Are You Smarter Than A Third Grader?
May 16, 2025
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For context, the problem you saw was from B.E.S.T. Standards, which were adopted in Florida to replace the much-loved Common Core curriculum back in 2020.
Hold up.
Two things:
Watch our short here before reading this article.
Let me fix that first sentence since text has a tough time conveying sarcasm.
For context, the concept was from the Algebraic Reasoning topic in B.E.S.T. Standards, which were adopted in Florida to replace the 'much-loved' Common Core curriculum in 2020.
B.E.S.T. = Benchmarks for Excellent Student Thinking.
Precise naming convention--straight to the point.
There are these things called the FAST Tests (Florida Assessment of Student Thinking).
Whoever made these names really needs a bonus.
You take three of these FAST assessments each year and the data collection team (Edu-tech developers) tells you if you are on grade level or not.
The curriculum is from the mathematics standards from Benchmarks for Excellent Student Thinking.
B.E.S.T. Standards, folks.
Basically, it is not that bad of an idea.
Take these three assessments each year. Map incorrect problems to a subset of a topic from the curriculum. Study the topic more and with practice you get it...or just hopefully this class of problems will show up less than the problems you know how to solve on final test.
We all do it. It is efficient reasoning 101.
I get it.
This problem is from the Topic: Algebraic Reasoning. It is a problem in this MA.3.AR.3 legalese format.
MA = Math, 3 = 3rd Grade, AR = Algebraic Reasoning, 3 = Third Standard in Topic.
Did I just write the first data dictionary for the Department of Education of Florida?
MA.3.AR.3 will be a language syntax in this journey to be legally smart as a third-grade level Floridian.
I don't know about you, but I'll take that.
If you got that question right, you satisfied the grade-level requirements for 3rd Grade in Florida for this one algebraic reasoning sub-topic problem.
Not bad.
I guess you can go on now to your day.
You would not want to see the explanation that follows.
I will see you when the next video posts maybe.
You're staying around, aren't you?
You are thinking what this sly dog is about to say.
For those of us that need a little refresher to get back on level, let's do this.
For Video Learners: check out this video solution I made on our YouTube Channel:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OwR81zsG8_Q
For those that would like to get there this pace, let's do this.
Here is the problem again:
Some number, n, divided by four equals twelve. Write the sentence as an equation.
Determine which value for n satisfies your equation where n = 3 or n = 48.
I actually like this problem.
It introduces algebraic notation early in math students.
Most people will write the equation like this:
But I think the notation should be like this instead to help students keep fractions in mind.
Sometimes, fractions are kid's enemy (teachers, parents be honest--you too).
Fractions (and decimals) do not get used enough in problems.
They are the black sheep of the numbers. The little brother to the whole number big brother.
Doesn't seem too rational to me.
Since we re-wrote your problem like this; we can quickly see the only value for n that satisfies this equation would be 48.
After subbing in 48 for n, we have:
We can clearly see that three would not work here after subbing in 3 for n.
This concept is taught with a higher-level thinking problem, which is asked in this standards problem set below:
Is Division Commutative?
This might have been the thing that threw you up making you pick the wrong value for n.
Since multiplication is commutative, is division commutative?
For those that do not know quite yet what commutative property, no worries.
I will break that down just like we did here in a future lesson.
Mark Braxton, Lead Instructor, UPskill Network
