straightforward bit of elementary probability.

Then I went on to show that n = 10. The question didn't ask for it, but I was curious.

I really hope they let the question stay. It's perfectly fair, and I think it's reasonable to expect children to learn how to think in school.